Locked in the Darkness: Retrieving a Hidden Girl's Identity from the Holocaust

Sabina Heller

NIS 78.00

This is a dramatic and moving story of rescue, separation, and rediscovery of a lost identity and lost memory. As an infant, Sabina (Inka) Kagan was given to the care of a local Christian family by her parents, who were desperate to save her from the impending Nazi liquidation of their Jewish community in the small town of Radziwiłłów. Sabina’s parents hid but were discovered and murdered. The foster family neglected the infant, leaving her to starve to death in a cellar, but the neighboring Roztropowicz family discovered her and took her in, at great risk to their lives. The Rostropowiczes nursed Sabina back to health and provided her with a warm, loving home. Inka became the youngest sibling; the Roztropowicz parents became her parents, “A mother given by God,” as Natalia Roztropowicz believed. After the war, Jewish representatives persuaded the Rostropowiczes to return Sabina to her people. Seeking the best for her, especially in consideration of their antisemitic neighbors among whom Sabina would have grown up, they let Sabina be taken to a Jewish orphanage in Łódź. There a staff physician, Dr. Goszczewski, and her husband decided to adopt her and move to Israel. Sabina lost contact with her Polish family and gradually forgot them as she settled into life in Israel. The Goszczewskis’ Israeli cousin, Nehemiah Rabin, the father of Yitzhak Rabin, helped them settle in and integrate into Israeli life. Sabina became Ina Goszczewski, and her adoptive parents never spoke to her about her past. Sabina discovered the truth only in 1999, after her mother’s death, and was then able to reconstruct her past. She reconnected with her Polish family, who were soon honored by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations. Sabina’s story concludes with a fitting closure - retrieval of her past and reunion with her Polish Catholic wartime family.

 

This is a dramatic and moving story of rescue, separation, and rediscovery of a lost identity and lost memory. As an infant, Sabina (Inka) Kagan was given to the care of a local Christian family by her parents, who were desperate to save her from the impending Nazi liquidation of their Jewish community in the small town of Radziwiłłów. Sabina’s parents hid but were discovered and murdered. The foster family neglected the infant, leaving her to starve to death in a cellar, but the neighboring Roztropowicz family discovered her and took her in, at great risk to their lives. The Rostropowiczes nursed Sabina back to health and provided her with a warm, loving home. Inka became the youngest sibling; the Roztropowicz parents became her parents, “A mother given by God,” as Natalia Roztropowicz believed. After the war, Jewish representatives persuaded the Rostropowiczes to return Sabina to her people. Seeking the best for her, especially in consideration of their antisemitic neighbors among whom Sabina would have grown up, they let Sabina be taken to a Jewish orphanage in Łódź. There a staff physician, Dr. Goszczewski, and her husband decided to adopt her and move to Israel. Sabina lost contact with her Polish family and gradually forgot them as she settled into life in Israel. The Goszczewskis’ Israeli cousin, Nehemiah Rabin, the father of Yitzhak Rabin, helped them settle in and integrate into Israeli life. Sabina became Ina Goszczewski, and her adoptive parents never spoke to her about her past. Sabina discovered the truth only in 1999, after her mother’s death, and was then able to reconstruct her past. She reconnected with her Polish family, who were soon honored by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations. Sabina’s story concludes with a fitting closure - retrieval of her past and reunion with her Polish Catholic wartime family.

 

מפרט המוצר
Year 2012
ISBN 978-0-9814686-7-9
Catalog No. 814
No. of Pages 218 pp.
Size 15X23 cm.
Format Soft Cover
Publisher Yad Vashem
Translator
גולשים שקנו מוצר זה קנו גם

The Fire and the Light

Herman Kahan | Foreword by Elie Wiesel

NIS 78.00

The Fragile Fabric of Survival: A Boy’s Account of Auschwitz

Tomáš Radil, Academic Editor: Bella Guterman

It is impossible to forget Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is useful to remember the basic ethical principles that allowed individuals to retain their humanity even in conditions that were barely human. Born in the Slovakian capital Bratislava, Tomáš Radil grew up in Párkány (Štúrovo), a small border town on the Danube that became part of Hungary in 1938. When the Wehrmacht occupied the country in mid-March 1944, the tide of war had long turned against Germany. Despite the precarious military situation on all fronts, the Nazis did not abandon their genocidal plans. Within eight weeks, hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where most of them were murdered immediately after arrival.

NIS 91.00

Inherited Words: A Testimony of Resilience

Zoltán Roth

 

There were many times when I felt an irresistible desire to stop, and those were moments that I had to really choose between fighting for life or not. My other option was to continue walking. It seems that struggling for the yet unlived part of my life was stronger. I didn’t stop.

 

NIS 104.00
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