Kati Berman

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer This is one of my all time favorite books. I️ have just finished it the third time in preparation of leading a book club discussion next week. The story of the Levi brothers and the Hasz family just before, during and after WWII could have been my own family’s story. My Dad couldn’t get into medical school because of the numerous clausus law limiting Jewish students to no more than 6 % in universities. My parents were displaced from their Budapest apartment when the Germans invaded Hungary in 1944. My mother was 9 months pregnant. My sister was born 7 days after their displacement. She got sick in early 1945 from malnutrition and died just as Iliana’s baby Adam couldn’t fight his illness. My Dad served in the Labor Service, but fortunately survived it. My Dad’s siblings were deported to Auschwitz , 9 of them and only one returned alive. My brother escaped Hungary for the United States during the 1956 uprising which is briefly mentioned towards the end of the book. Eventually I️ also left communist Hungary for a better life in America. Sometimes we say, we don’t want to read another Holocaust book, but we do need to learn about the history to be able to fight for NEVER AGAIN.