Memories of My Life in a Polish Village, 1930–1949
This “deeply moving” (Elie Wiesel) jewel of a memoir shares a rare glimpse into a way of life lost to history.
Told in Holocaust survivor Toby Fluek’s beautiful artwork and her equally lucid text—the story of a young Jewish girl growing up in a Polish farm village, from the peaceful early 1930s to the tragic war years, and finding safe harbor at last.
Scene by scene, person by person, artist Toby lovingly unfurls a unique view of life in rural Poland. She introduces us to her village, family, and the people among whom they lived, Jewish and Catholic. She shows us what they did, how they fared, how customs and holidays were observed—and, with both feeling and restraint, illustrates how this long-enduring way of life was disrupted and shattered by WWII.
Beginning with a peaceful village, Toby details her family through Russian occupation, through the devastation wreaked by the Nazis and, finally, to a new beginning in America.
Originally published in 1990, this stunning memoir has been out of print, but a new edition brings this history to life once more. Memories of My Life in a Polish Village, publishes May 6.
Fluek’s realistic, richly detailed paintings could be called ‘folk Vermeer.’”—New York magazine
“A remarkable memoir . . . Fluek moves with powerful simplicity through the details of Jewish pre-war life, her struggle to survive the Nazi occupation, and her eventual emigration. . . . A powerful work.”—Booklist
“Fluek’s brightly remembering palette restores the nearly thousand-year-old life of the village Jews of Eastern Europe at the very hour of its murderous destruction by Nazi terror. Her living yet memory-wounded paintings are too vivid, a plain record of the innocence that was annihilated forever by Europe’s great storm of hatred.”—Cynthia Ozick, NYT‒bestselling author of Heir to the Glimmering World and The Shawl
“Wrenchingly beautiful . . . a moving memoir . . . Fluek literally ‘pictures’ her childhood in both art and words—a warm Jewish family life that included farm chores, holiday observance, and good relations with fellow villagers both Jewish and Catholic. She then describes with great restraint the devastation of her world by WWII. The individual vignettes, such as “Walking Between Bullets” and “German Prisoners of War,” are devastating in the use of spare prose and detailed art.”—Library Journal
“Charming yet unsentimental . . . Fluek’s quiet dignity as a chronicler is fortifying. . . . Her tranquility of palette and word, though never denying the sufferings of the past, is distinctly restorative.”—Publishers Weekly
“A beautiful book. Its luminous art and water-clear prose form a world of exquisite images—a poem that is not a dirge but a gentle celebration of hardships overcome and the triumph of the spirit over unspeakable horror.”—Chaim Potok, NYT‒bestselling author of The Chosen and My Name Is Asher Lev.
Memories of My Life in a Polish Village, 1930–1949
by Toby Knobel Fluek, Rakhmiel Peltz (Foreword)
ISBN: 9781891011689
Publishing: May 6, 2024
Price: $24.95 US / $32.95 CAN
Paper Over Boards: 144 pages
With 94 black-and-white and color paintings and drawings
