Claiming My Place: A True Story Of Defiance, Deception, And Coming Of Age In The Shadow Of The Holocaust

Author: Planaria Price

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $29.99 NZD
  • : 9780374305291
  • : Pan Macmillan
  • : Pan Macmillan
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  • : 0.3
  • : March 2018
  • : 233mm X 154mm
  • : United States
  • : April 2018
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  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

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Barcode 9780374305291
9780374305291

Description

Gucia Gomolinska grew up comfortably in Piotrkow, Poland, a devoted student, sister, daughter, and friend. Still, even in the years before World War II, she faced discrimination as a Jew-but with her ash-blond hair she was often able to pass as just another Pole. When her town was invaded by Nazis, she knew her Aryan coloring gave her an advantage, and she faced an awful choice: stay in the place she had always called home, or leave behind everything she knew to try to survive. She took on a new identity as Basia Tanska, and her journey led her directly into Nazi Germany. Planaria Price, along with Basia's daughter Helen West, tells this incredible life story directly in the first person. Claiming My Place is a stunning portrayal of bravery, love, loss, and the power of storytelling.

Reviews

"Price has boldly elected to tell the story in Basia's own first-person, present-tense voice. The result is a dramatic, suspenseful account of survival in extremis, told in collaboration with Basia's American daughter." --Booklist"Price's rendering of West's mother's early life reads like suspenseful historical fiction, telling a rarely heard side of the Jewish experience during WWII . . . Family, friendships, and romance give poignancy to this unique coming-of-age story, which is further enhanced by maps, a glossary, and an afterword." --Publishers Weekly"A rich exploration of a Holocaust survivor's sheltered childhood, the atrocity that failed to destroy her, and her later life as an immigrant." --Kirkus Reviews"I was completely engrossed by this drama of survival. Barbara Reichmann's story is quite extraordinary. It is sad, and terrible, and yet somehow captivating. The whole story of those who survived the Shoah by passing as Christians and working in Nazi Germany is an often forgotten part of the historical record." --Kai Bird, Executive Director, Leon Levy Center for Biography at CUNY Graduate Center, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer"As occurs with The Diary of Anne Frank, this book merges the dire circumstances of the Holocaust with the tenuousness of being a teenager. But Claiming My Place expands the view provided in the diary for one critical reason. Anne Frank's story is told within an isolated cocoon. In Barbara's story, however, the Holocaust is in full view as her experiences unfold." --David H. Lindquist, Ph.D., IPFW College of Education and Public Policy / Regional Museum Educator, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum "I was completely engrossed by this drama of survival. Barbara Reichmann's story is quite extraordinary. It is sad, and terrible, and yet somehow captivating. The whole story of those who survived teh Shoah by passing as Christians and working in Nazi Germany is an often forgotten part of the historical record." --Kai Bird, Executive Director, Leon Levy Center for Biography at CUNY Graduate Center, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer"As occurs with The Diary of Anne Frank, this book merges the dire circumstances of the Holocaust with the tenuousness of being a teenager. But Claiming My Place expands the view provided in the diary for one critical reason. Anne Frank's story is told within an isolated cocoon. In Barbara's story, however, the Holocaust is in full view as her experiences unfold." --David H. Lindquist, Ph.D., IPFW College of Education and Public Policy / Regional Museum Educator, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum "I was completely engrossed by the story. It is very well written, clear and quite moving emotionally . . . Barbara's survival story is quite extraordinary. It is sad, and terrible, and yet somehow captivating. An important part of the historical record." --Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer"A unique offering in the ever-expanding world of Holocaust literature . . . In Barbara's story, the Holocaust is in full view as her experiences unfold . . . The teenage angst that is felt is normal, in one sense, but is compounded many times over by the swirl of events." --David H. Lindquist, Ph.D., IPFW College of Education and Public Policy / Regional Museum Educator, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum