Nachman Libeskind, a life-long storyteller and modernist painter was blessed with nearly total recall of people, places, and events over his 92-year lifespan. His daughter, Annette, put that resource together with tapes--in Yiddish and English--voluminous correspondence, a decades-long dialogue between father and daughter, and her own research to tell the remarkable story of her fathers peripatetic life. Born a Jew in Lodz, Poland, Nachman was constitutionally optimistic and had a great love for learning. Seventeen years old in 1927, he saw Stalin become the undisputed dictator of the Soviet empire, and the ban on Hitlers speeches lifted in Bavaria. The next year Mussolini abolished the electoral system and nullified womens rights, while the Japanese committed atrocities in China. Two years later the German president refused to pay Germanys war debt, and the stock market crashed. It paid to be young and resilient in such a tumultuous world. Before World War II began, Nachman was imprisoned as a dissident. He got out in time to witness Hitlers invasion of Lodz in 1939. Later, he was imprisoned once more, but this time in a Soviet gulag. He met his wife-to-be, Dora, in Samarkland in 1942. They ultimately landed with their children in New York after spending time in Israel, where they encountered a new bout of discrimination. Nine untitled chapters are divided into three parts with epilogue: before; purgatory; after. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Annette Libeskind Berkovits thought her attempt to have her father record his lifes story failed. But in 2004, three years after her fathers death, she was going through his things and found a box of tapesseveral years worthwith his spectacular life, triumphs, and tragedies told one last time in his baritone voice.
Nachman Libeskinds remarkable story is an odyssey through crucial events of the twentieth century. With an unshakable will and a few drops of luck, he survives a pre-war Polish prison; witnesses the 1939 Nazi invasion of Lodz and narrowly escapes; is imprisoned in a brutal Soviet gulag where he helps his fellow inmates survive, and upon regaining his freedom treks to the foothills of the Himalayas, where he finds and nearly loses the love of his life. Later, the crushing communist regime and a lingering postwar anti-Semitism in Poland drive Nachman and his young family to Israel, where he faces a new form of discrimination. Then, defiantly, Nachman turns a pocketful of change into a new life in New York City, where a heartbreaking promise leads to his unlikely success as a modernist painter that inspires others to pursue their dreams.
With just a box of tapes, Annette Libeskind Berkovits tells more than her fathers story: she builds an uncommon family saga and reimagines a turbulent past. In the process she uncovers a stubborn optimism that flourished in the unlikeliest of places.
With just a box of tapes, Annette Libeskind Berkovits tells more than her fathers story: she builds an uncommon family saga and reimagines a turbulent past.
I was born in 1909 in Lodz, but my passport says Przedborz
He stopped suddenly and searched for a button.
Ach, I forgot to explain this, he said utterly frustrated, then pushed the wrong button and erased what he had just recorded. Shayze! An uncharacteristic curse escaped his lips. He took off his glasses and said, I think its time to prepare lunch.
Annette Libeskind Berkovits thought her attempt to have her father record his lifes story failed. But in 2004, three years after her fathers death, she was going through his things and found a box of tapesseveral years worthwith his spectacular life, triumphs, and tragedies told one last time in his baritone voice.
Nachman Libeskinds remarkable story is an odyssey through crucial events of the twentieth century. With an unshakable will and a few drops of luck, he survives a pre-war Polish prison; witnesses the 1939 Nazi invasion of Lodz and narrowly escapes; is imprisoned in a brutal Soviet gulag where he helps his fellow inmates survive, and upon regaining his freedom treks to the foothills of the Himalayas, where he finds and nearly loses the love of his life. Later, the crushing communist regime and a lingering postwar anti-Semitism in Poland drive Nachman and his young family to Israel, where he faces a new form of discrimination. Then, defiantly, Nachman turns a pocketful of change into a new life in New York City, where a heartbreaking promise leads to his unlikely success as a modernist painter that inspires others to pursue their dreams.
With just a box of tapes, Annette Libeskind Berkovits tells more than her fathers story: she builds an uncommon family saga and reimagines a turbulent past. In the process she uncovers a stubborn optimism that flourished in the unlikeliest of places.
