Reflections: We Were the Lucky Ones
Title: We Were the Lucky Ones
Author: Georgia Hunter
Medium: Audiobook
Motivation for reading: This book came highly recommended by one of my former roommates who is also one of my prominent book buddies.
Reflections & Takeaways:
The author recounts the story of her grandfather’s family who were Jewish Poles during World War II. By some miracle everyone in the immediate family, the parents, their five children, and each of their spouses and children, all survive (hence the title We Were the Lucky Ones so you can’t claim that I spoiled it for you in that last sentence).
While reading, I found a map online that traces all the journey of all the family members throughout the war. It’s amazing to follow each of their paths and stories as they collectively migrate through France, Africa, Siberia, the Middle East, and the Americas. I’m a visual learner and love maps so I thought that this was a neat visual that helped illustrate their journeys over the course of the war.
What I didn’t realize was how much Anti-Semitism had developed and persisted even after the war ended towards the Jews in Poland and throughout the rest Europe. After the end of the war, the Kurc family reunites (which is in itself another amazing phenomenon considering they didn’t have the means to connect via technologies like cell phones, emails or text messages that we have today) and decided that they don’t feel safe in Poland. They opt to leave the country for good, and interestingly enough, end up going to the Americas, primarily Brazil.
My brother and I traveled through Buenos Aires a few years back and learned on a free walking tour of the city that the Jews were one of the largest groups of immigrants to Argentina. It was really interesting to me to read about this family ending up in Brazil escaping Anti-Semitic Europe and supporting our tour guide’s claim of Jews moving to the South American continent!
One of my favorite parts of the story was when Genek, one of the brothers, happens to overhear the familiar voice of his brother-in-law, Selim, who was separated from the family and never heard from for multiple years at the beginning of the war. They had both been in Poland together at the start of the war and miraculously run into each other under a medical tent in Tehran. Another favorite part (also a reunion) is when Addy gets too impatient to see his family who are scheduled to arrive on a boat coming into Rio. Because he hasn’t seen his siblings and parents in almost a decade, he jumps into a rowboat and paddles around the ship to hear them call his name.
Of course, reading a book on WWII also made me reflect on the little I know about my own family’s history during the war. Like many people my age, all my grandparents lived through the war but never spoke of it. The little I know is from what other family members have told me. My grandfathers had two very different perspectives, given that one of them was on the side of the liberation movement and the other needed help in being liberated. My American grandfather was in General Patton’s army which freed Europe, while my French grandfather hid in a basement since he had been recruited by the Nazis near the end of the war. My mother is from the region of Alsace which historically has been a disputed between the Germans and French. (When I was interning in Paris one summer, one of the men on my team found out my family was Alsatian, he corrected my claims of being “Franco-américaine” by pointing out that I was actually “Alsaco-américaine” which reflects the unique standing of the region and even how its perceived by the rest France.) Alsace was annexed by Germany during WWII and the men were forced to join the German armed forces. These men became known as the “malgré-nous”, which translate to “against our will”. They were threatened to have their families killed if they refused. My grandfather’s older brother was forced to join the army and, along with many Alsatians, was sent to fight on the Russian front where he died and never returned home. People did what they could to survive and ensure the survival of their families.
We Were the Lucky Ones is a book about family and survival. Pulling from Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, I believe that a huge drive that led to the Kurc family’s endurance was finding purpose through their family. Much of this was made possible only because of an enormous amount of luck: being at the right place at the right time, taking risks, finding opportunities to live, and gambling for their lives. Even though there are moments where they waiver, lose hope, doubt, and experiences great loss, they manage to reunite. It seems like one in a billion chance of happening.
Books that I made connections with while reading this novel:
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (France in World War II)
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (France in World War II)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer (There is both a book and Netflix movie. It takes place on the island of Guernsey during World War II. The book is all written in letter form which is a neat style that I enjoyed!)
Unorthodox — A show on Netflix inspired by the book entitled Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman (A story of young women who leaves her Hasidic community, but I have not read it yet.)
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (Wonderful book on human psychology written by Viktor Frankl, a neurologist and psychologist who survived the Holocaust and writes about the link between finding purpose and survival.)
