Pauline Steinhorn — Dreaming of the River: A Mother and Daughter’s Fight for Survival during the Holocaust (Holocaust Survivor True Stories) - with Deborah Kalb

Bronia Feldman never imagined she would become the backbone of an underground medical lifeline, least of all inside the brutal forced-labor system of the HASAG munitions factory in occupied Poland. Torn from her family in September 1942, she arrives there shattered by grief. The only force strong enough to keep her alive is the chance to save others.Left behind in the ghetto of Skarzysko-Kamienna are her husband and two young daughters. Her 13-year-old daughter, Hajuta, has been sent to a nearby labor site. Bronia seizes a rare opportunity to escape and manages to reach her daughter. After their brief reunion, she faces an impossible choice: flee into the forest to join the partisans, or slip back to the place she has just escaped.When they are reunited months later, the moment is both miraculous and heartbreaking. Hajuta is no longer the girl Bronia remembers. Together they endure still darker days when they are deported to Bergen-Belsen in January 1945.This true story of a Jewish mother and daughter is a testament to courage, devotion, and the fragile thread of hope that sustained them. Amid cruelty and terror, they also encounter moments of humanity.Throughout it all, both cling to memories of the River Kamienna, where they once danced, played music, and believed in a future. For Bronia and Hajuta, the river is more than a memory. It is a promise that one day they might return home.Pauline Steinhorn is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Her essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal and Moment magazine. She is a Board Member of Generation After DC, a nonprofit network of Jewish Holocaust survivors and their children. When she's not writing or directing, Pauline shares her family’s Holocaust experiences at synagogues, Yom HaShoah commemorations, and in middle and high school classrooms. She and her husband, Bill Creed, live in Chevy Chase, MD.Steinhorn is in conversation with Deborah Kalb, a freelance writer and editor. She spent about two decades working as a journalist in Washington, D.C., for news organizations including Gannett News Service, Congressional Quarterly, U.S. News & World Report, and The Hill, mostly covering Congress and politics. Her book blog, Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, which she started in 2012, features hundreds of interviews she has conducted with a wide variety of authors.PURCHASE:https://politics-prose.com/book/9789493418844?ic_referral=YitakzOaC8XYOQCK0aXCDeMU5HtcnRxfiFyfzPkFGqQwMxBOAz8zgRLd7gdaQad8Cceeb7dVVte_EBeNrINE1UsFIxXFUb5xK0yeRbztUvloIYXSMF1qIswGfXHrJyAtwc5LVBg