The Memory Keeper: A Journey Into the Holocaust to Find My Family

by Jackie Kohnstamm

Max and Mally, two out of millions murdered in the Holocaust, are deported in 1942 from Berlin to Theresienstadt – where they will starve to death.

Decades later, in London and on a whim, their granddaughter, Jackie googles their names to find two commemorative stones recently placed outside their old home. The discovery compels her to open a long-closed cupboard of haunting family papers, piece together the story of the family she never knew and find her place in it.

With searing prose and meticulous detective work, Jackie Kohnstamm offers a gripping and poignant portrait of an ordinary family and reveals a remarkable story of loss, discovery and memory.

Genres: Nonfiction, Holocaust, History

310 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 20, 2023

Reviews

[Pauline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of the author’s quest to find out what happened to her grandparents during the Holocaust.
Painstaking research went into this book, it was emotional and harrowing.
Thank you to NetGalley and Cannongate for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to the e-audio read by the author.
The author's story of her quest to uncover the story of her grandparents takes her on a physical, emotional and research journey sometimes with coincidental and remarkable results. You do not know what you may find till you start looking. It was sometimes I thought, a bit self-indulgent and I lost track of who some outlying individuals were, I suspect she would journal daily to include the details she includes from how she was feeling to the description of the rug on the floor. I enjoyed this book and admired the author's commitment to record her journey and learn more about her grandparents who were ultimately murdered in WW2.

[Halkon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow burn and all the better for it. The twists and turns of archival research (and the author's shifting analysis of events) had a selfreflexivity family histories often lack. Bits will stay with me (the spoons held up by border security, the inventories of 1930s Berlin rooms, Jewish people paying for their own train tickets to the camps). A real palimpsest of one family's experience of genocide and fascism.

[Cate · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story of a family's experiences during the Holocaust. Told in a "real time" style as the author discovers the story herself, piece by piece, although we know the final outcome for her family members from the start. I listened to the audiobook read by the author.

Some parts are quite abstract, the author speculating about the supernatural, imagining conversations with the ghosts of family members, etc. and some parts really unnecessary (author describes a whole dental incident she has while having a meal when visiting Berlin which is really unpleasant to hear about and doesn't add any value to the story at all, so it's lost a star from me for that).

Particularly liked the letters between various family members which are included which adds a lot of insight. The information about where the author went and how she found various information, specifically which archives and offices she visited, will also act as a guide to others wanting to learn about their families too. She treats the history not just as dates and facts but as real tangible events that she wants to fully experience herself by visiting the exact locations her family lived in and were transported from. I'm sure this book will inspire many more people to find out their families' stories.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book starts with the author sat at home watching TV and flicking the computer on before she heads to bed. That seemingly ordinary act is the start to a journey to find her past and discover the lives of her family who lived through the horrors of being Jewish in Germany during the second world war.

I found myself making an empathetic connection to her family. The ones who made it out and those who didn't. I did it via audiobook but I'm going to do a Google search and see if I can find any pictures of the family members I came to know in the book!

If you have an interest in history, the war, the Holocaust, or ancestry then read this book.

[Philippa Balshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

A meandering journey, where you feel like you’re taking each step and discovering everything anew at exactly the same time as the author. Jackie weaves a really rich and beautiful, and yet so normal, tapestry of her family - and it’s so wonderful to read, even when you know the ending is not a happy one. She gets very lost in the mundane, but it’s an integral part of the story.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many books and movies exist about WW2 and the Holocaust it’s hard to imagine adding anything new. But this book really does. A very moving deep dive into a Jewish family as they navigate 1930s and 1940s Germany and get separated around the world and across decades. Very thoroughly researched and full of heart-wrenching detail.

[Michelle Hickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great memoir about a British woman who goes on a mission to find out her family history and finds her grandparents were killed in a German concentration camp. She unravels family stories through a treasure trive of family letters; piecing together the past her mother would not discuss.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and emotional book following the stories of her family members who were murdered in the Holocaust. It's important that every single one is remembered.

[Harriet · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and emotional read about the author's grandparents.

[Fiona R · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF

[Natalie Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good book. Sad but unsentimental.

[Julia Povall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such detailed family history in honour of all her family who lost their lives in the holocaust. Sad, poignant yet well worth the read.

[Katie Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started while in Jerusalem, June 2025!
Finished in CA--highly recommend. I visited Berlin last summer so some of the places the author visits were familiar.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enthralling memoir that follows the journey of the author in rediscovery her family’s connection to the Holocaust, through research and letters she is able to trace the steps her mother and her siblings transversed, each able to ‘get out’ of Nazi Germany, and the stubbornness of the author’s grandparents in staying, despite pleas from children and the actions of many others to get out. The author witnesses through letters and meeting with people who can connect her up within Germany, the struggles in understanding what was to come for the Jews within the Third Reich, as freedoms and liberties were slowly stripped away as whole communities were made progressively more invisible as time went on. The efforts for everyday Germans to remember and ‘’adopt’ the stepping stones of those that were murdered in the Holocaust helps the author reconnect with her grandparents, particularly when her life has felt split between before, during and after. A great and enlightening read of a rediscovery of family and history from a descendent of Holocaust victims.