Image: This photo is from my hometown, Tarnów, during the second deportation. “Always follow your logic,” was Salomon’s proud “leitmotiv.” Going against logic showed weakness, made no sense. Logic dictated his personal and business life. To this day, quips such as: “Always follow your logic,” “Don’t follow others,” “Follow your […]
memories
We were so lucky as children to have three living grandparents. Every Pesach (Passover), my maternal grandparents hosted our Passover Seder, one of my favorite holidays because I was with my extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins. My grandparents lived in a smallish row house on Shirley Avenue in […]
I call the woodcarving that hangs in my dining room “The Old Woman.” She is ugly. Nobody wants her. Nobody likes her but me. My husband dislikes her; I offered her to my children, but they refused to take her. “She is hideous and depressing,” they both said, their feelings […]
Sipping cideron a crisp fall dayreminds me of you, Dad. In my mind’s eye,how vividly I seeMom pouring cider,transforming the tall, clear glassinto a deep amber hue. Every fall nightyou sipped cider,savoring each sweet, wetdewy droplet. Now, on this cool fall day—seven months and one dayhave passed us by,since you […]
My life began in Poland during the Holocaust. Born in March 1940, six months after the German invasion, I lived “hidden on the surface,” posing as Catholics with my mother in Warsaw from 1942 until 1944. My father joined us after he escaped from the ghetto. It’s the fall of 1944, […]
I wrote these poems in the year following the death of my beloved father, Eugene Blum, Yoel Ben Basia. May he Rest In Peace. A rhyme for aba where are you where are you where have you beento heaven to heaven to visit the queen?what did you, what did you find, find there. something […]
Adapted from my published memoir “Amazing Journey, Metamorphosis of a Hidden Child” 2010 “I survived” is a powerful statement, evoking many different emotions. When you think or hear the word “survivor” all kinds of images and events spring to mind. Positive ones− there was a pleasant ending; and negative ones − […]