Letters to My Father

De: Kathleen A. Balgley

Narrado por: Kathleen Balgley

Kathleen A. Balgley's memoir begins with her childhood discovery of her father's hidden Jewish identity and the prohibition of speaking of it in or outside the family. Disturbed by this uncharacteristic attitude of her otherwise unprejudiced parents, the author seeks to learn more about her own Jewish identity. Immersing herself in the historically terrorized heart of wartime Europe and the epicenter of Jewish suffering, she accepts a Fulbright to communist Poland just before the fall of the Berlin Wall (1987-1989). There she witnesses the ongoing controversy about Polish anti-Semitism, Poland's collusion and heroism during WWII, and the history of its treatment of its Jews pre and post-war. In the state archives of Poland and Belarus, Balgley uncovers the lives (and deaths) of her relatives in her father's birthplace in Brest, Belarus (formerly Brześc or Brest-Litovsk, Poland). Throughout the journey, bashert, (the Yiddish term for "destiny") uncannily guides the author to uncover deeply hidden stories. Her father, who had said he would not travel to Poland to visit her, changes his mind after reading letters from his daughter about her discoveries. Touring the country together, father and daughter find a way to heal the rift between them.

©2022 Bashert Press (P)2022 Bashert Press

Fascinating review

I would have never read this book would it not have been because a close relative of the author and photography buddy of mine, Jon Balgley suggested that I read it. During a visit to Boston Jon and I chatted about our common Jewish ancestry. My parents Austrian holocaust survivors always told me stories about the events in Austria before they escaped to Colombia where I was born and grew up. This is a wonderful book because it is so well written, researched and narrated by the author. Her book reads more like a fascinating fiction story about World War II and the past leading to the antisemitic forces that caused so much destruction and suffering. But the sad truth is that her book is a deeply researched and very personal journey into that painful past of her family and so many people from Poland.