Irena's Gift - An Epic WWII Memoir of Sisters, Secrets, and Survival

Weaving mystery, history and memoir, From the glittering concert halls of interbellum Warsaw and the vermin-infested prison where a Jewish woman negotiates with an SS officer for a child’s life, to the author’s upbringing in a Christian home,;this is the story of resilience, sacrifice, Jewish identity, intergenerational trauma, and the secrets we keep to protect ourselves and those we love. For readers of In 1942, in Nazi-occupied Poland, a Jewish child was smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto in a backpack. That child was Karen Kirsten’s mother, but she knew nothing about her own turbulent beginnings until one day she received an envelope from Canada--a letter and photographs sent by her biological father. Even still, she kept this knowledge from her own daughter for many years. It wasn’t until Karen discovered the grandparents she loved dearly were in fact not her biological grandparents that she set out to unearth her family’s hidden history. She sought to uncover decades of secrets, both to understand for herself and to help heal her mother’s pain. Piecing together her biological grandparents’ story--from the glittering days of their pre-war courtship to the little-known Radom Prison, where her grandfather was the only Jewish survivor out of 500 resistance members tortured, and through all the years that followed--Karen finds answers, yet not easy ones. Above all, in a journey that included countless brushes with death, precarious hiding places, false papers, and the involvement of no less than a bribed SS officer, Karen must reconcile the complicated, multi-faceted truth behind human behavior and the labels by which we identify each other. Named for Karen’s biological grandmother,

About the author

Karen Kirsten is a writer and Holocaust educator who lectures on the topics of hatred and reconciliation around the world. Her work has appeared in Salon.com, The Week, The Jerusalem Post, WIEZ in Poland, Boston's National Public Radio station, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and her Best American Essays-nominated piece, “Searching for the Nazi Who Saved My Mother’s Life,” was selected as a Narratively Best Ever story. Raised in Australia by a mother who was a Holocaust survivor who became a born again Christian and grandparents who silenced her questions about extermination camps, Karen lived amongst refugees who were hiding horrible secrets while trying to rebuild their identities. After discovering her grandparents were not her biological grandparents, she traveled the globe to uncover her family’s hidden past. She has lived in five countries across three continents and now calls Massachusetts home. She can be found online at KarenKirsten.com.

Summary

A National Jewish Book Awards Finalist
WINNER, ZIBBY AWARDS FOR BEST FAMILY DRAMA & BEST STORY OF OVERCOMING

Weaving mystery, history and memoir, Irena’s Gift is the captivating account of one woman’s personal quest to uncover the unspoken and give voice to her family’s secret war-torn history.

From the glittering concert halls of interbellum Warsaw to the vermin-infested prison where an SS officer is convinced to save a Jewish child’s life, to the author’s upbringing in a Christian home, this is a story of resilience, sacrifice, Jewish identity, intergenerational trauma, and the secrets we keep to protect ourselves and those we love. For readers of When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann, I Want You to Know We’re Still Here by Esther Safran Foer, and House of Glass by Hadley Freeman.

"Irena’s Gift interrogates the messy complexity of family, both its tenderness and nurture but also its corrosive anger and rejection.” —GERALDINE BROOKS, New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner

In 1942, in German-occupied Poland, a Jewish baby girl was smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto in a backpack. That baby, Joasia, knew nothing about this extraordinary event until she was thirty-two, when a letter arrived from a stranger. She also learned that the parents who raised her were actually her aunt and uncle. Joasia kept this knowledge hidden from her own daughter, Karen—until an innocent question unexpectedly revealed the truth.  

Determined to understand the generational trauma that cloaked her family in silence, her own origins, and to help heal her mother’s pain, Karen set out to unearth decades of secrets and piece together a hidden history—from the glittering days of pre-war Poland to the little-known Radom Prison, where of 500 resistance members tortured, only 10 survived, her grandfather the only known Jewish one. There, Karen finds answers, yet not easy ones.

As she exposes her family’s saga of love and betrayal, countless brushes with death, precarious hiding places, and the astounding negotiation with an SS officer who saved her mother’s life, Karen must reconcile the complicated, multi-faceted truths behind human behavior. 

Irena’s Gift weaves together a mystery, history, and memoir to tell a story of sacrifice, impossible choices, impossible odds, and the way trauma reverberates throughout generations. Yet it is also a story of resilience and bravery, revealing how love and hope, too, can not only prevail through the worst imaginable circumstances, but resonate through time.

Product details

• Authors: Karen Kirsten
• Publisher: Kensington Publishing
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 23.07.2024
• EAN: 9780806543659
• ISBN: 978-0-8065-4365-9
• No. of pages: 400
• Dimensions: 166 mm x 236 mm x 33 mm
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945)