By Mikhal Dekel
In this book Mikhal Dekel traces the story of her father’s childhood, from the child of a Jewish brewery owner in Poland, to exile in the Siberian labor camps, to refugee camps in Uzbekistan, to refugee status in Iran, and finally to kibbutz life in Israel. She traces the history of Polish victims of world War II, without any sugar-coating, relating the terrible struggles they went through just to stay alive. She also documents the discrimination between ethnic Poles and Jewish Poles – discrimination imposed by Russians, British, and others who had power over these refugees.
In our day and time we wouldn’t necessarily think of Iran as a place where Jewish or Polish/Catholics would be welcomed and sheltered, but this book reminded me that today is not the same world that existed in the time of World War II. It also reminded me that the administration of refugee relief is not always done by saints.
This is not a book of triumph, but a personal search for understanding of what made her father into the man he was. The various characters are not heroes, but are humans – sometimes deeply flawed, but they are survivors. At the end, one comes away with the feeling that Ms. Dekel has come to a much clearer view of her father as a man who went through terrible times, and who was molded by them.
Only 1000 children traveled this tortured path from Poland to Israel, out of the millions of Jewish people displaced and/or murdered in the Second World War, but the story is arresting in telling about a little known group of survivors.
Guest review by Dewey Christy (Thanks, Dewey)
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