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Amidst the Shadows of Trees: A Holocaust Child's Survival in the Partisans by Miriam Brysk "Miriam Brysk has found and fulfilled the special mission of her life by living fully - as daughter, wife, mother, scientist, artist, writer - and by bearing witness through her art and writing to all those who suffered and perished in the Holocaust. After reading her haunting memoir, I am at a loss for words to express the depth of my gratitude for her life and story, for her capacity not only to survive but to prevail, and for her voice that will not let us forget." |
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Miriam Brysk's story of ghetto life in Lida in Belarus and partisan life in the nearby Lipiszanska forest sheds light on Jewish activism during the Nazi Holocaust. It also tells the story of a lost childhood and of challenging years spent disguised as a partisan "boy" accompanying her father and mother in the resistance. Dr. Chaim Miasnik. Miriam's father, was chief of staff and lead surgeon in a forest hospital and later received the Order of Lenin for his work with partisans. Miriam and her family survived until liberation and later came to the U.S. and constructed normal lives. Miriam herself became an accomplished scientist. This book sheds light on Jewish participation in resistance during the World War II and in saving other Jews. It is also a testament to the resilient powers of youth and to the power of survivor memory many years after the events. |
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"Mamele, Mamele........ please don't leave me alone," are the heart wrenching words of this child survior author, Dr. Miriam Brysk: a woman of many talents, who transformed a childhood tragedy into a triumph and despair into hope with her incredible life story, the words of which transport us to a place where no other words are possible. |
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As if to rescue the integrity of the history of the Holocaust, a wave of survivor memoirs, many literate and engaging, have appeared over the last ten years. They announce that the logical and important places to begin to examine that history are eye witnesses. Miriam Brysk’s chronicle is among the more exceptional of these works. It reflects her own life: highly accomplished, intelligent, detailed and thoughtful. At age seven, Miriam, her mother Bronka and father, Chaim Miasnik, a renowned surgeon, escaped the Lida ghetto and joined Jewish partisans in the Lipiczanska Forest. Before the end of the war, Miriam estimates that her father had saved hundreds of lives and helped build and supervise a partisan hospital in the swamps of the forest. Constantly hunted by German soldiers, she experienced childhood terror that has remained with her. She lost her innocence, her childhood, her youth as she clung to her mother and her prized possession, a pistol. Her head was shaved so she would look like a boy. Her memory of the details of that time—both in the Lida ghetto and in the forest—remains remarkably sharp and distinguishes this memoir from many others. |
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miriam@miriambrysk.com |
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