hiding in the spotlight

I've enjoyed reading Greg Dawson's columns in the Orlando Sentinel for years, so I was delighted to hear that he'd written a book. But when I learned the topic, I wondered: How would a writer whose trademark is irreverent humor and puns that make you groan handle telling the story of a Holocaust survivor? Now that I've read the book, I can tell you that he did it with skill, grace, and love. Hiding in the Spotlight is the story of Dawson's mother, Zhanna Arshanskaya Dawson, who was born in Berdyansk, Ukraine, and was able to escape the Holocaust death camps thanks to the sacrificial love of her father and the amazing heart of many people along the way who were willing to risk their own lives to save others. Zhanna and her younger sister assumed false identities to hide the fact that they were Jewish and, because they were talented musicians, spent much of the war entertaining the Nazis. At the end of the war, they were able to reclaim their own identities and eventually came to the United States as teenagers, where Zhanna attended the Julliard School. Greg Dawson writes that he grew up blissfully unaware of his mother's traumatic youth. He quotes his mother: "How can you tell children about such things? It would be too cruel." But Zhanna's is a story that needs to be told and her son is the perfect person to tell it. We cannot afford to forget the horrors, the unspeakable cruelty and misery of that time, and Dawson's writing skills puts the reader right in the middle of it. Zhanna's father's last words to her were: "I don't care what you do--just live!" She did that well, with strength, determination, and dignity. And if the book itself doesn't move you to tears more than once, be sure to read the acknowledgements.

Wow. Zhanna and Frina Arkashyna's story was by turns fascinating, horrifying, and ultimately inspiring. Not only did I learn a lot about the fate of Russian Jews in World War II, but also how determination, love, and just plain good fortune shape our paths in life. Greg Dawson did an excellent job: the book is straightforward and compelling, never sliding off into glurge nor getting lost in too much background information. After keeping it to herself most of her life, I'm so glad Zhanna was willing to share her story. Holocaust survivors' experiences need to be recorded and told. This one was done beautifully.

This book was a wonderful read. I found the story extremely compelling and still am thinking about how crazy it was and how it could be true. I could not put the book down. Anyone interested in WWII will find this book fascinating.

Author: Greg Dawson Publisher: Pegasus Books ISBN: 978-1-60598-045-4 Rarely am I able to read a book in one sitting, however Greg Dawson's Hiding in the Spotlight was the exception. In Hiding in the Spotlight Dawson narrates the story of his mother, Zhanna Arshanskaya, who was a Holocaust survivor and an extraordinary pianist. The back cover of the book mentions that at the age of six when she was living in Berdyansk, Ukraine in 1931 she had developed a repertoire of a student twice her age, gave her first public performance, and was offered music scholarships to some of the most prestigious conservatories in the Soviet Union that had produced legends like Rachmaninoff and Horowitz. When performing in the USA, one of the critics described her playing as "unshakeable decision, clarity, purpose, and great strengths." As Dawson states and as we learn, these were the qualities that made it possible along with her unbelievable talent and a family of Righteous Gentiles, for his mother to have survived the Holocaust. Growing up in Indiana, Dawson's mother never mentioned hers as well as her sister's Frina, who was also a brilliant pianist, perilous journey during the Holocaust and how both managed to come out alive. When Dawson questioned his mother about the Holocaust, her reply was "How can you tell children about such things. It would be too cruel." However, at the age of eighty-one, as well the occurrence of various events, Zhanna was coaxed to share with her son what exactly happened to her and her sister during their shocking ordeals. These included the murder at the hands of the Nazis of her parents and grandparents and thousands of Jews in 1942 in Kharkov, Ukraine when she was fourteen and her sister was twelve, the changing of her name and that of her sister to Anna and Marina Morozova, the taking on of a new identity with the story that they were the orphaned daughters of a father who was an officer in the Red army and was killed in action and that their mother died in the bombing of Kharkov, and the meeting of a guardian angel in a displaced persons camp in Germany who was instrumental in having them included in the first boatload of Holocaust survivors to America and their admittance to Julliard. Amazingly, through it all, both his mother and his aunt managed not to be cynical towards life, a bittersweet testament to follow what Zhanna's father told her before he and her mother vanished in the gas chambers of Nazi Germany, "I don't care what you do-just live!" One major force of Zhanna's life the Nazis could never steal from her was her love of music and her incredible talents that were to become a pivotal ingredient in helping her as well as her sister survive. As music took the place of religion in his mother's and grandparents home, her father made sure that both his daughters would become extraordinary pianists. As Dawson mentions, the war may have taken everything from his mother and aunt except the love and music and the

Greg Dawson has done a fabulous job detailing the amazing story of his mother's survival of the Holocaust. This true story is a page turner and one that every young adult and adult should read.