Saving What Remains: A Holocaust Survivor's Journey Home to Reclaim Her Ancestry

Elli Friedmann

by Livia Bitton-Jackson

When Livia Bitton-Jackson returned in 1980 to her childhood town of Šamorín, Czechoslovakia, on the Danube River, she was no ordinary thirty-six years earlier, as a thirteen-year-old girl in what was then the Hungarian town of Somorja, she and her family had been deported to Auschwitz.   In Saving What Remains , a best-selling memoirist tells a moving and beautifully written story about disinterring the past so that it will never be forgotten. Bitton-Jackson’s grippingly present-tense account traces her return to the land she and her Jewish community loved when she was a child, a land that now—decades after the Holocaust’s devastation—contained only the remains of a once thriving Jewish culture.   What remained in Šamorín was a Jewish cemetery where the bodies of Livia’s grandparents rested. And yet a new dam on the Danube would soon flood the graveyard, permanently obliterating the last traces of her family’s long sojourn in Europe. At her elderly mother’s request, Livia and her husband left from Israel on a precarious quest—to exhume the family remains and bring them to Israel for reburial. The trip brought back memories both joyful and horrifying for Livia.   Written in the tradition of the Jewish Book Award finalist Beyond the Holocaust , Livia Bitton-Jackson’s Saving What Remains is a heart-wrenching story of a Holocaust survivor’s return to her childhood home decades after surviving Auschwitz. It explores how traces of the Holocaust dot both the landscape and the population despite the utter annihilation of Jewish culture in so much of Europe—while also serving as a poignant and powerful reminder of the debts adult children owe their ancestors.

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

198 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Livia Bitton-Jackson (born February 28, 1931) is an author and a Holocaust survivor. She was born as Elli L. Friedmann in Samorin, Czechoslovakia. She was 13 years old when she, her mother, father, aunt and brother Bubi, were taken to Ghetto Nagymagyar. Eventually, they were transported to Auschwitz, the largest German concentration camp. She was liberated in 1945. Bitton-Jackson came to the U.S. on a refugee boat in 1951. She then studied at New York University, from which she received a Ph.D. in Hebrew Culture and Jewish History. She also wrote her 1997 memoir I Have Lived a Thousand Years.

Reviews

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting short book/a memoir of an author/historian's 1980 return from Israel to her original hometown, Samorin, Czechoslovakia, which was a Hungarian town before the end of WWII to retrieve the remains of her grandparents from an abandoned Jewish cemetery which will soon be underwater because of a dam being built on the Danube. It was written in 2011 but told in the present tense, with some flashbacks to the German occupation, the family's deportation to work camps and eventually Auschwitz (author's mother and brother survive, father and aunts do not).
Good descriptions of people, of the changes that have happened, of the meaning of family and friendship and a look, too, at what life was like in the waning days of Communism (lots of bureaucracy, paperwork and bribes). Good, affirming ending to the story. Author has published other books that describe childhood, coming to America as a young woman, etc., perhaps this one would have been even more meaningful if I had read them first.

[Lorri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saving What Remains is quite the thought-provoking memoir, leaving one to wonder what they would do. To what extremes would you go to bury your ancestors near you? Would any of us have the strength and courage to undertake what Bitton-Jackson did? This book is as much a tribute to her strength, fortitude and determination, as it is to her ancestors.

Saving What remains, by Bitton-Jackson is more than a memoir, more than a story of journeying back to one’s homeland. It is a story of a courageous sojourn to what once was, what no longer is. It is a story of memories that were in specific settings of time and place, and memories that no longer match the current scenes. Love and loss illuminate throughout the pages. Jewish life and death are ever present within the story line. The scent of homeland and culture are strong in this beautifully and vividly written account of Livia Bitton-Jackson’s journey. But, primarily, it is a story of the necessity for remembrance and honoring of our ancestors.

If we don’t remember, pay tribute and honor them, who will?!

I highly recommend Saving What Remains to everyone, and feel it belongs in every private and public library. It is an important historical memoir, reflecting on not only Jewish life and loss, ancestral remembrance, but social change and upheaval as well. It is a story, that once you begin, is difficult to put down. The odds were against success, and the story is incredible. It is one that is not readily let go of, after the reader finishes the last page.

[Libraryscat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saving What Remains: A Holocaust Survivor's Journey Home to Reclaim her Ancestry by Livia Britton-Jackson is a remarkable voyage through the bureaucratic entanglements and emotional upheavals experienced by the author as she returned to post-war Communist Czechoslovakia to locate and retrieve the bodies of her Jewish grandparents who had died more than fifty years earlier. Her husband Len, who did not speak the languages of the country, stood by her side and helped as she navigated through all of the necessary bribes and steps to successfully taking their bodies to Israel. Her determination is remarkable and through her efforts a monument to the past shared lives has been created for all of her family. While this book only touches on the author's Holocaust experiences, the emotions of Britton-Jackson certainly remind us of the past and remind us to mind our futures.

[Arryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The moving story of a Holocaust (Auschwitz) survivor who leaves Jerusalem to return to her homeland and reclaim the bones of her grandparents. They are buried in a Jewish cemetery in what has become Communist Czechoslovakia. Livia wades through unbelievable layers of bureaucracy and witnesses myriad miracles in her quest to unearth her grandparents' remains. I was saddened by the anti-Semitic sentiment that still existed in Eastern Europe, even several decades after the end of The War. I'm anxious to read her other books, especially those written about her experiences at Auschwitz.

[Lauren Roberts · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh, where do I start? I had such high hopes for this book because I really love books about WWII history told by the point of view of survivors. However, after a few pages in, I quickly realized that this is not one of those books. The writer is clearly a Plain Jane (meaning no one famous) but who was very ambitious in her writing style. She simply tried to hard to sound like a world famous author when her story itself was good. It's a very slow read, could've ended much sooner if she hadn't tired to hard, but it is just okay.

[Marlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book because of the universal, I think, desire to know more about the families that we come from. The author, her mother and her brother are the only survivors of the Holacaust. Her mother learned that her parents graves in Czechoslovakia were going to be flooded by a dam project and asked that she return to now communist Czechoslovakia and collect the bodies and take them to Israel for reburial. The story was interesting and a life changing experience for those involved.

[Mom Taxi Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book! Not quite what I would normally read but saw it on the library's new section so thought I'd check it out. My grandfather's parents came from Checkoslovakia so it was interesting learing a bit about the area.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A moving account of the authors return home after the holocaust. You must read her previous book, I Have Lived a Thousand Years, to fully understand this book.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating story of a woman who is able to find closure after the trauma of the Holocaust. A fascinating journey physically and emotionally.

[Karen Hood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tedious and drawn out far longer than needed, although still a short book

[Monta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still reading it and really enjoying it. Written in a fun way. This is one I'm reading to my mom.