Sabina: In the Eye of the Storm

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Author(s)

Bella Kuligowska Zucker

Publisher

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Genre(s)

Age Range

14+

Release Date

January 16, 2018

ISBN

978-1981953295

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As in Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" and Elie Wiesel's "Night", Bella Kuligowska bravely marshaled unexpected resources to manage as a teen during the horrors of World War II. "Sabina" offers a different perspective on how many Jews survived outside of the concentration camps, in more familiar yet infinitely hostile settings, with the help of others along the way. "I have gone by the name Sabina Mazurek," I tell the clerk at the Displaced Persons Center, "but I was born Bella Kuligowska. I am a Jew." In September 1939, Bella was a carefree teenager living in Serock, Poland when the German army struck. She was rounded up with her friends and family and sent to a series of grim Jewish ghettos. As loved ones were separated and lost through the war years, Bella survived by changing her identity. Narrowly escaping discovery and death time and again, she moved from place to place, odd job to odd job, new name to new name. After stealing the birth certificate of a Catholic girl five years her senior, she became Sabina Mazurek. Then she went into the eye of the storm, Germany, where she believed she might be safest. "Sabina" is her story.

Editor reviews

2 reviews

Harrowing and Poignant

June 04, 2020

Overall rating

5.0

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'Sabina: In the Eye of the Storm' by Bella Kuligowska Zucker is an incredibly moving tale of the author's search for survival during the Holocaust. Her story is one of sadness, uncertainty, pain, and loss, but it is equally one of navigating seemingly insurmountable odds and having something at the end of it all – her life. Painful memories of her life in Poland before the war, along with her time in Germany afterward dot the pages of Zucker's eloquent and poignant memoir, ensuring that readers will root for her and stay invested in her life's journey for every moment she is willing to share through her writing.

From a happy family to near brushes with death many a time, to impoverished ghettos, time on her own, and the loss of her identity, both in other's eyes and her own as she tried to squelch her past to ensure her future, Zucker paints a hauntingly vivid and incredible tale of survival.

Her safety was always front of mind, despite never feeling safe, even in her own skin. The kindness of strangers and her whole-hearted attempts to subdue her past life saved her, even though her struggles seemed to grow greater each day.

A definite must-read for anyone who is looking for literature about this horrific time of the past and would like a first-hand account. Though Zucker never spent time in a concentration camp, her story nevertheless is harrowing and true. It embraces all of who she is, from her childhood to her means of survival during the war years, to her life after the war ended and she worked to find any semblance of the life she once knew – family included.

Any reader – young or older – will benefit from reading this tremendously heartfelt memoir.

Good Points

A definite must-read for anyone who is looking for literature about this horrific time of the past and would like a first-hand account. Though Zucker never spent time in a concentration camp, her story nevertheless is harrowing and true. It embraces all of who she is, from her childhood to her means of survival during the war years, to her life after the war ended and she worked to find any semblance of the life she once knew – family included. Any reader – young or older – will benefit from reading this tremendously heartfelt memoir.