60 JCAPN Volume 21, Number 1, February, 2008

Blackwell Publishing IncMalden, USAJCAPJournal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing1073-6077© 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.XXX

BOOK REVIEW

Book Review

AUTHORS RUNNING HEAD:

Book Review

The Memories We Keep

by Walter ZachariusKensingtonISBN: 0-7582-1771-4April 2007329 pagesReviewed by: Geraldine S. Pearson, PhD, APRN

A

s time passes, many individuals who survived theHolocaust in Europe in the late 1930s and 1940s areone by one passing away because of age. This novel,the first by this author, reminds readers of the traumaand horror experienced by men, women, and childrenwho were caught in this terrible time of incarcerationand death.

This evocative novel is the story of Mia Levy, the adole-scent daughter of a prominent physician. Living withher brother and parents in Poland, she was a talentedmusician, educated in Paris, who loved to play the piano.In the early chapters of the book, readers begin to under-stand what it means to be Jewish in Dubow, Poland. ByOctober 1939, the Nazis had conquered Poland and theLevys lost their home to the Nazis. The family ends upin a ghetto in Baluty, working in factories, starving.

When the chance to escape Baluty by train presentsitself, Mia, her brother, and her parents take thisoutside opportunity for freedom. In reality the train isheaded to a Nazi death camp. Mia ends up separatedfrom her family when she jumps out of the movingboxcar into the Polish countryside. She makes her wayto Warsaw and becomes associated with the resistance.While she eventually ends up for a time with her auntand uncle in Brooklyn, Mia is compelled to return toEurope in the hopes of finding her family.

This book has pertinence to psychiatric nursingfrom many perspectives. From a historical viewpoint,it offers a realistic view of the trauma experienced byJewish children and families who endured the crueltyand deprivation of Europe, as the Nazis systematicallybegan annihilating an entire population of people.The notable lack of world attention being paid tothese events when they were occurring is difficult tocomprehend. McKie (2004) uses the Holocaust to teachnursing ethics and comments on this process. Speakingof the “demolition of a man” he emphasizes the needfor nurses “to listen, to understand, to restore dignityand to place personhood at the very centre of theirpractice now and in the future” (p. 147). This novelemphasized the point that at this time in history, veryfew were listening as these atrocities unfolded.

From a developmental perspective, the novel isan excellent character study of an adolescent who isbrutally traumatized and pushed into circumstancesfor which she is unprepared. The clarity of the author’swords gives witness to Mia’s intense desire to surviveand endure. Yet this survival is clearly at a cost. Sagi-Schwartz et al. (2003) studied female Holocaustsurvivors traumatized as children. When they studiedthese adult women and their daughters, they found thatthe traumatic effects did not appear to transmit acrossgenerations. Most of the survivors continued to sufferfrom their war experiences far into adulthood. In Mia’ssituation her adaptation and endurance are remark-ably portrayed by the author. This likely reflects theexperience of many Holocaust survivors traumatizedas children or adolescents.

Chaitin (2003) studied coping and patterns infamilies of Holocaust survivors. She used extensiveinterviews conducted in 1993 by other researchersto categorize postwar adaptation. She concluded thatsurvivor families exhibit heterogeneity in the waysthey cope with the Holocaust past.

While beautifully written and realistic, this is apainful novel to read and understand. It addresses oneyoung girl’s response to extreme life circumstances.When she finally goes to America, and becomesinvolved with Vinnie, she can’t let herself be happyor enjoy the romantic relationship. Her sense of guiltover her survival is nearly overwhelming.

Her involvement in the French resistance, just onepart of her life after she returns to Europe, is emotionallyand physically noxious. As she attempts to surviveher circumstances, her actions are breathtakingly outof character from the young girl described in thebeginning of the book. In fact, this was likely Zacharius’spoint in writing the book.

Could the Holocaust occur today? Is some form ofthe Holocaust going on in other parts of the world aswe speak? These are questions that nurses need toask themselves in the course of their work. This bookis sure to evoke personal responses to the question:What would I have done if faced with Mia’s life?

JCAPN Volume 21, Number 1, February, 2008 61

Author contact: gpearson@snet.net, with a copy to the Editor:poster@uta.edu

References

Chaitin, J. (2003). “Living with” the past: Coping and patterns infamilies of Holocaust survivors.

Family Process

,

42

(2), 305–322.

McKie, A. (2004). “The demolition of a man”: Lessons from Holocaustliterature for the teaching of nursing ethics.

Nursing Ethics

,

11

(2),138–149.

Sagi-Schwartz, A., van Ijzendoorn, J. H., Grossmann, K. E., Joels, T.,Grossmann, K., Scharf, M., et al. (2003). Attachment and traumaticstress in female Holocaust child survivors and their daughters.

American Journal of Psychiatry

,

160

(6), 1086–1092.