Description

Between 1917 and 1921 twenty years before the Holocaust began an estimated 100000 to 250000 Jews were murdered in antiJewish pogroms across the Ukraine Lisa grew up transfixed by her grandmother Channas stories about her family being forced to flee their hometown of Stavishche as armies and bandit groups raided village after village killing Jewish residents Channa described a perilous threeyear journey through Russia and Romania led at first by an American who had snuck into the Ukraine to save his immediate family and ended up leading an exodus of nearly eighty people to safety With almost no published sources to validate her grandmothers tales Lisa embarked on an incredible journey to tell Channas story forging connections with archivists around the world to find elusive documents to fill in the gaps of what happened in Stavishche She also tapped into connections closer to home gathering testimonies from her grandmothers relatives childhood friends and neighbors The result is a moving historical family narrative that speaks to universal human themesthe resilience and hope of ordinary people surviving the ravages of history and human cruelty With the growing passage of time it is unlikely that we will see another family saga emerge so richly detailing this forgotten time period Tears Over Russia eloquently proves that true life is sometimes more compelling than fiction