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Mamaleh: A Legacy of Loss and Love
In A Legacy of Loss and Love, Elaine Culbertson has created a new kind of Holocaust survivor story. It is a memoir that combines both her mother, Dora Freilich's, personal recollections of her life as a survivor as well as her own reflections on growing up in a family that had experienced the trauma of the Holocaust. Dora's survival of two full years in Auschwitz was indeed a miracle, but her beautifully expressed memories of that time as well as the life that she and her husband built in America are miracles as well.
In this sometimes startling, sometimes funny, but always poignant memoir, the reader will be immersed in a family that experienced the challenges of survival, immigration, and assimilation as told in the words of a mother and daughter who came from two different worlds but who forged a relationship based on love and respect.
In this sometimes startling, sometimes funny, but always poignant memoir, the reader will be immersed in a family that experienced the challenges of survival, immigration, and assimilation as told in the words of a mother and daughter who came from two different worlds but who forged a relationship based on love and respect.
360 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 26, 2025
6 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 15, 2025
Much has been written about the history of the Holocaust, yet there are still stories out there that are left to be told. Elaine Culbertson has reduced that number by one as she shares a blended memoir of her mother's life experiences from pre-war Pruzhany, the upheaval of the Holocaust and a post-war life where the past is never far behind combined with the impact of this life on Elaine's own upbringing. A resonant tale for anyone who has ever struggled with family relationships yet one that also brings forth the unique factors of life as the child of Holocaust survivors. It is a book that leaves you wanting to learn and read more....
October 31, 2025
I’ve just finished and my heart is raw. This is one of the most honest pieces of writing I’ve ever read. Elaine Culbertson does not shy away from the hard truths of her experiences or emotions. She explores the legacy of the Holocaust in a way that is different from other books about this history. The writing is beautiful, evocative, compelling and genuine. This story deserves to be heard by all. Elaine, thank you for writing this book. You have changed my life again.
October 12, 2025
Such an amazing Holocaust memoir that is a great addition to the annals of Holocaust literature! I could not put the book down and devoured it in one sitting. If you are interested in learning how the past can affect the present, you need to read this eloquently written memoir. The words of both mother and daughter will stay with you long after you close the book.
October 11, 2025
Loved every word of your story.
November 17, 2025
Elaine Culbertson has written an outstanding memoir of her parents, especially her mother's, life during and after the Holocaust. She tells the story from her point of view as a young child growing up with Holocaust survivors as parents. She picked up many stories of life before and during the Holocaust as she sat beneath the table listening to her elders talking after dinner. She may not have totally understood what she was hearing; but she knew even then that it was important. Later, she was allowed to sit at the table and listen openly. In this manner, her mother's family came alive once more and she knew what her mother had suffered during the Holocaust. When she decided to write the book, she relied on the writings her mother did over the years. Memories written on scraps of paper written in Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish, or English. Using her mother's words makes the book more poignant and real.
I had known Elaine several years before I joined her on the Teacher's workshop to Poland and Israel that she speaks of in the book. I had heard parts of her mother's and father's stories as we visited Auschwitz- Birkenau, Majdanek, and Plaszow concentration camps. As I read these stories again in this book, they made much more of an impact on me. I was transported back to the camps and ;the emotions I felt then came back. I saw the barracks and the gas chambers once more. Felt the horror of seeing the shoes and bales of hair in the exhibits. the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness I had felt as I walked to and from the sauna between rows of barbed wire separating
the sections of the camp, came back as I envisioned her mother walking in the same footsteps I had walked in.
Elaine writes a difficult book reliving her own past with her parents and their pasts. She brings alive the difficult feelings second generation survivors must have as they deal with emotions and memories of Holocaust survivors as they deal with a totally different world while trying to raise their children when they are trying to adjust to a totally different world.
When reading this book, I had to stop several times at the beginning and process what I read and my own emotions. Later, I became so engrossed in the book that I was unable to put it down. It is a must-read book.
I had known Elaine several years before I joined her on the Teacher's workshop to Poland and Israel that she speaks of in the book. I had heard parts of her mother's and father's stories as we visited Auschwitz- Birkenau, Majdanek, and Plaszow concentration camps. As I read these stories again in this book, they made much more of an impact on me. I was transported back to the camps and ;the emotions I felt then came back. I saw the barracks and the gas chambers once more. Felt the horror of seeing the shoes and bales of hair in the exhibits. the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness I had felt as I walked to and from the sauna between rows of barbed wire separating
the sections of the camp, came back as I envisioned her mother walking in the same footsteps I had walked in.
Elaine writes a difficult book reliving her own past with her parents and their pasts. She brings alive the difficult feelings second generation survivors must have as they deal with emotions and memories of Holocaust survivors as they deal with a totally different world while trying to raise their children when they are trying to adjust to a totally different world.
When reading this book, I had to stop several times at the beginning and process what I read and my own emotions. Later, I became so engrossed in the book that I was unable to put it down. It is a must-read book.
December 30, 2025
A beautiful and deeply personal memoir told from the point of view of a second-generation Holocaust survivor, with her mother's writing woven throughout the book. Culbertson is a compelling, sensitive, and moving writer, sharing hard-won insights and difficult truths. Mamaleh is filled with haunting first-hand accounts from her mother alongside insights that can only come from the unique perspective of the child of a survivor.
This book adds a needed layer of depth and breadth to Holocaust stories, shining a light on how the burden of memory is placed on the shoulders of the second generation, but also acknowledging that so many survivors kept quiet and shied away from sharing too much. I was captivated reading about how her mother slowly and quietly shared pieces of her story.
That 'burden' of memory is one lovingly welcomed by Culbertson. Her struggle to get her parents to understand that their history also belongs to her - that their experience is an essential piece of her identity - is painful and beautiful. The author also sees her mother as a whole person, rather than just as her mother. The ability to take that step back, especially in such a deeply personal piece, is exceptional and stems from a place of love and a desire to understand how everything her mother endured shaped her as a woman, spouse, parent, and friend. (The author also makes a connection between her mother's aborted childhood and her intense investment in their children's and grandchildren's dating lives that is so spot on.)
This was a title I needed to work through slowly, to digest and process, because it hit so close to home. I'm so grateful that this story has been added to the annals of Holocaust stories.
This book adds a needed layer of depth and breadth to Holocaust stories, shining a light on how the burden of memory is placed on the shoulders of the second generation, but also acknowledging that so many survivors kept quiet and shied away from sharing too much. I was captivated reading about how her mother slowly and quietly shared pieces of her story.
That 'burden' of memory is one lovingly welcomed by Culbertson. Her struggle to get her parents to understand that their history also belongs to her - that their experience is an essential piece of her identity - is painful and beautiful. The author also sees her mother as a whole person, rather than just as her mother. The ability to take that step back, especially in such a deeply personal piece, is exceptional and stems from a place of love and a desire to understand how everything her mother endured shaped her as a woman, spouse, parent, and friend. (The author also makes a connection between her mother's aborted childhood and her intense investment in their children's and grandchildren's dating lives that is so spot on.)
This was a title I needed to work through slowly, to digest and process, because it hit so close to home. I'm so grateful that this story has been added to the annals of Holocaust stories.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews