Milk in an Eggshell

Blood: A Pantoun Prologue: Paris and Memory PART I1. Sabti: Being Born 2. Cassette Tapes 3. The Pulse 4. Sabti: Giving Birth 5. Untangle 6. Sabti: You Think Only You Have a Heart PART II7. Alaska 8. Sabti: My Private War 9. Ribbons 10. Sabti: Milk from an Eggshell 11. The Hand 12. Sabti: Be Afraid of People Not Ghosts PART III13. Interlude: Half-Light 14. Sabti: The Apple 15. Freckles 16. Finding Zbaraż 17. Sabti: Next Year in Jerusalem 18. The Last Promise 19. The Witness PART IV20. The Lucky Ones 21. Sabti: Your Father is Back EpilogueAcknowledegementsAbout the AuthorAmsterdam Publishers Holocaust LibraryA timely story of a woman’s survival and resilience as a hidden Jew in Nazi-occupied Poland and how that history continues to shape the lives of her children and grandchildren.Ela Sas is a proud young Jewish lawyer in Poland in 1939 when the war breaks out. At 4’11”, she doesn’t look like a force to be reckoned with. Yet when her husband and mother are killed by the Nazis, she takes off her yellow star of David and escapes with her two year old baby girl, hiding her identity and pretending to be Christian. In Milk in an Eggshell, compiled by her granddaughter, Ela’s stories tell us how she faced life on the other side of the unspeakable. She saw what others refused to believe and managed to survive, one act of goodwill or good luck at a time. Her story illuminates the rise of authoritarianism in terrifying detail, and shows its lingering effects. When Ela tells her granddaughter these stories, one hidden truth leads to another. The granddaughter searches for the keys to her own past, including finding her lost brother given away at birth because he had Down syndrome. What emerges is a story of empathy, connection, and healing.Ela Sas is a proud young Jewish lawyer in Poland in 1939 when the war breaks out. At 4’11”, she doesn’t look like a force to be reckoned with. Yet when her husband and mother are killed by the Nazis, she takes off her yellow star of David and escapes with her two year old baby girl, hiding her identity and pretending to be Christian. In Milk in an Eggshell, compiled by her granddaughter, Ela’s stories tell us how she faced life on the other side of the unspeakable. She saw what others refused to believe and managed to survive, one act of goodwill or good luck at a time. Her story illuminates the rise of authoritarianism in terrifying detail, and shows its lingering effects. When Ela tells her granddaughter these stories, one hidden truth leads to another. The granddaughter searches for the keys to her own past, including finding her lost brother given away at birth because he had Down syndrome. What emerges is a story of empathy, connection, and healing.