My greatest debts of gratitude are to Sophie Turner-Zaretsky, Flora Hogman, and Carla and Ed Lessing for letting me explore the world of the Holocaust’s youngest survivors through their narratives. Obviously, the existence of this book depended entirely on their courage in entrusting their stories to me, as well as their patience in humoring my ignorance and correcting various drafts of this book. I treasured their cooperation and now I cherish their friendship.
At a fairly early stage in the writing of this book, my wonderful agent, Victoria Skurnick—who combines publishing and literary savvy with a love of diners and a beautiful singing voice—made a suggestion that set this book on a far better course. As if that were not enough, when the time came she found it the perfect home.
Editor David Hirshey of HarperCollins was that home. With a degree of attention, brilliance, and diplomacy that is increasingly associated with a forgotten era of book publishing, David pushed me to revise and rethink a manuscript whose flaws I could no longer see. A few years ago, I edited one of David’s books and he much more than returned the favor. He has given fresh meaning to the adage that there’s no such thing as writing, only rewriting.
In addition, Susan Squire could not have been more generous with her time, or intelligence, in improving this book. Merci. Many thanks to Teresa Pollin of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for her explanations, translations, and scrutiny of my manuscript. I’d also like to thank Myriam Abramowicz, Abba Lessing, Dr. Vera Muller-Paisner, Henry Rozycki, Susan Sanders, Judith Sherman, Dr. Paul Valent, and Daniel and Jeffrey Zaretsky for sharing their stories and insights with me. Alice Herb, thank you for your help, for your interview with your cousin Sophie back in the 1970s, and for finding a place for me at your seder in 2010; and thanks to Gary Hoenig and Betsy Carter for sharing that seder, and so much else.
“Grateful” doesn’t begin to describe my feelings about the late Laura Turner, formerly Schwarzwald, née Litwak, without whose unbelievable bravery and resourcefulness in surviving the Second World War this book would not have been possible. Her seventeen-page memoir, which she delivered at college in New York City in the 1970s, helped immeasurably in anchoring the book in reality.
I am indebted to Flora Hogman for her beautifully written essay about her memories of the convent that hid her and her visit there in 1988 (in addition to several other papers of hers); to Carla Lessing for her essay on sexual abuse of hidden child survivors; to Ed Lessing for his essay on the First International Gathering in 1991; and Sarah Rozycki’s interview with her grandmother, Putzi Rozycki. Numerous personal accounts in The Hidden Child, the Hidden Child Foundation’s newsletter, edited by Rachelle Goldstein, as well as interviews conducted by Jane Marks for her book The Hidden Children, were very valuable.
Among my friends, no one helped me more with this book than Charles Dawe, who’s known me since kindergarten and has been a most thoughtful and generous sounding board and informal editor for many years. My sister Joyce Friedman, who’s known me exactly as long, was an extremely helpful early responder and supporter, as were old, dear friends David Bloom and Stephen Molton. To Sydney Pierce at HarperCollins, thank you for all your excellent curatorial help.
As always, I’m grateful to my late parents, Carolyn and Sol Rosen, for supporting my destiny and for setting so many examples of how to live, the wisdom of which impress me more and more each day.
I wish they were here to read the book that, in so many ways, they inspired.