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So They Remember: A Jewish Family's Story of Surviving the Holocaust in Soviet Ukraine
When we think of Nazi camps, names such as Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Dachau come instantly to mind. Yet the history of the Holocaust extends beyond those notorious sites. In the former territory of Transnistria, located in occupied Soviet Ukraine and governed by Nazi Germany’s Romanian allies, many Jews perished due to disease, starvation, and other horrific conditions. Through an intimate blending of memoir, history, and reportage, So They Remember illuminates this oft-overlooked chapter of the Holocaust.
In December 1941, with the German-led invasion of the Soviet Union in its sixth month, a twelve-year-old Jewish boy named Motl Braverman, along with family members, was uprooted from his Ukrainian hometown and herded to the remote village of Pechera, the site of a Romanian death camp. Author Maksim Goldenshteyn, the grandson of Motl, first learned of his family’s wartime experiences in 2012. Through tireless research, Goldenshteyn spent years unraveling the story of Motl, his family members, and their fellow prisoners. The author here renders their story through the eyes of Motl and other children, who decades later would bear witness to the traumas they suffered.
Until now, Romanian historians and survivors have served as almost the only chroniclers of the Holocaust in Transnistria. Goldenshteyn’s account, based on interviews with Soviet-born relatives and other survivors, archival documents, and memoirs, is among the first full-length books to spotlight the Pechera camp, ominously known by its prisoners as Mertvaya Petlya, or the “Death Noose.” Unfortunately, as the author explains, the Pechera camp was only one of some two hundred concentration sites spread across Transnistria, where local Ukrainian policemen often conspired with Romanian guards to brutalize the prisoners.
In March 1944, the Red Army liberated Motl’s family and fellow captives. Yet for decades, according to the author, they were silenced by Soviet policies enacted to erase all memory of Jewish wartime suffering. So They Remember gives voice to this long-repressed history and documents how the events at Pechera and other surrounding camps and ghettos would continue to shape remaining survivors and their descendants.
In December 1941, with the German-led invasion of the Soviet Union in its sixth month, a twelve-year-old Jewish boy named Motl Braverman, along with family members, was uprooted from his Ukrainian hometown and herded to the remote village of Pechera, the site of a Romanian death camp. Author Maksim Goldenshteyn, the grandson of Motl, first learned of his family’s wartime experiences in 2012. Through tireless research, Goldenshteyn spent years unraveling the story of Motl, his family members, and their fellow prisoners. The author here renders their story through the eyes of Motl and other children, who decades later would bear witness to the traumas they suffered.
Until now, Romanian historians and survivors have served as almost the only chroniclers of the Holocaust in Transnistria. Goldenshteyn’s account, based on interviews with Soviet-born relatives and other survivors, archival documents, and memoirs, is among the first full-length books to spotlight the Pechera camp, ominously known by its prisoners as Mertvaya Petlya, or the “Death Noose.” Unfortunately, as the author explains, the Pechera camp was only one of some two hundred concentration sites spread across Transnistria, where local Ukrainian policemen often conspired with Romanian guards to brutalize the prisoners.
In March 1944, the Red Army liberated Motl’s family and fellow captives. Yet for decades, according to the author, they were silenced by Soviet policies enacted to erase all memory of Jewish wartime suffering. So They Remember gives voice to this long-repressed history and documents how the events at Pechera and other surrounding camps and ghettos would continue to shape remaining survivors and their descendants.
242 pages, Paperback
Published December 12, 2021
About the author
Maksim Goldenshteyn
1 book3 followersBorn in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, Maksim Goldenshteyn immigrated to the United States with his family in 1992. He grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, where thousands of Russian-speaking Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union would settle. Maksim studied journalism at the University of Washington and has written for regional newspapers including The Seattle Times.
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February 21, 2022
So They Remember is a gut wrenching historical narrative that interweaves personal family history and deep research on a relatively unknown chapter of the Holocaust in occupied Soviet Ukraine. Full disclosure: the author is a close friend of mine, but that hasn’t impacted how I read and thought about this important book.
The book begins as Maksim hears something his mother says in passing about his grandfather’s experiences during World War II—something about him escorting people to safety. It isn’t until he begins to probe that he learns that his grandfather was a survivor of one of the least-known but, perhaps, most brutal Holocaust experiences during World War II—that of Romanian occupied Soviet Ukraine. Through years of first-hand interviews with family members, acquaintances and others, as well as deep academic-style historical research, Maks weaves an incredible story about his family’s experiences during the Holocaust that is not only a stirring family memoir, but a book that aims to educate readers on this dark chapter in history.
This book is a must-read for those who want to expand their understanding of the Holocaust, and especially the struggles and horrors Jews in Soviet Ukraine experienced. Readers will also find Maksim’s passionate and well-written prose, particularly in describing his family’s story, on par with the best novelists, as his writing contextualizes so clearly the locations, historical figures, and families who suffered so dearly.
As a reader of several memoirs over the last couple of years, So They Remember, more so than many others, truly emphasizes the importance of keeping your family’s stories alive as a pathway to help future generations learn from history. And that, to me, sums up why I believe this is such an essential book.
The book begins as Maksim hears something his mother says in passing about his grandfather’s experiences during World War II—something about him escorting people to safety. It isn’t until he begins to probe that he learns that his grandfather was a survivor of one of the least-known but, perhaps, most brutal Holocaust experiences during World War II—that of Romanian occupied Soviet Ukraine. Through years of first-hand interviews with family members, acquaintances and others, as well as deep academic-style historical research, Maks weaves an incredible story about his family’s experiences during the Holocaust that is not only a stirring family memoir, but a book that aims to educate readers on this dark chapter in history.
This book is a must-read for those who want to expand their understanding of the Holocaust, and especially the struggles and horrors Jews in Soviet Ukraine experienced. Readers will also find Maksim’s passionate and well-written prose, particularly in describing his family’s story, on par with the best novelists, as his writing contextualizes so clearly the locations, historical figures, and families who suffered so dearly.
As a reader of several memoirs over the last couple of years, So They Remember, more so than many others, truly emphasizes the importance of keeping your family’s stories alive as a pathway to help future generations learn from history. And that, to me, sums up why I believe this is such an essential book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review