D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Little Edna’s War
Janet Bond Brill, PhD
Amsterdam Publishers
9789493418634 $19.95
Website: www.LittleEdnasWar.com
Ordering: https://amzn.to/4rqzKQ7
Who will tell our story? We will.
These words reflect the grit, determination, and survival stories of Holocaust survivors as they die out as a group. Their experiences would otherwise be lost to history were it not for the efforts of groups such as the USC Shoah Foundation, which is dedicated to acquiring and preserving these memories lest they be lost to time and shrouded from history.
Little Edna’s War joins the Holocaust Survivor True Stories series of Amsterdam Publishers to outline the life of Edna Szurek who, at age seven, was smuggling food into the Warsaw Ghetto to help feed her family. Disguised as a Catholic girl, she participated in anti-Nazi efforts the youngest soldier in the Polish Home Army. She defied all odds for her own survival, and was even recognized and decorated by Pope Pius XII, who was unaware of her true identity as a Jewish child.
Five hours of Edna’s firsthand testimony was recorded and turned into this gripping, stark account of not just survival, but determined resistance. The account is written by her daughter-in-law, Dr. Janet Brill.
Edna’s story is a result of Brill’s meticulous weaving of fragments of Edna’s memory, what she heard in over thirty years of family gatherings, intimate conversations with her mother-in-law, and supplemental insights from her brother Yakov, who narrated his side of the story to the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum in Israel.
Another powerful note that sets this Holocaust survival story apart from others is its employment of the first-person, which allows readers to step into Edna’s thoughts, psyche, and the environment around her. This adds an intimate “you are here” feel that usually is presented in novels and not memoirs written by other than the subject. It allows readers to step into that world and understand not just resistance and survival efforts, but the cost of carefully orchestrating a life of lies in order to remain free and effective:
We recited our practiced narrative – born in Lublin, moved to Warsaw as small children, parents killed during a bombing raid, surviving on the streets through our performances. The story contained enough truth to be convincing, with key omissions to conceal our Jewish identity.
As Edna progresses through the days and times, readers join her hopes, dreams, and observations on how to remain covert in a dangerous world:
In past months, there had been several moments when we thought liberation was imminent, only to have our hopes dashed. The Germans would reinforce their positions, or the Soviets would halt their advance, and we would continue our shadow existence.
Little Edna’s War preserves a sense of purpose, place, and the fine art of staying alive even as her family fractures and forces beyond their control dictate difficult choices:
I understood the desperation that drove such decisions. I had seen the corpses in the streets, watched children my age waste away until they resembled ancient, withered dolls rather than living beings. If there was any chance of improvement, any possibility of eventual escape from the ghetto’s slow death, how could Papa not pursue it?
Libraries and readers seeking immersive experiences about the Holocaust and what it means to live under Nazi rule will find Little Edna’s War outstanding. It is heads and shoulders above many other Holocaust survival accounts with its attention to the daily details of survival and resistance, and in its powerful portrait of a young girl who does everything she must in order to not just survive, but thrive.
Little Edna’s War is highly recommended as a “must have” for collections seeking firsthand accounts of Jewish people surviving under Holocaust conditions.
