It was an amazing true story of a strong beautiful woman who went through and survived such horrible circumstances during the holocaust in Lithuania. It is amazing and scary to see how neighbors around her and her family turned on them and assisted the Germans in all the atrocities committed during the years of being in a ghetto and concentration camp and even after they were released. I couldn't put this book down!

Ettie's book is a very real first-person narrative of her mother's survival during the Holocaust. It is written in the mother's words, but it is about the Holocaust experience of many family members as well. The book shows an amazing ability to survive, do what needed to be done, and remain hopeful and positive regardless of separation from family members and dealing with all the horrors perpetrated against Jewish people. Her solution was to form very strong bonds with other women walking the same road as she. The hardship was very real and heart-wrenching. It is very well documented with footnotes and references. The book is in 3 parts. After the mother's story, part 2 is about the eldest daughter's 3-week travel to Lithuania and Poland with a long list of names, places, dates, and events. With the help of a guide and visits to Holocaust museums and digging into historical archives she was able to confirm her mother's story and make a few editorial changes to some details. Part 3 was an interesting analysis of the impact on the lives of the children of Holocaust-surviving parents. (The author was actually born in a Displaced Person's camp in Europe after the war ended before her parents---reunited only after the war---immigrated to the US.) Ettie researched this aspect within her own family and with other families living in NYC.

As the Second World War is further behind us, the question arises whether it is still important to keep the stories of that time alive. Zlata Santocki Sidrer believes that the stories of 1940-1945 must always be told, even though it hurts, because with it the bad memories also come back to life. Zlata Santocki was 15 years old where the Second World War broke out. With her parents and three sisters she lived in Pren, a small town near Kovno in Lithuania. In 1940 Lithuania was occupied by the Russian troops; a year later the German troops occupied her fatherland. At that time approximately 210.000 Jews were living in Lithuania. Hardly a few months after the German occupation all the Jews had to wear a yellow star and mid-August of that same year, 1941, the Jews were ordered to live in the ghetto which was created for concentrating all the Jews. From there it was easier for the occupier to deport all the Jews to the concentration camps. In July 1944 the Germans cleared the ghetto of Kovno. The women – including Zlata – were deported to camp Stutthof; the men were deported to Dachau. When in the beginning of 1945 the Russian liberators came closer to the camps, the Germans tried to wipe out all traces which could prove that horrible things were going on in the camps. Part of the cleaning was removing the remaining Jews, including Zlata, through so called Death marches. One night, while the prisoners were resting in a barn, the German guards disappeared. The next morning, the prisoners realized they survived the war. Then the search for their family members began. Zlata succeeded in leaving Lithuania and through wanderings she came to America where she started a new life with her husband and her daughter who had just been born. It were her daughter Ettie Zilber and her sister who regretted that they hadn’t been able to record their father’s story, because he had died too soon. So they decided to write down their mother’s story, now there was still time. This is how ‘A Holocaust Memoir of Love & Resilience’ was created. And it is a very well written book. Some parts are very emotional, they give the reader an impression of the difficult decisions people were facing at that time. For instance, when Zlata is in the concentration camp, she sees her mother and her younger sister. She beckons her mother, who has to decide which daughter she would join. A choice also between life and death… This book is an excellent combination of two generations and their experiences with the Second World War. It is divided in three parts. In the first part Ettie let her mother speak about her personal experiences during the war and the years thereafter. In the second part Zilber describes how she traveled back in time by following her mother’s footsteps in Lithuania. She personally wants to experience the places her mother has lived, like she almost wanted to feel her mother’s emotions during those very difficult years. In the third part – and this part gives the book an extra dimension – the author pays attention to the children of the second generation. By giving examples, for instance about never spoiling food, Zilber shows how the war continues for several generations. Many so called 2G-children will recognize the behaviors of their parents in their own lives when they read this book. So, to return to my question in the beginning if it is important to keep the memories alive, the answer is simple: of course these stories must be kept alive. The war generation is diminishing rapidly, soon there is no survivor who can tell what really happened in the Second World War. Terrible events as the Holocaust should never be forgotten. However, those stories are also important for the following generations. As we hold the war still in our soul, we can only understand ourselves better, if we know the stories from the past. ***** EXCELLENT

Just when I thought there were enough, Ettie Zilber, you prove me wrong--again! This courageous act to share your mother's incredible survival story through her voice you and your sisters gleaned and held from getting her to record it with you before she died, and then your own, as a Second Generation Survivor, continuing to honor her and make her proud, is an act all daughters should consider! Yes, she saved her wedding ring and herself in that horrific camp and that ring brought her back to your father and you to this place. Thank you for saving her courage and that ring in this way!

While there are many stories of courage and survival during the Holocaust available for readers, Ettie's story takes it one step further as she "walked in her mother's shoes" to experience her journey her mother was forced to take, from a historical perspective. Bearing witness to the atrocities of war, the interview was an honest telling of the tragic incidents that occured during WWII. The reader is provided a complete insight into the struggles of a family and of a people that are in inspiration for generations to come.

A Holocaust Memoir is not a story of grand heroes making sweeping gestures on the world stage. It is the quietly deep story of people bravely choosing to live. Their lives are not what they planned for, not what they expected. Zlata made a choice - LIFE - and with determination ensured that she, then her husband and ultimately her family lived life - completely and independently. Immediately you are drawn to this woman telling her story via daughter Dr. Ettie Zilber. I felt that I was in the room with Zlata, eating her delicious pastry, drinking tea and listening acutely to the story of her life. The horrific details unfold in an encompassing cocoon of understanding, appreciation, respect and finally - optimism. Dr. Zilber shares her mother's story, then broadens it with both her on site research and then with her psychological and educational and personal expertise. It is a window in a Jewish Europe that was, one that has disappeared. In a larger sense, it is a reflection of the human spirit, and the will to prevail.

The book is an accurate account of the authors families experiences during the Holocaust. It is a tribute to her mother and all of the family members who survived and those who perished during this time in history. What her family endured epitomizes"Mans Inhumanity to Man". Exposure to the stories that her mother and father told during her childhood created an intense desire to validate these stories as well as well as walk in their footsteps. And so, her journey began. The book methodically details her journey and the mixture of emotions felt in so doing. From a very personal perspective, she describes the effects on children of Holocaust survivors. She explores the scientific as well as the environmental causes for these intensely personal and painful experiences. Every year, the family members and their children uphold the tradition of gathering at their parens grave in Israel. They connect and reconnect. They share stories and make sure that their children will "Never Forget" the past and understand the importance of "Never Again"!

'A Holocaust Memoir of Love and Resilience' is an utterly compelling contribution to Holocaust literature. In these pages, we are privy to crucial, daily triumphs and desolation of Jewish life in Lithuania both before and during the Holocaust through the vivid and haunting recollections of Dr. Zilber's mother. As the author revisits the geography of her parents' lives, she adds her own keen experiences and observations about the places where slaughter and survival still echo, and then the impact of the tragedies on her own life.

There has never been a more urgent need for books like Dr. Ettie Zilber’s. With more and more survivors gone, the second generation must carry the twin torches of memory and of hope. This faithful, meticulous, and pure-hearted  book does both.

Almost eight decades after the Holocaust, it is fading from memory and sometimes even unknown to younger generations - yet the details need to be maintained. Through first-person testimony and archival research, Love and Resilience is a formidable story of one woman's survival from Lithuania to America, told from her perspective as well as that of her Second Generation daughter. It's clear that future generations, just like this individual family, will be grateful this document exists.