A Pedigreed Jew: Between There and Here: Kovno and Israel

This is a ''Second Generation'' story of a daughter, who sets out on a journey tracing her mother's footsteps in Europe. Her story reveals to us the great extent to which the lives of children of survivors were fashioned in the shadow of the Holocaust. Nechama Baruchson, a native of Kovno, was a company commander of the underground movement ABZ (Covenant of Zion) in the Kovno ghetto. After the loss of her mother and the destruction of the ghetto, Nechama was taken to the Stutthof Concentration Camp from which she eventually left on the Death March. Owing to her resourcefulness and courage, she managed to escape from the rows of prisoners, joined the Brichah organization, and ultimately immigrated to the country of her yearnings, Israel. Fifty years after the Holocaust, her Sabra daughter, Safira, leaves her home in Jerusalem and returns to the ''There'' that remains of Kovno. With the aim of discovering her grandmother's fate and lighting a memorial candle on the murder site, Safira journeys through all of the places noted in her mother's memoirs. The ''There'' and ''Here'' merge into one in this unique book.