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The Letters Project: A Daughter's Journey
The Letters Project is about big history, the Holocaust, but it is also an extraordinarily intimate personal narrative—a rare blend of informative, poignant, excruciating, startling, humorous, and ultimately inspiring storytelling.
In 1986, when her mother died at the age of sixty-four, Eleanor Reissa went through all of her belongings. In the back of her mother’s lingerie drawer, she found an old leather purse. Inside that purse was a large wad of folded papers. They were letters. Fifty-six of them. In German. Written in 1949. Letters from her father to her mother, when they were courting. Just four years earlier, he had fought to stay alive in Auschwitz and on the Death March while she had spent the war years suffering in Uzbekistan. Thirty years later, Eleanor—a theatre artist who has been on the forefront of keeping Yiddish alive—finally had the letters translated. The particulars of those letters send her off on an unimaginable adventure into the past, forever changing her and anyone who reads this book.
“‘The Holocaust,’ Eleanor Reissa writes in this unforgettable and courageous book, ‘is attached to me like my skin and I would be formless without it.’ A very personal story that is also a fundamental one of a woman trying to make sense of her life and family and of the shadows that go back before she was born. There is plenty of feeling and sentiment but it never feels sentimental. Her inimitable wit leavens the sadder scenes. This journey of discovery is riveting, told with tender insight, at times heartbreaking and at times heartwarming just like the Yiddish songs that have delighted Ms. Reissa’s audiences.” —Joseph Berger is a New York Times reporter and author of Displaced Growing Up American After the Holocaust
“Among the great number of personal takes on the Holocaust, Eleanor Reissa’s book really stands out, both for its intelligence and courage and for the unique way she braids the inter-generational stories together. In this brutal, poignant, and searingly honest book, Reissa simultaneously pieces together the unfathomable story of her Holocaust survivor father, reckons with the guilt she came to feel as his uncomprehending American daughter, and manages somehow to find insight and purpose in the ashes. This extraordinary account of two parallel journeys will stick with anyone privileged enough to read it.” —David Margolick, a former reporter for The New York Times , author of several books, including, most recently, The Promise and the The Untold Story of Martin Luther King, Jr. And Robert F. Kennedy
“ The Letters Project is a wonderful book—funny, heartbreaking, and ultimately transcendent. Eleanor Reissa’s journey back into her family’s past makes for a gripping—and very human—international mystery. I highly recommend it.” —Tony Phelan, TV Showrunner Grey’s Anatomy, Doubt , and Council of Dads
“Eleanor Reissa has written a gritty, fearless yet funny memoir about herself, her family, and the Holocaust. Once I began reading it, I was completely swept away until the journey ended. I was moved by the power of this uniquely personal yet universal story.” —Julian Schlossberg is an American motion pictures, theatre, and television producer
In 1986, when her mother died at the age of sixty-four, Eleanor Reissa went through all of her belongings. In the back of her mother’s lingerie drawer, she found an old leather purse. Inside that purse was a large wad of folded papers. They were letters. Fifty-six of them. In German. Written in 1949. Letters from her father to her mother, when they were courting. Just four years earlier, he had fought to stay alive in Auschwitz and on the Death March while she had spent the war years suffering in Uzbekistan. Thirty years later, Eleanor—a theatre artist who has been on the forefront of keeping Yiddish alive—finally had the letters translated. The particulars of those letters send her off on an unimaginable adventure into the past, forever changing her and anyone who reads this book.
“‘The Holocaust,’ Eleanor Reissa writes in this unforgettable and courageous book, ‘is attached to me like my skin and I would be formless without it.’ A very personal story that is also a fundamental one of a woman trying to make sense of her life and family and of the shadows that go back before she was born. There is plenty of feeling and sentiment but it never feels sentimental. Her inimitable wit leavens the sadder scenes. This journey of discovery is riveting, told with tender insight, at times heartbreaking and at times heartwarming just like the Yiddish songs that have delighted Ms. Reissa’s audiences.” —Joseph Berger is a New York Times reporter and author of Displaced Growing Up American After the Holocaust
“Among the great number of personal takes on the Holocaust, Eleanor Reissa’s book really stands out, both for its intelligence and courage and for the unique way she braids the inter-generational stories together. In this brutal, poignant, and searingly honest book, Reissa simultaneously pieces together the unfathomable story of her Holocaust survivor father, reckons with the guilt she came to feel as his uncomprehending American daughter, and manages somehow to find insight and purpose in the ashes. This extraordinary account of two parallel journeys will stick with anyone privileged enough to read it.” —David Margolick, a former reporter for The New York Times , author of several books, including, most recently, The Promise and the The Untold Story of Martin Luther King, Jr. And Robert F. Kennedy
“ The Letters Project is a wonderful book—funny, heartbreaking, and ultimately transcendent. Eleanor Reissa’s journey back into her family’s past makes for a gripping—and very human—international mystery. I highly recommend it.” —Tony Phelan, TV Showrunner Grey’s Anatomy, Doubt , and Council of Dads
“Eleanor Reissa has written a gritty, fearless yet funny memoir about herself, her family, and the Holocaust. Once I began reading it, I was completely swept away until the journey ended. I was moved by the power of this uniquely personal yet universal story.” —Julian Schlossberg is an American motion pictures, theatre, and television producer
272 pages, Hardcover
Published January 18, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 22, 2022
After her mother’s death Eleanor Reissa found, among her mother’s possessions, 56 letters written by her father to her mother during 1949-1950 while he was waiting for papers to join her mother in America. Even though her parents were divorced her mother had kept the letters.
Perhaps because her parents didn’t talk about their past Eleanor didn’t feel the need to delve into it either – so it is 30 years before she decides to have the letters translated. They were written in German.
What follows for Eleanor is a journey into the past that she never envisioned necessary or possible. Travelling to places mentioned in her father’s letters it is staggering when she is able to locate actual documents relating to and in many cases written by her father.
It is heart breaking – as all Holocaust stories are – but Eleanor has an engaging way of bringing it off with a bit of self-effacing humour.
This is a different kind of Holocaust story because it is being told by the child of a Holocaust victim who travelled much of the journey her father travelled some 60+ years ago and found way more than she was looking for.
“Einstein was right. You could walk upstream and find the past.” (Pg.81)
Unfortunately I am in no position to ‘review’ this book with the proper accolades it so rightly deserves.
I can only say that it is a book of a history that must be re-told over and over.
Eleanor Reissa had done her father proud!
Perhaps because her parents didn’t talk about their past Eleanor didn’t feel the need to delve into it either – so it is 30 years before she decides to have the letters translated. They were written in German.
What follows for Eleanor is a journey into the past that she never envisioned necessary or possible. Travelling to places mentioned in her father’s letters it is staggering when she is able to locate actual documents relating to and in many cases written by her father.
It is heart breaking – as all Holocaust stories are – but Eleanor has an engaging way of bringing it off with a bit of self-effacing humour.
This is a different kind of Holocaust story because it is being told by the child of a Holocaust victim who travelled much of the journey her father travelled some 60+ years ago and found way more than she was looking for.
“Einstein was right. You could walk upstream and find the past.” (Pg.81)
Unfortunately I am in no position to ‘review’ this book with the proper accolades it so rightly deserves.
I can only say that it is a book of a history that must be re-told over and over.
Eleanor Reissa had done her father proud!
August 10, 2022
I finished reading Eleanor Reissa’s book, The Letters Project: A Daughter’s Journey, several days ago. I am rarely at a loss for words, but after finishing the book, I had to take time to process what I had read.
I too, am the daughter of Holocaust survivors and started learning about the Holocaust as soon as I realized that other children had grandparents and I did not. I was lucky in that I had a very close relationship with both my parents, and they were not reticent about their experiences during the war, telling me more and more about it as I grew older. I write about their experiences and about the Holocaust, but always at a safe remove. I don’t have the ability to do what Eleanor did.
When you are the child of, as Eleanor puts it, Holocaust fighters, you understand, even though it’s never spoken aloud, that you are the living representative of every family member that was murdered. You feel your parents’ anger and anguish but can’t really express it because it happened to people you never met during a time when you didn’t exist. You feel you are living in two worlds; pre-1939 Europe and whatever the actual chronological date is. During celebrations you wait for the moment when the adults start talking about in der heim (back at home), and the smiles and laughter turn to tears.
Eleanor has managed to capture those conflicting and conflicted feelings and put them on paper; the desire to just forget the whole thing and live a normal life and the desire to reach back in time and destroy the monsters who destroyed your parents’ lives in their cradles, even if that means that you will never get the chance to live your own life. Her writing is eloquent, snarky, heart-wrenching, and funny. Each sentence brings a new surprise and evokes a familiar feeling.
I cannot imagine how she found the strength to go to Germany and track down the documentation that describes her father’s brutalization. I cannot imagine how she did not run down those German streets screaming after she learned the truth of it. Her self-inflicted guilt is visible on every page, although the guilt is not hers. Even John, the older non-Jewish man she was involved with when she went to Germany, seems to be a form of self-punishment, although perhaps he can’t be entirely blamed; it is difficult to be involved with the child of Holocaust survivors/fighters. If you have not lived the experience, you can’t understand it.
Eleanor’s story, or what is in fact her father’s story, would in lesser hands, not have had the impact the Letters Project. I am grateful to Eleanor for writing this book and I recommend it whole-heartedly to anyone, but it should be required reading for those of us who lived her story.
I too, am the daughter of Holocaust survivors and started learning about the Holocaust as soon as I realized that other children had grandparents and I did not. I was lucky in that I had a very close relationship with both my parents, and they were not reticent about their experiences during the war, telling me more and more about it as I grew older. I write about their experiences and about the Holocaust, but always at a safe remove. I don’t have the ability to do what Eleanor did.
When you are the child of, as Eleanor puts it, Holocaust fighters, you understand, even though it’s never spoken aloud, that you are the living representative of every family member that was murdered. You feel your parents’ anger and anguish but can’t really express it because it happened to people you never met during a time when you didn’t exist. You feel you are living in two worlds; pre-1939 Europe and whatever the actual chronological date is. During celebrations you wait for the moment when the adults start talking about in der heim (back at home), and the smiles and laughter turn to tears.
Eleanor has managed to capture those conflicting and conflicted feelings and put them on paper; the desire to just forget the whole thing and live a normal life and the desire to reach back in time and destroy the monsters who destroyed your parents’ lives in their cradles, even if that means that you will never get the chance to live your own life. Her writing is eloquent, snarky, heart-wrenching, and funny. Each sentence brings a new surprise and evokes a familiar feeling.
I cannot imagine how she found the strength to go to Germany and track down the documentation that describes her father’s brutalization. I cannot imagine how she did not run down those German streets screaming after she learned the truth of it. Her self-inflicted guilt is visible on every page, although the guilt is not hers. Even John, the older non-Jewish man she was involved with when she went to Germany, seems to be a form of self-punishment, although perhaps he can’t be entirely blamed; it is difficult to be involved with the child of Holocaust survivors/fighters. If you have not lived the experience, you can’t understand it.
Eleanor’s story, or what is in fact her father’s story, would in lesser hands, not have had the impact the Letters Project. I am grateful to Eleanor for writing this book and I recommend it whole-heartedly to anyone, but it should be required reading for those of us who lived her story.
January 26, 2022
Eleanor Reissa, whom I've known as a singer and enjoyed in concert, has now written a phenomenal book. When I saw the title of this book, I was immediately drawn to it as someone of roughly the same age and someone who has also discovered letters when cleaning out my deceased mother's apartment.
Reissa sets us up for the impossibility of her journey with a chicken bones story that shows her personality and her imagination. That she decides to follow the path that the letters are beckoning her towards is another aspect of her personality which seems more and more endearing. She shares all the emotions very honestly with her readers and we learn all about her unusual family situation. It seems hardly possible that she could grow up not knowing very much of her parents' history, but her parents were of the generation that thought it "wasn't nice" to tell children sad stories. With both of her parents gone, it's up to Reissa to find out her family history with the help of the letters she finds and a few older relatives.
Reissa's writing style is wonderful. After all, she is an entertainer and she understands flow both verbally and in the written word. I had to stay up late at night to finish this book because I couldn't put it down, though I sometimes had to pause and take a deep breath. What a book!!
Reissa sets us up for the impossibility of her journey with a chicken bones story that shows her personality and her imagination. That she decides to follow the path that the letters are beckoning her towards is another aspect of her personality which seems more and more endearing. She shares all the emotions very honestly with her readers and we learn all about her unusual family situation. It seems hardly possible that she could grow up not knowing very much of her parents' history, but her parents were of the generation that thought it "wasn't nice" to tell children sad stories. With both of her parents gone, it's up to Reissa to find out her family history with the help of the letters she finds and a few older relatives.
Reissa's writing style is wonderful. After all, she is an entertainer and she understands flow both verbally and in the written word. I had to stay up late at night to finish this book because I couldn't put it down, though I sometimes had to pause and take a deep breath. What a book!!
April 30, 2022
Eleanor Reissa, the author of this engrossing book is a well-known Yiddish singer and actress on the Yiddish stage. She has also appeared in several Broadway productions and was nominated for A Tony Award as a director. I’ve known her for, I guess about 55 years since she and my sister were good friends growing up in Brooklyn. Eleanor’s parents were Holocaust survivors and after the war they emigrated to Brooklyn. After their deaths, Eleanor discovered a cache of 56 letters, mostly written by her father, in her mother’s drawer. She eventually decided to research the letters and discover her family’s history and learn more about their struggles in Nazi Germany as well as their difficult lives in America. This fascinating book is quite informative about not only conditions for Jews during the Holocaust but about Eleanor’s feelings growing up and the things that she learned about her family. I recommend it highly.
January 20, 2022
It is hard to find words to praise Eleanor Reissa enough for her courage to expose and share an intensely personal story that so captures the cruelty endured by those who fought to live through the Holocaust. What Eleanor's father and mother hid from her, to protect her, perhaps, arrives in her life, on papers preserved as a personal act, and in testimony catalogued with continued German efficiency.
This story MUST be read. I cry as a Jew for what we fought, I cry as Eleanor's friend for the pain she expresses. Whether you know her or not, you will feel it.
This story MUST be read. I cry as a Jew for what we fought, I cry as Eleanor's friend for the pain she expresses. Whether you know her or not, you will feel it.
May 4, 2022
The Letters Project
A Daughter's Journey
by Eleanor Reissa
Pub Date 18 Jan 2022
Post Hill Press
Biographies & Memoirs | History | Nonfiction (Adult)
I am reviewing a copy of The Letters Project through Post Hills Press and Netgalley:
In 1986 Eleanor Reissa’s Mother died, she was sixty four years old and Eleanor went through her Mothers belongings In the back of her mother’s lingerie drawer, she found an old leather purse. Inside that purse was a large wad of folded papers. They were letters. Fifty-six of them. In German. Written in 1949. Letters from her father to her mother, when they were courting. Just four years earlier, he had fought to stay alive in Auschwitz and on the Death March while she had spent the war years suffering in Uzbekistan.
By 1979 Eleanor a theatre artist who has been on the forefront of keeping Yiddish alive—finally had the letters translated. The particulars of those letters send her off on an unimaginable adventure into the past, forever changing her and anyone who reads this book.
If you’re looking for a courageously, gritty book, written by the daughter of Holocaust survivor, then I’d highly recommend The Letters Project.
I give The Letters Project five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
A Daughter's Journey
by Eleanor Reissa
Pub Date 18 Jan 2022
Post Hill Press
Biographies & Memoirs | History | Nonfiction (Adult)
I am reviewing a copy of The Letters Project through Post Hills Press and Netgalley:
In 1986 Eleanor Reissa’s Mother died, she was sixty four years old and Eleanor went through her Mothers belongings In the back of her mother’s lingerie drawer, she found an old leather purse. Inside that purse was a large wad of folded papers. They were letters. Fifty-six of them. In German. Written in 1949. Letters from her father to her mother, when they were courting. Just four years earlier, he had fought to stay alive in Auschwitz and on the Death March while she had spent the war years suffering in Uzbekistan.
By 1979 Eleanor a theatre artist who has been on the forefront of keeping Yiddish alive—finally had the letters translated. The particulars of those letters send her off on an unimaginable adventure into the past, forever changing her and anyone who reads this book.
If you’re looking for a courageously, gritty book, written by the daughter of Holocaust survivor, then I’d highly recommend The Letters Project.
I give The Letters Project five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
February 8, 2022
Thank you to the author, Post Hill Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
As with so many children of Holocaust survivors, these horrific and life-defining events were never mentioned to their children, or discussed in the home. After both her parents die, the author follows a breadcrumb trail issuing from letters she finds among her mother's belongings. These lead her to Germany, and through chance encounters, for example with friends of friends, she uncovers much more than she expected. The information she is able to gather expands her picture and understanding of who her parents were, and what their history included, and she shares the emotional turbulence this causes with her readers. The way she brings together the stories of different generations is very moving and personal, and the story doesn't let you go once you start. Not a fun or comfortable read, but a very good one.
As with so many children of Holocaust survivors, these horrific and life-defining events were never mentioned to their children, or discussed in the home. After both her parents die, the author follows a breadcrumb trail issuing from letters she finds among her mother's belongings. These lead her to Germany, and through chance encounters, for example with friends of friends, she uncovers much more than she expected. The information she is able to gather expands her picture and understanding of who her parents were, and what their history included, and she shares the emotional turbulence this causes with her readers. The way she brings together the stories of different generations is very moving and personal, and the story doesn't let you go once you start. Not a fun or comfortable read, but a very good one.
February 12, 2022
2.5 and I'm being generous with 3 due to the hard work and dedication to complete this project. Interesting and fascinating history. Not well-written and an unlikable self-absorbed narrator who should've gone through a lot of therapy before engaging in a journey like this. We learn more about Eleanor Reissa than we do about her parents. For those interested in good books by the daughters of holocaust survivors I'd recommend I Want You to Know We're Still Here by Esther Safran Foer and When Time Stopped by Arianna Neumann.
April 25, 2022
Thank you @netgalley and Eleanor Reissa for the ARC of this book.
Wow how do you start to give feedback when you read something with such heavy information as well as being incredibly moving.
I found this book heartbreaking at times but completely moving and i loved how personal this special book was.
It was well written and easy to follow for those who are not familiar with the war and events.
I am very interested and passionate about history and I found this book incredible.
Thank you thank you.
Wow how do you start to give feedback when you read something with such heavy information as well as being incredibly moving.
I found this book heartbreaking at times but completely moving and i loved how personal this special book was.
It was well written and easy to follow for those who are not familiar with the war and events.
I am very interested and passionate about history and I found this book incredible.
Thank you thank you.
May 2, 2022
I thought this book was very well written and engaging. I loved how as the author was able to make me feel the curiosity, grief, and guilt as she came to know her family long after they had passed. Some of the details of her own life seemed out of place, particularly as she struggled with her relationship. Overall, I highly recommend this very personal narrative and insight into the Holocaust. Thank you Eleanor, for sharing something so personal and meaningful.
March 14, 2022
This book is a touching book about trying to understand her parents and their experiences in the Holocaust. She finds letters that her mother keeps for years and decides to get them translated. She’s starting a journey to understand the father who was such a mystery to her. This book will stay with you for a long time.
July 14, 2023
An amazing story! So glad Eleanor Reissa shared her incredible journey with us. There are so many stories still yet to be shared about the war and what actually occurred and the ramifications today.
A truly intimate and personal story, one I will never forget. I thank Eleanor Reissa for writing this book,
A truly intimate and personal story, one I will never forget. I thank Eleanor Reissa for writing this book,
January 24, 2022
Couldn't put this book down!
Reissa's book is so gripping from start to finish. The emotions and humor flow off the pages. I was so invested in her family story and wish the book had been longer. What a wonderful book to start off my 2022 list!
Reissa's book is so gripping from start to finish. The emotions and humor flow off the pages. I was so invested in her family story and wish the book had been longer. What a wonderful book to start off my 2022 list!
September 12, 2022
I loved this book and savored it on Hoopla. The author reads the audio book and it’s so good! I usually prefer printed books, but this was really special in audio. Highly recommended!
February 23, 2024
Wasn’t really into this one and gave up fairly early on. Maybe I’ll find a way back in some day, just wasn’t the kind of holocaust book I was expecting
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews