Amidst the Shadows of Trees: A Holocaust Child’s Survival in the Partisans

by Miriam M. Brysk

As if to rescue the integrity of the history of the Holocaust, a wave of survivor memoirs, many literate and engaging, have appeared over the last ten years. They announce that the logical and important places to begin to examine that history are eye witnesses. Miriam Brysk’s chronicle is among the more exceptional of these works. It reflects her own highly accomplished, intelligent, detailed and thoughtful. At age seven, Miriam, her mother Bronka and father, Chaim Miasnik, a renowned surgeon, escaped the Lida ghetto and joined Jewish partisans in the Lipiczany Forest. Before the end of the war, Miriam estimates that her father had saved hundreds of lives and helped build and supervise a partisan hospital in the swamps of the forest. Constantly hunted by German soldiers, she experienced childhood terror that has remained with her. She lost her innocence, her childhood, her youth as she clung to her mother and her prized possession, a pistol. Her head was shaved so she would look like a boy. Her memory of the details of that time—both in the Lida ghetto and in the forest—remains remarkably sharp and distinguishes this memoir from many others. — Sidney Bolkosky, William E. Stirton Professor in the Social Sciences, Professor of History, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Genres: Holocaust, World War II, Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Biography

158 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

I was born in Warsaw. Poland in 1935. After German occupation in 1939, my family escaped to Lida in Belarus. The Nazis attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, and in December, they established the Lida ghetto. In the ghetto massacre of May 8, 1942, most of the Jews were shot; my family was initially selected to die but we were later spared because the Germans needed my father’s surgical skills. In the summer of 1942, I was given away to a Christian woman in response to a rumor that all Jewish children would be killed; I returned to the ghetto when the rumor proved false. In November 1942, Russian partisans rescued us from the ghetto and brought us to the Lipiczany forest. In early 1943, a partisan hospital was established in a remote part of the forest, with my father as chief of staff. My hair was shaved and I wore boy’s clothing to protect me from rape. On my eighth birthday I was given a pistol of my own. We were liberated in the summer of 1944 and my father was awarded the Order of Lenin for his medical contributions. Later that year we escaped to central Poland. Traveling as refugees, we traversed most of central Europe to flee the invading Soviets. Soldiers in the Jewish Brigade (Brichah) brought us to Italy, where we stayed for two years. I immigrated to America in February 1947, as I turned 12. I came with no previous formal education and I had a lot of catching up to do. Nevertheless, I finished high school at 17, and college at NYU at 20. I married Henry Brysk, a physicist and Holocaust survivor from France; we have two daughter (Judy and Havi, and 5 grandchildren). After obtaining my Ph.D. in biological sciences from Columbia University, I went on to become a scientist and professor in three departments (dermatology, biochemistry and microbiology) at the University of Texas Medical Branch (publishing some 85 scientific research manuscripts).

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another in my series of "reading local authors." Miriam Brysk was a young child when she hid with her family in the Lipiczany forest with the Partisans. She doesn't write in a great deal of detail but the horror and fear is still very evident. She also describes the post war period and the continuing anti-Semitism throughout Europe and in the US. It was gratifying to read of her success and her ability to thrive as an adult. I appreciated that she was upfront about her need for therapy and her ongoing fears and insecurities. Miriam Brysk is a remarkable woman.

[Arielle Sokol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although every Holocaust memoir is special in its own way, Amidst the Shadows of Trees was one of the best Holocaust memoirs I have ever read.  The honesty, the willingness to express and share even the most painful memories, is apparent from the start.  In my experience, many accounts are sanitized so as to make the reader view the protagonist in a single and often flattering light.  Although this might make generalizations easy - one book describes a hero, another a victim, yet another a lucky survivor - it also fictionalizes the narrative, as no man is forever the embodiment of any of these roles, particularly when faced with the impossible situations with which he is confronted.   In this text, Miriam Brysk does not modify her recollections to garner sympathy or admiration, but instead gives the truth as she remembers it.   By bearing her soul, Brysk provides readers an emotional link and personal connection to the events of the Shoah, a link that becomes more vital each day as the number of survivors dwindles.  Many survivors have kept their stories to themselves or only shared them with their children or grandchildren, but with time these stories will fade.   Without books such as this, in 50 years “the Holocaust” might merely become another chapter in a history book, as distant a memory to a new generation as the Civil War or Ancient Rome.  With her testimony, Brysk ensures that the victims of the Nazi regime will always have a voice and that the world will never forget.

[Jocelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Brysk writes a straightforward, accessible memoir of a childhood spent in the Jewish ghetto at Lida (Belorussia) and in the Lipiczany Forest, where she and her parents lived with a group of Russian partisan fighters. She attributes her survival to her father's surgical skill, in high demand for patching up wounded warriors. Luck also played an important part, as she had several close brushes with death. And survival was only the first challenge. After liberation, she and her parents were homeless, stateless Jews with very few relatives left alive.

I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Brysk, hearing her talk, and viewing an exhibit of her art. I wrote her this limerick:

She displayed her artistic creation;
Then she spoke and told us with elation:
"I have followed my dreams
"To seek out what life means" --
And we think she has found her vocation!

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I read this fairly short book, I found myself thinking back on Clara's War, also about a child hiding during the Holocaust, and realizing that that work was just richer in description and seemed to better convey than does Amidst the Shadows of Trees the unrelenting horror, discomfort, and suspense of hiding from hunters and executioners during the Holocaust. Perhaps that is because the work is shorter, with a bit less detail, or perhaps because the author was younger during the events she describes and harder for me to identify with than Clara.
It seems a remarkable and an important story to be told, and I am certainly glad I read it.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story--I'd never read a similar one. The author was a Jewish Eastern European child when she survived the war---mostly in the forests of Poland, with the partisan units. Amazing story, for a female child! She also recounts her travels as a refugee through Europe, her life in America with her often difficult family, her career and how she dealt with all the trauma she lived through. Quite an inspiring and unusual story from the Holocaust.

[Pam Venne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will never greet another holocaust or other survivor the same after reading this book. The sheer amount of energy and creativity it took to survive is beyond my imagination.

Miriam Brysk is a scientist and therefore the book is written from a scientific point of view. It is not without emotion, it is just not clouded with undue information. Her ability to survive, as the only child, with no or minimal friends that she continually had to leave behind without saying goodbye had to take its toll.

Having a father who was a surgeon and therefore needed and recognized across all borders was a saving grace. However, he came with a dark side that he often took out on her. If the war was not enough, having a father who continually demeaned you could have crushed her soul. It didn't. Once she was married and had children she found her stride until she was put down again. And once again, this Phoenix rose to lead other women, establish her own lab, and find her creativity.

She not only survived she thrived and soared! What a great read for all women who think life is impossible.

[Arnetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound.. she shares her experiences of living in the forest with the partisans; all the many places they moved to in the years following their liberation by the Russian army. Her childhood was many times what most adults have ever gone through. She's a survivor!!

[Donna G · Rating 3 out of 5]

True story from a child's point of view about surviving the holocaust in the Partisans.

[Sarah Logan-Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read that shows a unique perspective

[Sandy Korom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting memoir of escaping extermination by living in the woods with the partisans.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book from the author directly in paperback form several years ago. She is the mother of my therapist/psychologist/mentor friend. It is a wonderful book telling of her and her family's experiences in the Holocaust.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miriam Brysk tells her own Holocaust story from her childhood memories. With only her mother and father, she is separated from her beloved Aunt Ala and from other members of her extended family in Poland. She survives in the ghetto and later in the forest with the partisans. She recounts the family's convoluted trek to America.

These are her recollections from her childhood. In essence, her entire childhood was spent moving from one spot to another, trying to remain alive, and learning to be a well-behaved, obedient child. Any slight disobedience or outcry on her part could have meant death or abandonment. She has survived hunger, exhaustion, illness, and fear that no child should ever have to endure.

And from this horrific experience emerges a wife, mother, scientist, artist; a woman who triumphed over the Nazis by surviving and by living amazingly well. Even though Miriam writes this book as a grown woman, with each sentence, I felt and heard the innocent, frightened child she used to be.

[Sal Glynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miriam's life among the Partisans as they fought back against the Nazis tells one of the missing stories of World War II. A young girl escapes with her parents from the Lida Ghetto to the Lipiczany Forest, where she dresses and wears a pistol like a boy. But the end of the war doesn't not mean the end of anti-Semitism; it follows her family across Europe to America. This book is a reminder that history will repeat itself when it is not remembered.

[Becki Basley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting true story about a courageous little girl and her family's escape escape from the nazis and later the Russians on the surface with a deeper story of seeking parental acceptance and finding her way back to herself. Extremely well written and the first book I have come across so far that goes into the Partisans activity, courage, and tenacity during this dark time in world history

[carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extraordinarily interesting in content of information.

I have always been interested in reading about holocaust survivors. This is one of many books that I have read, and I learn something new each time. The author was very descriptive regarding her personal feelings as a child. I enjoyed the book very much.

[Agnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some still say the Holocaust never happened. Soon we won't have any survivors, even those who were among the youngest ones. Miriam tells a powerful story of what her life was under these horrific conditions.

[Miriam E. Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great triumph.

Miriam's description of life is not one I can imagine. However her book is so robust from beginning to end, a as a reader, her words humble me yet encourage me to always remember to fight a good fight. Thank you for sharing your life's story with us.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fascinating Holocaust survivor's story

[Jeanette Sautner]

It is impossible to rate this book as it is a first person account of a Jewish child living among the partisans in what is now Belarus. Her life was in turns heartbreaking (no Jewish children to play with) and inspirational. Her successes are her own and she has given back so much.