INTRODUCTION
Regina is a young girl living in a traditional Jewish household in early 20th-century Poland. Her life is a blend of simple joys, from helping her mother make pierogi to preparing for the Sabbath. However, her world is shattered when she visits her sister in the nearby town of Bialystok. There, she encounters the horrifying reality of Russian soldiers carrying out a brutal pogrom, forever altering her sense of safety and security.
Poland, at that time, was encircled by the shadow of three formidable empires: to the East, the vast expanse of Russia; to the West, the mighty Prussia; and to the South, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which cast its sprawling dominion over the land.
Her older sister is assaulted by marauding Russian soldiers, an event that triggers a profound and unrelenting alarm within her. This trauma becomes a defining force, driving and dominating her life for years to come.
She resolves there and then to leave Poland for America at the earliest opportunity, fully aware that this decision will mean separating from her close-knit family and possibly never seeing them again.
Her determination is tested when she becomes pregnant and marries a colleague from the Jewish organisation where she works as a translator. Despite finding happiness in her marriage, she remains entirely focused on her goal of leaving Poland.
She accomplishes this through sheer strength of character and an eerily prophetic belief that Polish Jewry, as victims of rising anti-Semitism, face grave danger if they remain in Poland.
About the Author:
Geri Spieler is a journalist, investigative reporter and award-winning speaker. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, and as a research director for Gartner, a global technology advising company. She regularly contributed to Huffington Post and Truthdig.com, an award-winning investigative reporting website. She is also the author of San Francisco Values: Common Ground for Getting America Back on Track, and the multiple award-winning Housewife Assassin: The Woman Who Tried To Kill President Ford, which has been optioned for a movie. She lives in the San Francisco Bay with her husband, nine chickens and 10 fruit trees.
To learn more, please visit https://gerispieler.com/, or follow her on Instagram (gspieler124), Facebook (Geri Spieler) and Substack (Geri Spieler).
REVIEW
The book is deeply preoccupied with anti-Semitism, a theme that appears on nearly every page. This focus is perhaps more understandable in hindsight, given what transpired a generation later. I should note, however, that I have a personal stake in this matter, as I too was born in Poland – and fled the country, albeit due to a different “ism”—Communism.
I am deeply aware that anti-Semitism was widespread in Eastern Europe for centuries, yet the region became home to Europe’s largest Jewish population as early as the 13th century. This was largely because it granted Jews personal freedom and legal autonomy, and it welcomed the Sephardic diaspora following the expulsion of Spanish Jews by the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella.
By the end of the 16th century, an astonishing 80% of the world’s Jews resided in Poland. However, this fortunate era came to an abrupt end with the partition of Poland, as the new imperial powers revoked the old Polish royal privileges that had protected Jewish communities.
The 1930s were a harrowing period for European Jews. As German Jews sought to escape many countries shut their doors, leaving Poland as one of the few places offering temporary asylum but
Regina’s grim prediction was of course tragically confirmed by Hitler’s Final Solution, which claimed the lives of so many of her relatives in Poland.
However, anti-Semitism wasn’t the only force at play. In his best-selling book *The World: A Family History*, English-Jewish author Simon Sebag Montefiore highlights the bravery of the 7,000 “righteous Polish Gentiles” who risked—and often sacrificed—their own lives to save their Jewish friends and neighbours.
By this time, Regina has achieved her goal of settling in California, her life’s work complete, her prediction sadly fulfilled.
Regina’s story is told by her granddaughter, author Geri Spieler, and is filtered through her perspective. While of some historical interest, the book falls short for me—not due to its content but because of its style, or lack thereof. Regina’s voice doesn’t resonate as that of a young Polish-Jewish girl; instead, it feels more like that of a somewhat apprehensive and unimaginative Californian.
While she highlights some interesting and important historical facts, the book reads in a robotic manner. Instead of allowing emotions to emerge naturally from dialogue or action, the author relies on italics to signal feeling. The prose lacks drama and fluidity; for example, a line like “Regina, 16, had come to Bialystok to visit her sister” feels more like a news report than a piece of literature.
The book also suffers from a notable lack of descriptive detail, both in terms of character and the settings where the events unfold. It seems evident that the author has either never visited Warsaw or Paris or, if she has, she failed to convey the rich, evocative descriptions of the streets and locales that would have brought her grandmother’s world to life.
Her character descriptions are stilted and unconvincing, making it hard to immerse oneself in the era or connect with the characters. The women come across as pious and downtrodden, while the men are portrayed as cowardly, lecherous drunkards.
It appears that the writer has focused solely on the Jewish émigré perspective. The narrative would have been more effective with the inclusion of significant Polish, Russian, and American characters, providing a richer and more balanced view.
Her version of another person’s life, even if it’s someone close to her, feels awkward and implausible.
Domenique Day
