Sala

Last night Husband took me to San Francisco to attend an event at the Jewish Community Center there. Ann Kirschner spoke about her book, Sala's Gift (which I mentioned a few weeks ago), and the Center had the accompanying traveling exhibit on display.

The book details the story of how Ann discovered her mother's hidden Holocaust past, but it also tells her mother's story through the over 300 letters and postcards she hid during the war.

This book piqued my interest, in particular, because it is the story of a 'silent' survivor. We hear about the survivors who share their stories, but so many more kept them hidden for years, even from their own children. In my novel I write about a silent survivor and the effect of that silence on her relationship with her daughter; I also explore how the revelation of her secret affects her daughter. It was great to discover a real life equivalent with such a hopeful ending.

For more about Sala's story, see the page for Sala's Gift here.

On a related note, when we arrived at the Center it saddened me to discover that they must search the trunk of every car entering the parking garage, because anti-semitism is still a very real threat, even in cosmopolitan San Francisco. I cannot understand how there are still people in the world who hate others just because they were born different than them. We've come a long way, but we still have so far to go.