Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
This well-told memoir by the late Bernstein deserves a prominent place in the archive of Holocaust survival stories. Born into a large Jewish Romanian family, Bernstein (1918-83), known then as Seren, left her mountain village at the age of 13 to attend gymnasium in Bucharest. Her independent spirit drove her to leave the anti-Semitic school and become an apprentice to a dressmaker rather than return home. Seren became a well-paid seamstress and assisted her family financially until WWII broke out, when she was sent to a Hungarian labor camp. In 1944, she was transported with her sister and two friends to the Ravensbrck concentration camp. Although one of her friends died, Seren and the other two survived. She vividly recounts SS beatings, frostbite and the starvation she dealt with by stealing vegetables and trading them for the bread that the three shared. After liberation, Seren married another Holocaust survivor and emigrated to Canada, and later to the U.S. In a moving afterword her daughter describes her mother's strong personality. Photos. (Oct.)
Booknews
Seren Tuvel Bernstein (1918-1983), a brave and spirited Holocaust survivor, recounts the story of her prewar life, the Holocaust years, and her efforts to reconnect with lost relatives and create a better existence for herself and her family after the war. Includes some b&w photographs. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Kirkus Reviews
A striking Holocaust memoir, posthumously published, by a Romanian Jew with an unusual story to tell.
From its opening pages, in which she recounts her own premature birth, triggered by terrifying rumors of an incipient pogrom, Bernstein's tale is clearly not a typical memoir of the Holocaust. She was born into a large family in rural Romania between the wars and grew up feisty and willing to fight back physically against anti-Semitism from other schoolchildren. She defied her father's orders to turn down a scholarship that took her to Bucharest, and got herself expelled from that school when she responded to a priest/teacher's vicious diatribe against the Jews by hurling a bottle of ink at him. Ashamed to return home after her expulsion, she looked for work in Bucharest and discovered a talent for dressmaking. That talent—and her blond hair, blue eyes, and overall Gentile appearance—allowed her entry into the highest reaches of Romanian society, albeit as a dressmaker. Bernstein recounts the growing shadow of the native fascist movement, the Iron Guard, a rising tide of anti-Semitic laws, and finally, the open persecution of Romania's Jews. After a series of incidents that ranged from dramatic escapes to a year in a forced labor detachment, Sara ended up in Ravensbrück, a women's concentration camp deep in Germany. Nineteen out of every twenty women transported there died. The author, her sister Esther, and two other friends banded together and, largely due to Sara's extraordinary street smarts and intuition, managed to survive. Although Bernstein was not a professional writer, she tells this story with style and power. Her daughter Marlene contributes a moving epilogue to close out Sara's life.
One of the best of the recent wave of Holocaust memoirs.
From the Publisher
"There are many recent accounts of Holocaust victims, but this work stands alone as a testimony to personal strength and an independent spirit." ---Library Journal
MARCH 2012 - AudioFile
In this gripping memoir, narrator Wanda McCaddon recounts how Holocaust survivor Sara Tuvel Bernstein was transformed from a precocious girl to a feisty woman who fought against the Nazis. As a young Romanian student, Bernstein was expelled from school because she refused to tolerate a teacher’s anti-Semitism. That act of defiance led to a job as a dressmaker and her eventual capture and assignment to a concentration camp. The strengths she demonstrated earlier in her life helped Bernstein survive the camp, leading to this inspiring story. McCaddon’s performance is remarkably authentic. She delivers the right tone, and her precise style and use of accents are superb. She conveys Bernstein’s fears, hopes, and uncertainties with an authentic mix of inflections, pauses, and emotions. D.J.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2013 Audies Winner © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
