In the Shadow of the Holocaust on a Catskills Chicken Farm
Raised on a Catskills chicken farm and now a Manhattan psychiatrist, Michelle Friedman confronts the legacy of Holocaust trauma and family violence, seeking to understand what makes one person break, and another survive.
No wonder Michelle Friedman became a psychiatrist – she started young. A child of Holocaust survivors, she grew up on a Catskills chicken farm, absorbing a legacy of trauma, displacement, and family violence. In this illustrated memoir, Michelle weaves together hair-raising stories of her parents’ wartime survival with vivid memories of life on the farm in Divine Corners, a remote Borscht Belt hamlet and an unlikely home for cultured Polish Jews raising three children. Her unflinching yet loving inquiry explores Jewish identity, resilience, and what makes one person break while another survives.
TO BE RELEASED: 5 May 2026
