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Memories #1
When Memory Comes
A classic of Holocaust literature, the eloquent, acclaimed memoir of childhood by a Pulitzer-winning historian, now reissued with a new introduction by Claire Messud
Four months before Hitler came to power, Saul Friedländer was born in Prague to a middle-class Jewish family. In 1939, seven-year-old Saul and his family were forced to flee to France, where they lived through the German Occupation, until his parents' ill-fated attempt to flee to Switzerland. They were able to hide their son in a Roman Catholic seminary before being sent to Auschwitz where they were killed. After an imposed religious conversion, young Saul began training for priesthood. The birth of Israel prompted his discovery of his Jewish past and his true identity.
Friedländer brings his story movingly to life, shifting between his Israeli present and his European past with grace and restraint. His keen eye spares nothing, not even himself, as he explores the ways in which the loss of his parents, his conversion to Catholicism, and his deep-seated Jewish roots combined to shape him into the man he is today. Friedländer's retrospective view of his journey of grief and self-discovery provides readers with a rare a memoir of feeling with intellectual backbone, in equal measure tender and insightful.
Four months before Hitler came to power, Saul Friedländer was born in Prague to a middle-class Jewish family. In 1939, seven-year-old Saul and his family were forced to flee to France, where they lived through the German Occupation, until his parents' ill-fated attempt to flee to Switzerland. They were able to hide their son in a Roman Catholic seminary before being sent to Auschwitz where they were killed. After an imposed religious conversion, young Saul began training for priesthood. The birth of Israel prompted his discovery of his Jewish past and his true identity.
Friedländer brings his story movingly to life, shifting between his Israeli present and his European past with grace and restraint. His keen eye spares nothing, not even himself, as he explores the ways in which the loss of his parents, his conversion to Catholicism, and his deep-seated Jewish roots combined to shape him into the man he is today. Friedländer's retrospective view of his journey of grief and self-discovery provides readers with a rare a memoir of feeling with intellectual backbone, in equal measure tender and insightful.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
91 people are currently reading
803 people want to read
About the author
Saul Friedländer
59 books82 followersSaul Friedländer (Hebrew: שאול פרידלנדר) is an Israeli/French historian and a professor emeritus of history at UCLA.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 25, 2011
A beautifully written memoir about the Czech author's memories hiding in a Catholic seminary in France and subsequent discovery of his Jewish roots and embrace of Israel. "There are certain memories that cannot be shared, so great is the gap between the meaning they have for us and what others might see in them."
January 19, 2025
A remarkable and beautifully written memoir that has a lot to say about Judaism, Vichy France, Israel, the Holocaust, and identity in general. This is my third book by the author and I hope to leave nothing by him that’s available in English unread.
February 18, 2019
Fascinating journey with the author as he tries to figure out his past in relation to who he is today. You know how strongly your childhood affects your older self, but he draws the connections in the same way your mind seems to choose which memeories make it and which fade into oblivion. Another really good book to read!
August 27, 2017
The Holocaust rippled through Friedlander's life, as he was moved from place to place during the time period (beginning at age 7), including being raised in a Catholic boarding school. He was constantly in a state of assimilation.
A Catholic priest steered him towards his Jewish roots. Up to that point he had no strong definition or identification of his Jewishness. He identified with Catholicism. He eventually envelopes Judaism, yet bits of Catholicism were still imbedded within him. For instance, when he celebrated Passover with his Jewish, guardian family, he could not eat the meat, because it was Lent.
When Memory Comes depicts Friedlander's struggles to come to terms with his traumatic past, which he often had difficulty remembering. He was constantly questioning, and his questions led him to the man he eventually became.
Saul Friedlander writes vividly regarding his exploration of parental loss (his parents were murdered in Auschwitz), Zionism, repressed memories, and his life in Israel. I found the memoir to be an intense reflection on life, loss, guilt, memory, religion, assimilation, and moving forward.
A Catholic priest steered him towards his Jewish roots. Up to that point he had no strong definition or identification of his Jewishness. He identified with Catholicism. He eventually envelopes Judaism, yet bits of Catholicism were still imbedded within him. For instance, when he celebrated Passover with his Jewish, guardian family, he could not eat the meat, because it was Lent.
When Memory Comes depicts Friedlander's struggles to come to terms with his traumatic past, which he often had difficulty remembering. He was constantly questioning, and his questions led him to the man he eventually became.
Saul Friedlander writes vividly regarding his exploration of parental loss (his parents were murdered in Auschwitz), Zionism, repressed memories, and his life in Israel. I found the memoir to be an intense reflection on life, loss, guilt, memory, religion, assimilation, and moving forward.
October 14, 2017
"Se a volte le nostre reazioni possono sembrare strane, non dovete cadere in errore: dietro la superficie anodina delle parole e delle cose, noi sappiamo che in ogni momento ci insidiano gli abissi." (p. 151)
"Quelli che sono discesi, non risalgono mai completamente." (p. 165)
"Quelli che sono discesi, non risalgono mai completamente." (p. 165)
June 15, 2011
A reread for Yom HaShoah. Friedlander survived as a Catholic boy in France, but a teacher (priest) reconnected him to his Judaism -"didn't your parents die at Auschwitz?" Then he began the painful road back to his Jewish identity: "it took me a long time to find the way back to my own past." In a cruel twist of fate, Friedlander makes Aliyah on the cargo ship "Altalena," and arrives off the coast of Israel on the fateful date of June 20, 1948. He ends his book before the attack: "Out of the darkness there loomed up before us the land of Israel."
May 9, 2019
Friedländer thematisiert in seiner Autobiografie seinen persönlichen Zwiespalt zwischen religiöser und nationaler Zugehörigkeit.
Dabei nimmt er sowohl die Rolle des Historikers als auch die des Literaten ein. So entsteht ein sehr interessantes Gebilde aus Faktizität und einer autobiografischen Fiktion.
Dabei nimmt er sowohl die Rolle des Historikers als auch die des Literaten ein. So entsteht ein sehr interessantes Gebilde aus Faktizität und einer autobiografischen Fiktion.
June 7, 2023
After hearing Saul Friedländer speak, I knew I needed to read his book, When Memory Comes, that he had mentioned briefly during his presentation. I must admit that I was disappointed at first. I thought there was too much hopscotching around—he was somewhere where something was happening and then, with little or no warning, he was someplace completely different, with anywhere from a few months to decades separating these quite different parts of his tale.
It wasn’t long, however, until I was convinced that Friedländer’s narrative strategy was brilliant— for the simple reason that one memory leads to another. Memory is not naturally linear and, furthermore, cannot necessarily be forced to assume a linear shape. I should already have known this. When I was writing some prose poems about my grandmother, I was surprised how often writing about one memory would make me remember something else, something that I had not thought of for years. These memories were not connected by time or place or subject; the only connection was that they all concerned my grandmother.
When Memory Comes was also illuminating in another way. Like many people, if I hear the word “holocaust”, I think immediately of the camps and the horrific—almost unimaginable— effort made by the Nazis to exterminate the Jews. But aside from the 6,000,000 deaths that ensued, the policy had far broader results, even though these results were indirect. I knew of the sorrow of those who had lost family members from our neighbors when I was a child. I had read survivor accounts and assigned Night in young adult literature classes. I had not, however, thought much about someone like Friedländer who lost certainty in his life as a young child: first of place (as he and his parents moved from one place to another in search of safety); then of family (as his parents abandoned him for his own safety and never returned, eventually dying in Auschwitz); and finally, of his culture and religion (as he was immersed in Catholicism through the schools where he was placed, in order to keep him safe). Always, he felt he was an outsider, one who did not fit no matter how hard he tried, wherever he happened to be. There is no doubt that Friedländer’s journey to find his true self was long and difficult. When Memory Comes details that journey—it is a worthwhile read.
It wasn’t long, however, until I was convinced that Friedländer’s narrative strategy was brilliant— for the simple reason that one memory leads to another. Memory is not naturally linear and, furthermore, cannot necessarily be forced to assume a linear shape. I should already have known this. When I was writing some prose poems about my grandmother, I was surprised how often writing about one memory would make me remember something else, something that I had not thought of for years. These memories were not connected by time or place or subject; the only connection was that they all concerned my grandmother.
When Memory Comes was also illuminating in another way. Like many people, if I hear the word “holocaust”, I think immediately of the camps and the horrific—almost unimaginable— effort made by the Nazis to exterminate the Jews. But aside from the 6,000,000 deaths that ensued, the policy had far broader results, even though these results were indirect. I knew of the sorrow of those who had lost family members from our neighbors when I was a child. I had read survivor accounts and assigned Night in young adult literature classes. I had not, however, thought much about someone like Friedländer who lost certainty in his life as a young child: first of place (as he and his parents moved from one place to another in search of safety); then of family (as his parents abandoned him for his own safety and never returned, eventually dying in Auschwitz); and finally, of his culture and religion (as he was immersed in Catholicism through the schools where he was placed, in order to keep him safe). Always, he felt he was an outsider, one who did not fit no matter how hard he tried, wherever he happened to be. There is no doubt that Friedländer’s journey to find his true self was long and difficult. When Memory Comes details that journey—it is a worthwhile read.
September 3, 2023
The author is now a professor emeritus of history at UCLA, but the book was originally written in French in 1978. The author's parents and extended family were assimilated Jews in Prague, but saw the warning signs of Hitler's and Eichmann's maniacal plans to eliminate the Jews. Instead of fleeing to Sweden as other members of their family did, Friedlander's parents took him to Paris. Hoping to save their son, they placed him in a Catholic boarding school where they changed his name. He survived the war and resumed his original name, but his parents were murdered at Auschwitz when Marshall Petain's French Vichy government gave up the Jews to the German invaders.
This book is Friedlander's search for his roots, and search to belong. It was a little disconcerting and difficult to follow as he keep switching from vignettes from his youth and how he survived, to his life with his family in Israel as a professor.
This book will be interesting to anyone interested in Jewish history, as it delves into the decisions Jewish parents made to save their families, and their misplaced trust in depraved humans.
This book is Friedlander's search for his roots, and search to belong. It was a little disconcerting and difficult to follow as he keep switching from vignettes from his youth and how he survived, to his life with his family in Israel as a professor.
This book will be interesting to anyone interested in Jewish history, as it delves into the decisions Jewish parents made to save their families, and their misplaced trust in depraved humans.
November 22, 2023
"From one war to another, are we about to cover the hills of Jerusalem with newly carved gravestones?" asks Saul Friedlander, a Jewish man born in Czechoslovakia who fled to France with his parents in 1939 as WWII broke. Both of his parents were murdered in the Holocaust, yet with a name change Saul survived as the Catholic boy Paul-Henri in a Catholic School, and though he considers becoming a priest, he ultimately journeys to newly-created Israel in 1948, and then later in the late 1970s. The book jumps back and forth in time between these three main places as Friedlander tries to make sense of what has happened to him. It was chance that I had found this book before the current conflict in Israel and Gaza, and what is most heartbreaking is that the conflicts and persecutions continue to this day, even as Friedlander himself is 91 years old. We know the history, and yet we repeat and repeat and repeat it.
February 7, 2017
This book and the later documentary film of the same name, by Frank Diamant, serve as an autobiography for Saul Friedländer. Being in the peripheral of the Holocaust as he himself admitted, the author still could not escape the obsession of the disaster, just as he could never left his Jewish identity to live with Catholicism or attained his baccaleaurate but left for Palestine. The book was a joy to read with different time frames, depicting little Saul at different points to explain for his later actions and decisions.
July 18, 2024
It's no wonder the author has issues with his memories when as a young child he was sent away by his parents to protect him from the Nazis and the following Holocaust, changing his name 3 times and hiding as a Catholic and almost later becoming a priest. This book takes you through the war, after the war and settling in Israel and becoming involved with the Irgun movement when Israel was becoming a country. I enjoyed this book even though it wasn't what I expected.
January 8, 2018
The way memory folds back on itself and is inscribed by each remembering; never relies on heightened emotion, but instead remains committed to evoking the haze of remembered experience, no matter how horrifying.
January 28, 2018
The most desultory memoir! It wanders, jumps, returns to what purpose. It seems to be written from a long way off from the events about the events as each memory appears and after the fact an attempt to be given segues. I read a review of this book, lauding it. No way.
August 23, 2018
I found this a very interesting read about the Holocaust from the viewpoint of someone from Prague who was able to get to Israel. it was sometimes difficult to separate the present from the past.
September 1, 2018
Not the easiest to read, too many obscure, overly 'big' words. Jumps around a bit too.
August 10, 2020
France.
Friedlander and his family was made to flee to France. After the loss of his parents, he trains for priesthood and explores his journey into catholicism and roots in jewism.
Friedlander and his family was made to flee to France. After the loss of his parents, he trains for priesthood and explores his journey into catholicism and roots in jewism.
October 12, 2020
A Beautiful, haunting 'memory study' told with almost unbearable restraint.
January 31, 2023
Good. I stopped before I finished. #"jewishroots"
October 23, 2023
yess, read for a class
March 23, 2017
While written first not a great companion to the later volume. At its best when memory of the individual is laced into specific history of the Jewish century. When it works it's great but all to often it doesn't
June 28, 2016
This memoir written in 1997 looks back at the author's survival of the Holocaust by having been taken into a convent at age of 10 and raised as a Catholic. It switches back and forth between his recounting of his relatively little Jewish upbringing in Prague, separation from his family (who did not survive) during the Holocaust and his views of Israel today. It is not clear how he overcame his total inculcation in the Catholic faith and turning at age of 15 to Zionism. While it is plainly written it has an understated impact on the reader who is familiar with the role of the Catholic church who captured and raised Jewish children. In this book, there was a Catholic priest who helped steer the author, Saul Friedlander towards his Jewish roots.
March 22, 2016
This wasn't a bad book but I really can't get into a lot of Holocaust histories because they have no meaning for me. I don't have the collective fear and guilt that Europeans have because that is not part of my family history. We were always a marginalized people and we just learned to adapt and continue living, letting go of the past.
December 11, 2024
There is no doubt that Friedländer is an excellent historian—he’s a Pulitzer winner, after all—but the “psychohistorical” method he employs here makes for odd reading. He could have told this heart-wrenching story in a way that makes for a better read without discarding the affective emphasis he wanted to place on the content.
January 3, 2017
Riveting, wrenching
This tale of a young boy, who makes his way without any family through Nazi occupied France and then onto a career as a leading historian, is gripping.
This tale of a young boy, who makes his way without any family through Nazi occupied France and then onto a career as a leading historian, is gripping.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews