THE BOOK FAIR

In the short but interesting memoir, Eddie Bielawski reveals his childhood memories of the years between 1941 and 1944 that he and his family spent in hiding during the Holocaust.  Born in 1938, in Wegrow, a small town in Eastern Poland, seventy kilometers from Warsaw, Eddie Bielawski, who later made his home and raised his family in Israel, is one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust, and one of the few survivors still living. The author offers his insights into the struggles his family suffered daily, the interminable search for a safe place to hide, the constant moves from fear of anti-Semitic neighbors, and the unforgiving hunger due to the perpetual lack of food.  Succinctly written, Bielawski describes his family’s ordeal, the German brutality, the loss of their home, the loss of relatives, the general state of anxiety from hiding, and the unending fear for the safety of loved ones and fellow Jews.

The author includes details of the liberation of Poland by the Russians, the unrelenting and inherent anti-Semitism in Poland, and of their eventual escape to Vienna and then to Canada.  The memoir represents a loving tribute to Bielawski’s family, to Canada and to Israel, and gratitude to the Poles, and the German officer who helped them in desperate times.