Through the Eyes of a Survivor

Colette Waddell

6/3/2007

Nina Grutz was 18 years old when the Soviet troops invaded eastern Poland in 1939. She was one of over 110,000 Jews who lived in the city at the time. She had grown up as the protected youngest daughter in an affluent family. Her parents owned a soap and candle factory that her father managed and her mother sold the products in the family store. They also owned farmland and a mill in the country. The Soviets took away the business and their home. After the Germans broke the pact with the Soviets, those family members still in their city of L'vov lost their lives - all except Nina.

To this day Nina Grutz-Morecki doesn't know why she survived when the rest of her family were taken away. Although she doesn't have any exact proof, she knows when her mother was killed and when her sisters and niece disappeared. Her father was taken away by the Soviets and never was able to contact his family again. Her extended family living in Poland also disappeared. After the war she found one second cousin as people started hunting for family members. Nina can only surmise the fates of the rest of her family.

Nina lived through Aktions (police actions gathering all Jews), the Jewish ghetto and labor "camp" in L'vov, being gathered together and shot at at the edge of a pit, "passing" for Polish, near starvation, homelessness, and other horrors only hinted at in this telling of her history. She watched as the Nazis tried to wipe out her people She reached the point that she wished she were dead with the others. But Nina was fortunate in many small ways and kept finding people who helped her keep going a little longer.

She met her future husband, Josef Morecki, near the end of the war. He went of with the Soviet troops to finish fighting the Germans, then returned for her. The couple slowly made their way west across Poland until they reached Austria. They spend over a year there as Nina regained her health and Josef started working on their plans to leave Europe. Together they worked and were able to emigrate to the United States. Josef was a man who was able to take a business and make it profitable. They lived in New York City for 12 years until he sold his business and the family of four - they now had two daughters - moved to California in 1959. Nina still lives there, although her life is diminished without Josef.

In the early 1990's Nina Morecki found herself relating her Holocaust experiences to a high school class. Since then she has told her story many times to many groups. A different high school class helped her compose an Open Letter with her story. Colette Waddell met Nina at one of these sessions at her university. The two women became friends. Then they collaborated on this book of Nina's history - Nina doesn't believe these are her memoirs.

Through the Eyes of a Survivor is more than the years during World War II when Nina struggled to stay alive when no one else did. Admittedly, that is the section that is most detailed. But this story begins when she is younger and everything was good in her life. It goes through all the trouble they had after the end of the war getting past their experiences and once again making a life. She also relates some of their life in the United States as the Morecki's continue surviving and prospering. She gives the reader a complete life of emotions - or lack there of - and happenings to better help frame the impact of those years when the Nazis ruined so many lives and tried to exterminate the Jewish Nation.

Colette Waddell has written this excellent book in two intertwined narratives. Most of it is Nina's first person narrative from many interviews and conversations. The other is Colette's comments, observations, and information obtained from other survivors. The extra information from Colette's studies brings a rounded book to the reader - showing Nina's unique story as well as the similarities from others in the same situation.

As Nina states in the book "each [Jewish Holocaust] survivor has a different story because each of us had a different upbringing and personality." Her story is told in a conversational manner that has more impact because of the style used here. This book is a solid addition to the literature that should help us remember and avoid this type of situation from being repeated. I recommend Through the Eyes of a Survivor - it's a book that shows what can be achieved in the worst circumstances as well as the best.

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Provided for review