The Choice: Poland, 1939-1945

Irene Eber is a remarkably good writer and consummate historian you met in the film "Shanghai Ghetto". Her autobiography of a family's transition from German middle class happiness to unspeakable horror is poignantly related in this highly readable narrative. It is the most touching glimpse of this appalling episode I have found to date.

I was captivated by the author's courage as she tries to recreate with honesty, the events happening around her during the war. Although she can sometimes see only colors or shapes, she doesn't fill in what might have happened, only what she can remember. It was a joy to read of her family's reunion in a honest way, without celebratory prose. What a view she creates of the real-life drama in sometimes a matter-of-fact way. She neither paints herself as heroic or courageous, just as a girl trying to live against terrible odds.

Ms. Eber is able to take you right into the horrors she faced, both as a child and as an adult. She's unflinching in her own self-examination as well as in recounting the events she witnessed. As a writer who struggles with capturing painful emotions and memories on paper, I have the utmost respect for this author's courage, not only for living, but for putting it all into words. She has a gift and we are fortunate that she's shared it with us. Namaste.