Friday, June 17, 2022

Book Review: Called to Testify

 


Called to Testify

The Big Story in My Small Life

by Judith Kalman

Pub Date 17 May 2022 | Archive Date 30 Jun 2022

 Sutherland House 

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Nonfiction (Adult)  |  Religion & Spirituality



How is it that a secular non practicing Jew who has lived most of her life outside the Jewish community suddenly find herself in the front rows of a Nazi war crimes tribunal?



In 2015 award winning author Judith Kalman was invited to Lüneburg to testify at the trial of Oskar Gröning, accused of facilitating 300,000 murders at Auschwitz. She appeared on behalf of a relative she had never met, a child of her father’s first marriage, who died in the camp.



Kalman found herself in the unaccustomed company of survivors who had built their identities and missions out of Holocaust remembrance, but were also grappling with profound questions of loss, guilt, and restitution.







Revisiting her parents’ tragic past, she saw how it had confounded her own sense of who she wanted to be: “Broken friendships, missed expectations, difficult family relationships, and a problematic marriage were all forged in the heritage of loss.”







Called to Jesus is a beautiful and heartfelt memoir thoughtful memoir about the meaning of life in the wake of traumatic events, coming to terms with your identity, and understanding the magnitude of what can never be restored.






If you’re looking for a heartfelt memoir about one women coming to terms with her parents tragic past, I highly recommend Called To Testify.




Five out of five stars!



Happy Reading!

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