Remember Who You Are: Stories about Being Jewish

by Esther Hautzig

This is a collection of 20 haunting true stories, each revealing the struggle for Jewish identity and the solace gained through faith. As a child, Esther Hautzig and her family were exiled to Siberia for being capitalists, thus inadvertently escaping the Nazis. After World War II, Hautzig began collecting the true stories of those who lived and died during the horror of the Holocaust: of Jews in Vilna, in the United States, and in Israel.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Esther Rudomin was born in Wilno, Poland (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania). Her childhood was interrupted by the beginning of WWII and the conquest in 1941 of eastern Poland by Soviet troops.

Her family was uprooted and deported to Rubtsovsk, Siberia, where Esther spent the next five years in harsh exile. Her award winning novel The Endless Steppe is an autobiographical account of those years in Siberia.

After the war, she and her family moved back to Poland when she was 15. Hautzig reportedly wrote The Endless Steppe at the prompting of presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, to whom she had written after reading his articles about his visit to Rubtsovsk.

Hautzig helped to discover and eventually publish the master's thesis in mathematics written by her uncle, Ela-Chaim Cunzer, at the University of Wilno in 1937.

Rudomin met Walter Hautzig, a concert pianist, while en route to America on a student visa in 1947. They married in 1950, and had two children, Deborah, a children's author, and David. She died on November 1, 2009, aged 79.

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this book through inter-library loan because I wanted to know more about Esther Hautzig's life after returning from Siberia as described in her book The Endless Steppe. I originally bought The Endless Steppe because after reading Night by Ellie Wiesel, I wondered how people returned home and recovered from the horror of the war and genocide. I was searching for books on that subject and stumbled across The Endless Steppe and read it. It didn't really help me understand much about surviving after the war, but the book fascinated me so I ordered more books by Esther Hautzig. This book, Remember Who You Are, ultimately helped answer some of original questions that I had after read Night.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read The Endless Steppe & found yourself wondering what happened afterward, or what happened to the rest of the author's family during the Holocaust, this book will give you the answers, as much as they are available.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and easy read. This book is a lot of short stories about people who survived World War II. It’s about how different people experienced different things during that time.

[whatjillsreading · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one I borrowed from my mother, who read it years ago and used to write letters back and forth with the author. This collection of stories from people in Hautzig’s life are tales of hope and survival during the holocaust and beyond are inspiring and heartwarming.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Remember Who You Are: Stories about Being Jewish (Paperback)
by Esther Hautzig

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a girl, I loved Hautzig's book The Endless Steppe. This memoir goes beyond the children's tale.