Waltzing with the Enemy A Mother and Daughter Confront the Aftermath of the Holocaust

by Kliot, Rasia; Mitsios, Helen

• ISBN13: 9781936068210
• ISBN10: 1936068214
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-01
• Publisher: Urim Publications

Summary

Filled with insight and humor, this dual memoir by Rasia, born in Vilnius, Lithuania (who survived the Holocaust on a false identity), and her daughter Helen, born in Montreal, Canada, examines the long-term implications of being a survivor of the Holocaust and the unique pressures and anxieties the children of survivors inherit from their parents. Rasia, determined to protect Helen from anti-Semitism, continues to pose as a Christian and raises her daughter in the Catholic faith, forbidding her from mentioning her Jewish identity. This compassionate memoir addresses the unspoken tension that complicated a mother-daughter relationship, follows Helen on her journey to embrace Judaism, and is a heart-stopping story of escape and survival from Nazi terror.

Author Biography

Rasia Kliot is a volunteer at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York. She spent over forty-five years living in Arizona, and now divides her time between Montreal and New York City. Helen Mitsios is the editor of Digital Geishas and Talking Frogs: The Best 21st Century Short Stories from Japan, and New Japanese Voices: The Best Contemporary Fiction from Japan, twice listed as a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. She has contributed to magazines and newspapers including the Washington Post Book World, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Table of Contents

Rasia's Preface: A Bridge of Air	p. 9
Helen's Preface: A World of Ghosts	p. 12
Rasia's Story
Forbidden Love	p. 17
A Young Girl	p. 19
Early Years in Vilnius	p. 22
The Gathering Storm	p. 24
The Russians in Our Home	p. 29
My Father	p. 35
Sister Teresa	p. 38
The Ghetto	p. 40
The Trial	p. 43
Irene's Secret: My First Fake ID	p. 53
Jozefowa: Early Spring 1942	p. 55
A Passport to Life?	p. 57
My Second Chance	p. 62
Lusia and the Trap	p. 65
What My Mother Told Me Happened in Ostrowice, 1942	p. 69
My New Name, Zoska, and My Father's Shawl	p. 72
The Open Window in Vilnius and Then My Life on the Farm with Janucz	p. 75
A Room Full of Mattresses: The Ghetto on Szpitalna St	p. 82
My Sister's Name Is Zofia	p. 86
Kaunas and My New Job at the German Newspaper	p. 89
Winter 1942	p. 96
My Life Sold for a Liter of Milk	p. 101
Waltzing With the Enemy	p. 105
The Farmhand	p. 108
Gradual Liquidation of the Ghetto	p. 123
My Mother and Brother at the Farm in Becoupe	p. 127
On the Train from Vilnius to Vienna	p. 131
Vienna 1944-45	p. 134
A New Window of Freedom Opens Up in Vienna	p. 140
A Short Visit to the Young State of Israel and a New Start in Montreal	p. 144
A Jew in Public	p. 146
Faced With My Own Contradictions	p. 150
Manhattan: 2009	p. 153
Helen's Story
First Things First	p. 159
Welcome to Phoenix	p. 162
In Our House We Were Still Living in Europe	p. 165
Greek Orthodox Father, Jewish Mother, Catholic Daughter	p. 168
I Am a Jew	p. 178
Christmas	p. 185
Stories My Mother Told Me	p. 189
What Do You Know About Being Jewish?	p. 194
On The Long, Winding Road to New York	p. 199
The New Jerusalem	p. 202
Symbiosis and Separation	p. 206
"The Holocaust Is Not Your Problem" - Dr. Masterson	p. 209
Zayt Gezunt - Be Well	p. 219
Secondary Shame	p. 224
What Is Family?	p. 229
Like an Anthropologist in Tennessee	p. 233
Kleyne Pekelach - Small Packages	p. 240
Yom Kippur - Praying With Strangers at a Grave	p. 243
Our Vilnius	p. 247
New Roads to Old Places: My Trip to Vilnius	p. 255
My Grandfather's Scarf	p. 267
Living in the Present, Juggling the Past	p. 269
Photo Gallery	p. 273
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