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Among the Reeds: The true Story of how a Family survived the Holocaust

Among the Reeds: The true Story of how a Family survived the Holocaust

by Tammy Bottner
Among the Reeds: The true Story of how a Family survived the Holocaust

Among the Reeds: The true Story of how a Family survived the Holocaust

by Tammy Bottner

Overview

A young Jewish mother. A Nazi occupation bent on genocide. A heart-breaking decision that will tear a young family apart.

Belgium, 1940. Melly Bottner is just eighteen with a three-week old newborn son when the Nazi occupation of Belgium begins. She and her young husband Genek live in fear as it becomes obvious that all Jews will soon be taken. Watching friends and neighbors disappear as the Germans carry out their shocking purge, the young family confronts an awful truth: if they are to survive, they must rip their own family into pieces.

In this biography from Melly's point of view, author and granddaughter Tammy Bottner delivers a true and moving family memoir. This meticulously written and researched account brings to life the horrific decisions Bottner's grandparents had to make simply to survive. Through their monumental choices, Tammy Bottner's grandparents ensured the survival of their family and made their post-war reunion possible.

Among the Reeds is a deeply personal family memoir that is part-biography, part psychological observation of the extraordinary wartime lives of a persecuted people. If you like true stories of courage, heart-stopping near misses, and tear-jerking choices, then you'll love Tammy Bottner's compelling account.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9789492371287
Publisher: Amsterdam Publishers
Publication date: 06/08/2017
Series: Holocaust Survivor True Stories
Pages: 276
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

I am a physician, writer, and mom. I am also the child and grandchild of Holocaust survivors. I have been fascinated for years about the legacy I carry. It is a heavy one. In my new book I explore the science of epigenetics, the idea that traumatic life events change one's genes, and that these altered genes may be passed along to subsequent generations (such as myself). In the book I recount the way my grandparents managed to save both themselves and their young children in the darkest days of European history. The book is an homage to my dad, a child survivor who was a 'hidden child', sequestered in a Belgian convent for 21/2 years when he was only a toddler.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Epigraph

Acknowledgments

Prologue: Tammy, Newburyport, Massachusetts

The Offner-Bottner Family Tree

Melly: Germany, 1920s and 1930s

Genek: Lvov, 1920s and 1930s

Melly: Amsterdam and Antwerp

A Wedding: Belgium, 1938

Melly: Married Life

German Occupation: Belgium, 1940–1941

Melly: Life under Occupation

The Anti-Jewish Laws: Belgium, 1942

Melly: A Desperate Decision

Andree Geulen and the Resistance: September 1942

Melly: The Family Dispersed

Bobby: 1942

Belgium and Holland: 1943

Melly: A Wartime Baby

Bobby: 1943

Irene: Namur, 1943

Pictures

In Hiding: Banneux, 1943

Back in Lvov: 1939–1943

Genek’s Luck Runs Out: Brussels, 1943–1944

Melly: Visiting Bobby

The Tide Turns: Brussels, 1944

Liberation: Spring 1945

Melly: Irene

After Liberation

Nathan’s Freedom: Cyprus and Palestine, 1947–1949

Melly: Brussels and Palestine, 1945–1949

Reflections on a Calamity

Epilogue: Survival

Descendants of Leopold and Gertrude Offner: Full Family Tree

Sources and Further Reading

Further Holocaust Memoirs

Colophon

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