A Thousand Kisses: A Grandmother's Holocaust Letters

The book, translated letters from a grandmother in Prague to her son in the USA, reveals the changing lives of Jews in Prague, under Hitler. From living a prosperous, upper middle-class, secure life Mamina slowly looses everything precious to her as more and more laws are enacted against Jews. I owned this book for two years before I had the courage to open it, but I feel well rewarded in reading it. I was inspired by Mamina's and her daughter's courage in dealing with every day indignities, and moved by the cheerful portrayal of their lives to Mamina's son in the USA. He figured out in 1939 that he needed to leave Czechoslovakia with his family, while Mamina was unable to make the decision to leave everything she knew and loved. Reading this book, I get a better sense of why more Jews didn't escape Hitler.

"A Thousand Kisses", is a tribute to both a woman and millions like her who were the victims of the Nazis of World War II. I have read dozens of books about the inhuman events of this period in history, and they have primarily been by historians or reporters who have recorded what took place. There have also been books that have been the stories as told by a survivor, and now there is this work. Ms. Renata Polt has translated and collected the letters of her Grandmother, (Mamina), into a collection that becomes not only a diary of personal events, but also for the actions that continually stripped away virtually everything that makes a day worth rising for. Even the act of persevering day after day while everything and everyone you care for is taken from you, is eventually taken from these victims. These letters tell such a story, and they do so eloquently and with dignity.The letters cover the years and partial years of 1939 to 1942. The correspondence begins when family are separated, and comes to a close when one side cannot correspond with itself. In addition to the letters are very helpful footnotes that not only explain the hidden meaning of some words, but the events that were taking place as they were written. This period when humanity sought its furthest depths is never easy to read about. This particular format is much more personal and involving.The dignity that Mamina maintains from beginning, through countless disappoints, frauds, and changes they would drive many insane, is little short of remarkable. There is no question that as the persecution she suffers as the years pass, and the fate she knows awaits her closes in, her fear can be read within her words. This was clearly an educated, articulate woman, who in spite of the horror she faced, and the pain of the separation from her children and grandchildren never sought to burden them. She never wrote in a manner to frighten those who read her letters, and when she decided to emigrate, she never quit despite a system that was designed not to allow her to travel, but to methodically steal everything from her.Her things may have been taken, and her home may have been lost. It is also true that she was separated from her family and learned of the great progress of her children and grandchildren first in Cuba then America. As their lives became progressively improved and safer, her existence was diminished. Nevertheless you are left with the feeling that when events became their darkest, this woman never succumbed, she never gave in, and she never gave the monsters the satisfaction. A remarkable woman.