Ontheemden

by Ghita Schwarz, Vanja Walsmit (Translator)

In mei 1945 vestigt Pavel Mandl, een Poolse jood die net bevrijd is uit een concentratiekamp, zich in een huis vlak bij een vluchtelingenkamp in het pas verslagen Duitsland. Met niets meer dan een paar blikken voedsel, een tandenborstel en zijn identiteitspapieren, moet hij een nieuw bestaan bijeenschrapen in een chaotische gemeenschap van bevrijde overlevenden, burgers en soldaten. Hij neemt Fela in huis, een jonge weduwe die van Polen naar Rusland vluchtte aan het begin van de oorlog, en Chaim, een ondernemende tiener wiens smokkelactiviteiten hem naar de Westelijke zone hebben gebracht. Het trio vormt al snel een soort gezin, op zoek naar overlevende familieleden en dromend van een visum voor Amerika. Vijftien jaar later zijn Pavel en Fela getrouwd en wonen ze in Queens met hun kinderen; Chaim is net geëmigreerd uit Israël met zijn vrouw, Sima. Pavel is mede-eigenaar van een kleine kleermakerij en Fela bestiert het huishouden; Chaim en Sima geven zich over aan het luxebestaan in Amerika en de belofte van vrijheid die dat met zich meebrengt. Hun levens worden niet langer gedomineerd door de dwang van overleven, vechten, schuilen of ontvluchten. Maar het trauma steekt in de meest alledaagse situaties telkens weer de kop op… In Ontheemden toon Ghita Schwarz op indringende wijze het innerlijke leven van overlevenden – normale mannen en vrouwen voor wie de oorlog catastrofaal verliep, waardoor het verdere leven voor hen een permanente vlucht is geworden.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Holocaust, Historical, World War II, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction

359 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

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Reviews

[Malena Watrous · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exquisitely written, deeply moving novel, that I found to be highly original. While there are lots of "holocaust novels," this book (which never uses that word) is about real people--not saints, not villains, just people like you and me--who happened to have lived through something almost unspeakably awful, and who *happen to* have survived, and who feel all the complicated feelings of survivors of any kind of tragedy. Schwarz shows them over the next decades forming families, working their jobs, trying not to pass a legacy of grief on to the next generations, and invariably not quite succeeding. The quiet moments in here are among the best: in a displaced persons camp, a father not leaving his daughter's side on her first day of kindergarten, even though it means he'll lose the office job he was so proud to come by, because he can't bear to miss it... I love the restraint in these stories, the refusal to turn these utterly real characters into symbols, the spare yet poetic language. It's a real accomplishment, and a pleasure for those of us who like to read fiction about real, recognizable people--and fiction that's saying something that matters.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book stubbornly refuses to come alive. It purports to be a book about the effect of the Holocaust on the survivors, yet the author gives us little concept of what in particular they survived. They seem to lead charmed lives in that all obstacles melt away. The central character acquires money, only to have it stolen, but that doesn't matter because he does fine without it. He has a terrible accident, which makes him sure he'll never get to America, but in the next chapter there he is in America with no explanation as to how he got there. He owns a successful business, but we're not allowed to see how he achieved this. I have a feeling this one is going back to the library unfinished. I just can't care what happens.

Coming back to say that I was imprisoned in a doctor's office for an hour and a half yesterday, with only this book for company. So I finished it. My review still stands.

[Amy Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Displaced Persons by Ghita Schwarz

Publisher: Harper Collins
Published Date: 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-188177-0
Pages: 340
Genre: Contemporary Fiction;
Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Book Summary: In May 1945, Pavel Mandl, a Polish Jew recently liberated from a concentration camp, finds himself among similarly displaced persons gathered in the Allied occupation zones of a defeated Germany. Possessing little besides a map, a few tins of food, and a talent for black-market trading, he must scrape together a new life in a chaotic community of refugees, civilians, and soldiers. With fellow refugees Fela, a young widow, and Chaim, a resourceful teenager with impressive smuggling skills, Pavel establishes a makeshift family, as together they face an uncertain future. Eventually the trio immigrates to the United States, where they grapple with past traumas that arise again in the everyday moments of lives no longer dominated by the need to endure, fight, hide, or escape.

Ghita Schwarz’s Displaced Persons is an astonishing novel of grief, anger, and survival that examines the landscape of liberation and reveals the interior despairs and joys of immigrants shaped by war and trauma.



My Thoughts: Ghita Schwarz has written an astonishing, haunting and evocative novel about several survivors of the Holocaust and the lives they created in the decades following the war. I have read many books about World War II, the horrors and atrocities Hitler and the Nazis visited on people and the touching and remarkable desire of people to survive the Holocaust and be standing when the war is over. I've never thought much about the lives of the survivors after WW II ended: What happened to them? Where did they go? What did they do once the war was over? Many of the people liberated from the concentration camps at the end of the war lost most or all of their family members and loved ones waiting for the war to end. Many of the survivors also lost their homes which were taken over by the Nazis or Germans, some were still occupied, many were rendered uninhabitable. So where do these people go now and what do they do? Displaced Persons is the amazing, breath-taking answer. This is the story Ghita Schwarz, the daughter of a camp survivor, wanted to read. When she couldn't find it, she decided to write it.

This book is divided into three sections, each covering a period of years. The first section is set in Germany beginning in 1945. The survivors have recently been liberated from the concentration camps only to be placed in a different kind of camp. Refugee camps were set up in the Allied occupation zones of defeated Germany. Several characters in Displaced Persons including Pavel, Fela, Chaim, Berel, Dvora and their small daughter Sima, meet in the Bergen-Belsen refugee camp. The camps provide a place for the survivors to go for food, to sleep, to find jobs and hopefully, surviving family members and loved ones. But the refugee camps are not comfortable or clean and not a place where many of the survivors want to stay. Many are over-run with rats, there is no privacy and the bathrooms are rather gross. The slogan in the refugee camps was "Liberated but not free". Ms. Schwarz effectively relates through Pavel, Berel and some of the other characters the mixed feelings the survivors have about staying in the camps. Her clear, honest writing transports us to this area of Germany in 1945 and it's not long before Pavel's anger, Berel's sadness and confusion and Sima's tears are understandable.

The title "Displaced Persons" as well as the term became all too clear to me after reading the first section of the book. I cannot imagine how someone like Chaim must have felt when he was handed an identity card and papers calling him a Displaced Person or "DP" which is what the survivors were soon being called. It's disheartening and shocking. Unfortunately, for Berel, Dvora and little Sima as for many of the survivors, the refugee camps are the only place available for them to stay. They don't have a home to return to, they are, effectively, displaced persons. Berel also displays the inner strength and hope that so many of the survivors have. He sees life in the camps as an opportunity to find a job and get Sima enrolled in school. Then he will bide his time until he can move his family to Israel.

Unlike Berel, Pavel refuses to live in the refugee camps. He uses bribery, trickery and deception to obtain a house for himself, Fela and Chaim, survivors he met while on line for ration cards at the camp. Pavel rationalizes his behavior because of all that he's been through since the start of WW II. Life for Pavel is all about survival and creating a good life for himself and his new family. Pavel will do what he has to do. He is resourceful and ambitious. Pavel makes connections with important people who can help him and learns about black-market trading. His ultimate goal is to get to America, something he's constantly planning for and figuring out. Pavel tries hard to put the past behind him but he has a lot of anger about life and periodically it boils over. Pavel expects to be respected, listened to and obeyed as he once was in his life before the war changed everything. He gets upset when things don't work out as he planned. But once he calms down, he continues on with his plans.

The second and third sections of Displaced Persons take place decades after the war. Many of the survivors are living in America, raising families and working. Pavel, Fela and their children live in Queens. It wasn't easy for Pavel and Fela to get out of Germany but they finally did it. Pavel has a small but successful business with his brother-in-law selling and tailoring suits and is taking care of his family. Fela stays home caring for thei two children. Try as they might, he and Fela cannot let go of the past. Their experiences with the war and the camps has marked them and impacted their behavior. Pavel is still filled with anger and pain while everything scares and worries Fela especially as regards her children. They don't talk about their experiences, their past. They don't want to burden their children. It's obvious Ms. Schwarz understands the struggle for people like Pavel and Fela. Although I couldn't exactly identify with them, I sympathized with Pavel and Fela and was amazed by their strength. Their courage is inspiring but I wonder if their children would relate to them better if they knew what their parents had been through. At the time, nobody talked about their struggles and the pain of their past, you just soldiered on. Pavel and Fela aren't that different from other people of their generation. They keep things close to their vest, unaware of the distance created by secrets kept from spouses and children.

Displaced Persons is an amazing book about strong and inspiring characters who have experienced profound tragedy but survive to build lives they can be proud of. Ms. Schwarz's characters are not mythical creatures but real human beings with major flaws and inspiring characteristics. Despite what they've been through, Pavel, Fela, Chaim and Sima all make mistakes and regret some of the things they do. Their power is in their strength and resilience. They don't give up despite their hardships and struggles they've had to face and overcome. Ghita Schwarz has written a rich, powerful and brilliant novel everyone should take the time to read. This is a book that shouldn't be read quickly. Her characters are complex and real and they come alive through the course of the novel. Like real people they grow and change as their lives move on and we can only fully understand and know them if we pay attention to their lives and experiences every step of the way. This is a poignant, inspiring and evocative novel you don't want to miss.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling tale starting in 1945 with several Polish Jews returning from the Nazi camps to Germany to start their lives anew. Obviously, they have varying results.

Ms. Schwarz follows them into the 21st century, although we often hear of those who did not make it that far.

She reminds us in many ways what a small world this is, and how humans can succeed under terrible odds.

If I had a criticism, I would say she was not harsh enough in reporting the facts as she found them. Reading this is like watching a news clip of a truck rolling off a bridge. You can't help anything, but you can't stop looking.

[Kathleen (Kat) Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

In May 1945, Pavel Mandl, a Polish Jew recently liberated from a concentration camp, finds himself among similarly displaced persons gathered in the Allied occupation zones of a defeated Germany. Possessing little besides a map, a few tins of food, and a talent for black-market trading, he must scrape together a new life in a chaotic community of refugees, civilians, and soldiers. With fellow refugees Fela, a young widow, and Chaim, a resourceful teenager with impressive smuggling skills, Pavel establishes a makeshift family, as together they face an uncertain future. Eventually the trio immigrates to the United States, where they grapple with past traumas that arise again in the everyday moments of lives no longer dominated by the need to endure, fight, hide, or escape.

Ghita Schwarz’s Displaced Persons is an astonishing novel of grief, anger, and survival that examines the landscape of liberation and reveals the interior despairs and joys of immigrants shaped by war and trauma.

My Review:

I personally found this a difficult book to get through. The story at times repeats itself over and over and I found myself wondering if I was on the same page or was simply re-reading the passage over again. While the story content had me interested, it was simply the style of writing that did not appeal to me.

There is a situation where Pavel and Fischl, his traveling companion from the concentration camp come upon a home where a widow is staying. While sleeping, it's not clear at some point in the story that they are having a flash back or the story is just skipping by to their time in the camp. All of a sudden they simply wake up and Fischl leaves. Pavel heads out to a refugee camp where he meets a woman, Fela who herself is a young widow and a boy by the name of Chaim who is apparently taken for stealing.

Then next we read all three are headed back to the old widows home where he stayed previously and Chaim is with them. It doesn't state how he was released or how he managed to be traveling with them. Then they end up removing the old lady from her home, telling the local police that they own the home instead despite the kindness she showed him and Fischl earlier.

For me there is simply a huge disconnect in the telling of the story. My other readers however might find the story one they can work through, but for me it didn't work. I would rate this book a 1.5 out of 5 stars. I received this book compliments of TLC Book Tours for my honest review and would recommend readers who are interested to give it a try, they may just see something I didn't.

[Ellen Monrad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finished it but did not like. Was not what I expected or as reviewed.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing for such a great topic. I was thrilled after reading the cover, but stalled half way through the book...

[Carrie Marcotte · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. Luckily, this was a library book.

[A Million Pages · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are countless stories about what happened inside the concentration camps, but we never hear the stories after liberation. Ghita Schwarz gives insight into the life of displaced persons through several individuals who become intertwined in their attempts to move on after the war.

***Check out the rest of my review at https://amillionpages.com/

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. And, what a wasted opportunity! I was thrilled to get my hands on an advanced copy of this book that promised "small interactions" in the everyday lives of Holocaust survivors that "illuminated their struggle to adjust to American life". I was promised "indelible portraits of immigrants", shaped by the things they'd suffered and endured. How disappointed I was.

This was one of the most tepid tellings of immigrant struggles I've ever read. It wasn't that it was a horrible read, it's just that I finished asking myself why I bothered reading it. Better yet, why did the author write it? What was the point?

I was hoping for a story that explored how unimaginable horrors might shape the thinking, behavior, and future of the characters. In much the same way, perhaps, a well written story of surviving slavery might explore how that experience shaped the individuals or families involved for generations. It seemed that was where the author was headed in the beginning, but veered off course, or lost focus and was unable to pull together a story that even she could care a great deal about. If anything, that was the tragedy with this book -- the reader, in the end (and, let's face it, even as early as 75-pages in) doesn't care about the story. With such powerful subject matter, such a vital piece of history, with undeniable personal accounts on record, that's a shame.

I cannot recommend it. If, like Me, however, you can't possibly believe that it won't live up to your expectations..., go ahead and give it a shot. Afterward, I'd love to hear what you thought. I won't even say "I told you so".

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

What started out as a pretty decent book became a chore. The first third of the book was intriguing, taking place in Germany during the Allied liberation. It introduces Pavel and follows his struggles to reestablish his life after the war that destroyed his family and displaced thousands of Jews. Despite the writing being very stylized (dialogue without the use of quotation marks), this section of the book was engaging and I was interested in the characters that Pavel encountered. The last two-thirds of the book was much more tedious. Taking place in New York over the next four decades, it was overly introspective and by the end I felt like I was just witnessing people growing old. Focusing on mundane details about the characters daily lives, I was disappointed that there wasn’t more focus on poignant experiences like Pavel’s return to Poland. The summary mentions that the fall of the Iron Curtain was a monumental turning point, but it was mentioned in passing and really didn’t affect the overall plot. It explored the mentality of survivors, but I felt it lacked the culture of the race that pulled themselves out of the ashes.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via the Amazon Vine Program.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

To look back was to turn into a tall mound of nothing but grief, dry grief.

Maybe no one felt anything for anyone but the missing. Wouldn't that be a joke! Surviving in order to argue and hate.

Why as I laughing? I don't really know.
But really he did. He laughed, he thought, because it was funny.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of quiet importance. I fell in love from the first line and am in love still, the last line resonating in my head. This is a book about survivors of the Holocaust stumbling back into life in the world of DP camps in Eastern Europe. It is a world I knew so little about, and yet it is the world of my own family. We all need to know about this world, and yet, even now, it is so rarely talked about.

We learn about the DP camps and beyond through the characters of Fela, Pavel, Chaim, and Sima. They are all survivors in the true sense of the word, and we go through life with them as they learn to navigate in this new and difficult post-war world. The characters so tenderly and beautifully wrought that they slip easily into your heart and your head. They have stayed with me; I hear their voices, see their bodies, feel them beside me as they glide about my room. I do not want to let them go.

Displaced Persons is a gem of a book. I can't recommend it highly enough.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this novel doesn't put the reader directly in the shoes of the characters, which I don't think was the author's intention, you feel like you're standing next to them and seeing what they're going through. You witness their numbness, fear, hunger, the surreal feeling of being alive after what just happened, the rekindling of hope, the betrayals, the silence, the eventual public dialog about the Holocaust. I think Schwarz did an amazing job of creating a cohesive narrative that covers 65 years and the lives of multiple characters in just over 300 pages. It sort of exhausted and invigorated me at the same time. It is what some would call a haunting novel, or at least it was for me. After finishing Displaced Persons it took me a few days of flipping through other books before I could find one to commit to. The characters in Displaced Persons wouldn't let me go.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember learning about the Holocaust in American history classes when I was a high schooler and through fiction. The story always seemed to end with the liberation of the concentration camps. When I got older, I learned about the Nuremberg Trials. After that, I learned that—as is usual with history—the real story is a lot more complicated. Displaced Persons, by Ghita Schwarz, takes place in the messiness, sorrow, and hardship that followed the end of World War II in Europe. The title comes from the name given to people, mostly Jewish Holocaust survivors, who were now “stateless.” For a variety of reasons, they couldn’t go back to their homes. They had to somehow find the strength and wherewithal to make new lives...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, my expectations were different than the book. The story of finding a place in a world where you are not wanted is fascinating. Pavel et. al somehow find ways to make due. They live in a house, offer shelter to some, have babies, lose fortunes, start businesses, and get old.


The main problem I had with the book is the style of writing. I never really knew who was speaking and who the speaker was speaking to. Quotation marks are not used, at least in the first part of the book and I ended up getting frustrated and experiencing whiplash from trying to figure out what was going on.


I did not finish the book. I skimmed it and read the ending. I felt hollow and unfulfilled.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

a favorite quote of mine is "god does not send thunder if a still, small voice is enough". not all books need to be loud and daring, with thrilling ups and downs and dramatic cliffhangers. sometimes a quite thing touches our hearts deeper than anything that shouts from the rooftops. this touched my heart.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who think that WWII ended in 1945, this book shows how the life of survivors, of the Nazi camps and others, continued to suffer for years - sometimes for a lifetime. It also shows the resilience of the human spirit and how lives can be rebuilt and communities made regardless of what people have been through. It's a really good book with a lot of heart and good characters.

[Krystyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

The lack of quotation marks made it difficult to follow along and determine who was speaking. Also didn't seem to be much of a clear storyline going on...at least in the first 38 pages because then I just gave up on it.

[Elana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of Holocaust survivors once they are released from the camp and then when they immigrate to America. Somewhat haunting and very heartfelt.

[Dianeparente62gmail.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book; however if you are looking for drama or fast paced action, this is not the book for you. The author intended it so. In a note at the novel's end, she observed that this is a book about the interior lives of a small group of Holocaust survivors who meet in a post-war displaced persons camp, each bearing a unique burden of trauma and loss.

The novel follows them from 1945-2000, chronicling "their grief and anger, their ordinary joys and stupid arguments, their strained relations with their children."
Gradually, with the assistance of relatives and friends, all make their way to New York, some after a period in Israel. Strangers in a new land, they find employment, create families and deepen friendships, though remaining largely within the Jewish refugee community.

For me, the most interesting parts dealt with their postwar struggles in the displaced persons camp as they evolved from survival mode to adaptation mode. Also noteworthy were their struggles with raising their children in startlingly different conditions than they grew up in, an experience the author herself lived with her father, a concentration camp survivor, and her mother who spent her wartime childhood in flight to different countries.

This book was authentic to the core, lifting the curtain on the relatively unexplored lives of those who survived unimaginable situations and yet were able to start new lives in a strange land.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a rough read, but I believe it was a necessary evil-so many novels, fiction or non-fiction, focus on the suffering of Jewish peoples from all over Europe throughout the holocaust, and this is the first piece of media I've come into personal contact with that sheds light on what life was like for many of these people after the Holocaust. The title, 'Displaced Persons', rings absolutely true for what was suffered by a massively varied population. I would definitely recommend it to everyone, especially those with a passion for history and who wish to expand their social consciousness.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books follows the lives of several Holocaust suvivors after they are liberated from the concentration camps. It shows their struggle to survive after their liberation, their migration to New York City and then their new lives with jobs, children and friends who had become family.

[Rebecca Skoczylas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was a little choppy and hard to follow at times. But it gave me an appreciation of what my grandparents went through after the war.

[Jessica Lerbs · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too stream-of-consciousness for me, and so sad; maybe I'm just not in the right mood for it right now.

[MRS. D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this while looking for a graphic novel. A whole timeline of the life of survivors. Not just the horrors, not just the joys, but life. I will read this again.

[Rowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel follows the lives of people in the time following WWII, exploring what they had to navigate in another chapter of life.

[VP · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am always interested in those who survived the horrors of the Holocaust. An inspiration for a modern group of complainers.
Alas, the writing style was really terrible, and it ruined the experience.

[Michelle]

For many schoolchildren, Holocaust survivors were rescued by the Allies, and they lived happily ever after. This is the extent to which history books discuss the plight of the Jews and other political prisoners deemed unworthy to survive by the Nazi regime. Ghita Schwartz’ Displaced Persons disabuses this notion and showcases just what did happen to the hundreds of thousands of people from whom everything had been taken. It is by turns thrilling, thought-provoking, and always informative, as it shows a people continuing to struggle to survive.

The end of the war was not just devastating to the people of Germany. For those who survived the concentration camps, the end of the war still meant being detained in camps for those without family or home. In other words, nothing really changed. They continued to be at the mercy of soldiers, albeit British or American ones and without the fear of death. There was little money and little food. More importantly, they remained unwanted, not only by Germans and Polish, but also by Americans and the British, both of whom limited the number of refugees they would allow into their borders. Yet, in spite of this ongoing miserable treatment, people like Pavel and Chaim, Fela and Hinda begin to rise and to recover.

Displaced Persons begins to falter once all of the characters make their way to New York. It is at this point in time where their stories become less dramatic and enthralling. What was a fascinating study in sociology and human nature becomes something more mundane as they each struggle to find happiness and overcome the sense of not belonging anywhere. Their stories are told in little vignettes with jumps through time, sometimes spacing several years. There seems to be no continuity to these jumps other than to show how long-lasting the pain of the past really is and how it influences future generations. The details remain murky, as each advance in time comes with the sense of visiting someone you haven’t seen in years but have no time to spend catching up before diving into everyday life. There is an impression of unfamiliarity with each jump that is disconcerting to the reader and interrupting the flow of the narrative.

When you have seen and experienced the worst that one human can do towards another, how do you recover from that? The short answer, based on Pavel’s, Chaim’s, Fela’s, and the others’ experiences, is that you don’t. The long answer, as discovered in Displaced Persons, is that recovery means different things for different people. Some became criminals, some ignored the past, others harbored fear or anger or both, and yet others developed a profound need for family and security. While their stories are interesting, Displaced Persons shines brightest when it tells the stories in the displaced persons camps. These are the stories that show how fragile and yet how very strong these survivors truly were. The rest of the novel tends to drag, ruining the impact of what could have been an amazing novel.

Acknowledgements: Thank you to HarperCollins and the LibraryThing Early Reader program for my review copy!

[Lorri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Displaced persons is a compelling novel that intensely touches on the Holocaust survivor, their post war experiences...emotionally, physically and spiritually, and their assimilation into new environments.

Pavel Mandl is a Polish Jew, and once liberated, continually searches for family members, and manages to survive and eek out an existence while surviving by trading on the black market. During his quest to find surviving family members, he encounters two refugees, a woman named Fela and a young teenager named Chaim. Fela and Chaim, have managed to survive by forming a family unit of two. Once they meet Pavel, they consider him a member of their "family unit". Each one takes on the responsibility for the others, and provide for each other in the best way they can.

They eventually emigrate, Pavel and Fela to America, Chaim to Israel, and then America. They try to assimilate into their new country as quickly as possible, yet still retain some of their old cultural customs. They raise families of their own, but try to protect their children, try not to stand out in their environment, out of fear of repercussions.l

Within the story, the reader realizes that much of the history of the Holocaust is played out, often for monetary gain, by others who never experienced the traumas, family killings, family separations, atrocities and horrific events. Oral Holocaust history telling, becomes a fad, often for financial gain and celebratory success by those seeking to invade the privacy of others, under the guise of "we must never forget".

This dredges up the traumatic events, that were kept private and never spoken about at home, in order for the survivor to be able to move forward, emotionally. Confronting the past does not necessarily allow one to move forward. Each of the characters are different in that respect.

Displaced Persons is a novel of valuable proportions, giving the reader a look into the mindset of those who survived,. It depicts how they cope with the their lives after the Holocaust, each family member surviving the best they can from the atrocities wrought on them. Each family member carries the burdens of memory and loss, in differing aspects, including handing down the familial legacy of suffering and remembrance to a succeeding generation.

Displaced Persons is not a happy story, not a story filled with bright illuminations, but nonetheless a story that is definitely a must read for those who want to try to understand the affects of war on those who were liberated and survived the Holocaust. It is poignant, sad, and filled with many melancholy moments. Yet, these moments do illuminate the aspects of trauma on love, loss, memory, family, and assimilation. Decades after the fact, the burdens of horrors and loss are still apparent, even when not spoken about in-depth, by the characters (who are extremely believable).

I applaud Ghita Schwarz for this necessary and compelling story, and for the contribution she has made to the relating of the emotional plight of the Holocaust Survivor, and how it affects not only the Survivor, but also their family members.