Alicia: My Story

This is probably the most remarkable memoir I have ever read. Alicia Jurman was a young Jewish girl living in eastern Poland and was nine years old when the Second World War broke out and her part of Poland was invaded first by the Soviet Union then, less than two years later, by Germany when it in turn invaded the Soviet Union. Her immediate family members were killed one by one, her father and all four of her brothers. She and her weakened mother spent time moving around the Polish countryside, trying to find food and shelter, Alicia seeking work on Polish and Ukrainian farms using various false identities (she spoke both languages fluently). She narrowly escaped being sent to the camps or shot a number of times through a combination of amazing resourcefulness, bravery and a considerable measure of good luck. Her home town of Buczacz was liberated by the Russians in March 1943 and for a short time, Alicia and her mother and other surviving Jews started to try to rebuild a reasonably normal life. However, after a couple of months the Nazis recaptured the town, they were betrayed and the SS shot Alicia's mother. Alicia and other surviving Jews were taken to a meadow outside the town for a mass shooting, from which Alicia was one of the few who managed to escape. Despite the horrible betrayals, there were also incidents of kindness from some local farmers and a lovely, generous old man who kept bees and sheltered not only Alicia and her mother, but six other Jews in his small cottage. After the second and final liberation and the end of the war, Alicia tried to help Jewish orphan children wandering the streets by setting up an informal orphanage, though only aged 15 herself. Shockingly, the few surviving Jews were still targetted and abused by many individual Poles and the Polish authorities, who did not want to be reminded how they had helped the Nazis to oppress them. Finally, the huge sense of alienation from Polish society led Alicia to make the decision to go to what would slightly later be the state of Israel, as well as helping to run an escape route for other Polish Jews who wanted to leave. One of the most shameful new things I learned from this account was how the British authorities, in trying to limit immigration to Palestine, even attacked and boarded the ship Alicia was on, killing some of the Jewish orphan children in the process. I could say a lot more about this remarkable 400 plus page book, which the author was driven to write in the 1980s to tell her story before it was too late; as she says of her fellow European Jews, "they cannot forget, and they cannot bear the thought that the world will not remember. As they grow older, it becomes more and more important to them that no one be permitted to forget."

I read this book in two days, and i went to sleep for several nights after thinking about how this poor girl suffered. To read what Alicia went through would make you think she was an adult during the war, not a girl aged 10-15. My heart went out especially to her mother, who lost her husband and her sons one by one until she was also murdered by the nazi regime. Alicia herself witnesses countless friends and members of her family being slaughtered. Even hearing of how her grandfather was buried alive and uncle was shot dead after saving the life of an SS Officer.This book tells the story of Alicia, who lived a comfortable life in Poland before the war. It tells of when the Russians first invaded Poland and life under them until the Nazis take over. She tells of how she managed to survive and the various times where she escaped Death. One of those times was being taken to prison age 12, mistaken for her mother, with other Jewish Women. There the women were beaten, starved, fed to the guards half starved dogs and finally infected with Typhus. The surviving infected were sent back to the Ghetto to infect the Jews who remained there.Something i could not stop thinking about was how she discovered her flat mates new born baby after a Nazi shot it in the head. Then she witnessed the murder of two other babies in another Ghetto being shot dead through the mouth. This book really does detail the monstrous things that the Nazis, Ukrainians and Poles did to innocent people during the war. Even after the war Alicia describes the resentment towards her from other Poles that she had survived. And of the 'normal' Poles rounding up Jews to slaughter them even after the Nazi party had been beaten and left Poland.One thing i would say about this book, is that after the war ends it details Alicia's journey to Israel and becomes quite political. However, even if you do not share the same political feelings about Israel as Alicia, i still think you should read this book. What this book makes you think about is how any human being could commit such atrocities to other human beings. Especially innocent children. How they can happily send them to there death and hunt them down as animals sickens me deeply.Alicia: My Story, is an honest, horrifying and deeply tragic book that is important to read, however hard, so that we never forget what happened to these people.

I am struggling to describe this wonderful biography of W.W.II The word enjoy would be entirely inappropriate. The word fascinating would be to trivialise the subject matter. If I used the same word again but put morbid before it as in 'morbid fascination' would be to do it a grave injustice. I certainly wouldn't describe it as morbid. Immensely sad, yes. Immensely moving, yes. Immensely humbling, yes and at times immensely harrowing but somehow never hopeless or despairing.This is the story of a young girl who had to grow up very fast. At the age of sixteen she had already seen, experienced and carried out deeds that most of us would never witness in a lifetime and we can thank goodness that we hadn't. Her courage, intelligence, strength and determination made her a survivor. I use the word strength but on many occasions she was far from physically strong, in fact quite the opposite. There seemed to be a world of cruelty and callousness on all sides and yet there was bravery and kindness shown as well.This is a five star review. Read the other five star reviews and believe all the good points mentioned. If you want to get an insight of what it must have been like in W.W.II Poland I say read this book. It also gives an insight into the confusion and turmoil in mainland Europe at the end of the war with many D.Ps. (Displaced Persons) looking to make sense of what had happened.It's no effort to read, I absolutely devoured it. I just kept turning the pages to the end.With the state of national and international politics in the world today it makes it even more important to read Alicia's story. Do read this book it is so important that we never forget.