Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
“Some sick prisoners tried to outwit SS selections. In the barracks kitchen, they rubbed scraps of beets on their cheeks to make them look red and healthy. It was risky, though, because sometimes healthy prisoners were picked to give blood for German soldiers.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. Today, I’m honoring my great aunt, three generations of her family, and the six million others murdered by the Nazis. Read more about United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day, other memorial events, commemorative places, history and its lessons, and the stories of Holocaust survivors at the website of the U.S. Holocaust Remembrance Museum.
U.S. news coverage of the Holocaust was intentionally suppressed. Its horrors only became known after GIs liberated Nazi concentration camps in 1945. History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
“As a child, I survived the Holocaust in Poland and was adopted by an Israeli couple, who knew only that I’d been found near a railroad station. I didn’t look for my biological family until 1996.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
You’re invited to an Ann Arbor District Library event: “Imagination Meets Experience: Alternative Paths to the Writing Life.” Authors Ann S. Epstein and Janet Gilsdorf discuss their journeys to becoming writers and blending real and imagined events in their writing with interviewer Danielle LaVaque-Manty. Tuesday, January 24, 2023, 6-7 PM, AADL Downtown Branch, 4th Floor Meeting Room. Books will be available for purchase and signing. More at the AADL event page.
My Goodreads and Amazon review of Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra (Rating 3) – Unpopped. Anthony Marra’s Mercury Pictures Presents is a witty novel about Hollywood pre- to post-WW2. The book stars Artie Feldman, the vulgar middle-aged Jewish owner of once-thriving studio that teetered when talkies displaced silent films, and Maria Lagana, a wise-cracking Italian immigrant who worked her way up to become his chief assistant. In a strong off-screen supporting role is Maria’s father, an anti-fascist lawyer confined by Mussolini. The studio is under investigation by congressional isolationists who suspect its films are propagandizing in favor of the U.S. entering the war. Then Pearl Harbor happens and the reels are rewound in the studio’s favor. Mercury Pictures Presents is a book best read slowly to savor each guffaw-worthy quip. Marra has also done his research and serves up a lively picture of Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s. As a writer of historical fiction myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admired Marra’s immersion in the industry’s Golden Age. However, while his characters are too original to be stereotypes, they often lack depth. Some extras and scenes exist solely to show off his esoteric knowledge and special effects arsenal. Those entertained by blockbusters may relish his verbal pyrotechnics, but those who prize character over caricature will find Marra’s novel as unsatisfying as the unpopped kernels at the bottom of the concession stand popcorn box.
In 1939, 90% of Americans opposed declaring war on Germany; 95% were against admitting more Jews. In 1941, after Pearl Harbor, resistance to entering the war decreased but not opposition to admitting Jews. History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
“Each day, when I returned to camp from a work detail in the cement factory or on the railroad, I was sprayed with so-called bug poison, the likely reason I later had chronic skin cancer.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
U.S. papers buried intelligence reports about Nazis murdering Jews, of no concern to most Americans. Instead they played up WW2 as an anti-fascist fight for freedom. History shows America failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
“Many people, desperate to end it all, chose to ‘touch the wire.’ They lay there dead, electrocuted, looking beautiful. When my sister and I got scarlet fever. and were selected to go to the gas chamber, we wanted to ‘touch the wire.’ We were almost there when our block leader pulled us back so we could continue to work for her.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
