Pappus: The Saga of a Jewish Family - Paperback

by Sherwin Gluck (Author)

Pappus -- The Saga of a Jewish Family
70 letter writers - all interconnected.
1,823 letters - one story.

This remarkably comprehensive collection of letters written just before, during, and after World War II documents the experiences of an observant Jewish family from Polyán, Czechoslovakia - a small agricultural village. Of six siblings, one emigrated to America in 1938, four more in 1940, and one remained behind with his wife, little children, and elderly father. Written predominantly in Hungarian, English, or both, these letters memorialize and illuminate the lives of ordinary people enduring extraordinary events. Through them, experience history as it unfolds. Read letters from children learning to write, grandparents living out their golden years, family, friends, and neighbors - Jew and Gentile alike. Some will become martyrs, others survivors. A few will be enablers, collaborators, and perpetrators. Painstakingly written on thin airmail paper, v-mail, or plain stationary, they bear postmarks from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, New York, Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, California, Missouri, Algeria, Italy, France, Germany, Iceland, Sweden, the Philippines, Florida, and Israel. This volume contains the complete, translated personal correspondence in the family's special collection now housed in the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. The letters are all encompassing and their historic value is immeasurable. As primary sources, they give a contemporaneous account of the events the writers lived through, undistorted by the passage of time. It is the definitive companion text to Private Good Luck and As I remember...
This is my family's story, in their own words.