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.
“Josef Mengele was one of 20 SS physicians who worked on the selection ramp. He pointed at people as if to say, ‘Go to the left, go burn a little bit.’ One day, he befriended a Roma boy and dressed him like his own son in a Nazi uniform, the next day he threw the boy into the gas chamber. That’s the kind of monster Mengele was.” 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.
Joseph Mengele, the monster Nazi physician
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter
The U.S. press said they couldn’t see what was coming, yet TIME magazine quoted the Nazi Minister of Propaganda when he blamed Germany’s economic woes on the 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.
Americans feigned ignorance, but knew what was coming
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn before the Nazi slaughter begins
“Like most death camp survivors, my father quickly discovered that no one, even those closest to him, wanted to hear about his wartime experiences. Everyone was too busy putting their own lives together.” 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.
After the war, people closed their ears to survivors’ stories
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter
My Goodreads and Amazon review of Hope for the Worst by Kate Brandt (Rating 5) – A Courageous Search for the Meaning of Being. Ellie Adkins, the young protagonist of Hope for the Worst by Kate Brandt, is a seeker whose life has fallen apart. She grieves over a parental divorce for which she feels responsible, is abandoned by a noncommittal boyfriend, is fired for being “insufficiently committed,” laments her inadequacy as a friend, and most injurious, is cast aside by her much older Buddhist teacher and lover, Calvin. In short, Ellie is a mess. Is her suffering an opportunity, as her guru propounds, or justification for hopelessness? Unable to move forward, Ellie further endangers herself by trekking to Tibet to retrieve an artifact the guru covets to prove her worthiness. Yet the more she tries to liberate herself from her demons, she more she succumbs to their debilitating power. In notebooks and letters, Ellie vents her tangled emotions, enmeshing readers in the escalating turmoil. Will she find the love she seeks? Will she even survive? As a novelist myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire Brandt’s uncanny ability to channel her character’s obsessive rage and despair. On the surface, Ellie’s life is empty. But her inner life is a huge bundle of astute observations and inventive actions. Brandt’s vivid writing allows readers to accompany Ellie on her courageous search for the meaning of being.
Should we succumb to or surpass our suffering?
Why writers read: “Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” – Annie Proulx
“We slept in bunk beds in the attic and worked with civilians down in the factory. It was a model concentration camp — the kind Nazis displayed to the Red Cross to show Jews worked as laborers, not for the German army. For sure, they didn’t show the Red Cross places like Auschwitz and its crematorium!” 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.
A Jewish “official” displayed by Nazis to the Red Cross at a “model” concentration camp
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter
It’s a myth that Americans were ignorant about what was happening in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. A review of magazines and newspapers shows they had ample access to information detailing what the Nazis were doing to Jews and others targeted by Hitler’s regime. 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.
Ignorance about Nazi persecution in WW2 is a myth; Americans knew!
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn before the Nazi slaughter begins
“At age 54, my childhood memories were awakened when I read about children who lived in Otwock’s Jewish orphanage. I discovered that I was smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 when I was nine months old. Now I imagine my parents, a young, handsome couple, fighting in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising.” 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.
Young ghetto fighters
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter
“As our numbers grew, a loaf of bread was cut into 13 slices (not 9 or 10), the soup was clearer, and only on Sundays would we find pieces of potato or even macaroni in it.” 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.
On “good” Sundays, the soup would have bits of potato
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter
“My grandmother hid with my mom and aunt in an attic. A man with two sons and a young couple were already there. There was a ladder, but no one to take it away. When the SS searched the building, the ladder saved them. A soldier said that if anyone was up there, they wouldn’t have left it.” 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.
An obvious ladder made the SS think no one would dare to hide in the attic
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter
“Partisan quarrels over U.S. immigration prompt me to reflect on my own arrival at age 7, escaping from World War II. More than the odyssey that took us from Poland to the Soviet Union to Japan to the U.S., border patrols threatened us at every turn and left us in legal limbo even when we finally arrived in America.” 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.
Then, as now, border patrols blocked hopeful refugees at every crossing
Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter
