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Eighteen for life. Surviving the Holocaust
Helen Schamroth
“There are secrets I will take to my grave,” Martha Ash told her daughters.
“I don’t want you to think I am a hero,” declared their father Feliks.
The past in Poland was to be left behind. Martha and Feliks were determined they would create a future in Melbourne and a loving family environment. It was time to enjoy the good life they could only dare to dream of as they struggled to survive the Holocaust.
Helen Schamroth and her sister Eve unraveled fragments of their parents’ harrowing experiences that were endured and overcome with extraordinary courage. Helen’s eighteen connected stories tell of unspeakable loss, cultural dislocation, chutzpah, hope, creativity, deception, and love.
About the Author: Helen Schamroth
Born in Poland, Helen Schamroth arrived in Melbourne with her parents in 1949 and has lived in Auckland, New Zealand since 1968. She has written extensively for national and international publications about craft and design, including her award-winning book "100 New Zealand Craft Artists". Her writing has evolved in parallel with her visual arts career, and she has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Triennale of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland.
Working as an arts writer, arts consultant, curator and arts advocate, Helen has served on the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand and is a Life Member of the Designers' Institute of New Zealand. In 2005 she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the arts.
Critic Reviews
"Written with compassion and wit, propelled by a daughter's need to know, Eighteen for Life bears firsthand witness to the unfathomable inhumanity of the Holocaust while unravelling family mysteries taken to the grave. It's a quest that becomes a celebration of life lived against the odds, the power of art to process the past and, through it all, the stubborn, sometimes painful persistence of love."
-Diana Wichtel, author of the award-winning 'Driving to Treblinka'
Product Details
Author: Helen Schamroth
Release Date: 23 July 2025
ISBN-13: 9789493418257
ISBN-10: 9493418251
Format: Paperback with flaps | 232 pages, 570g
Dimensions: 240 x 170mm, portrait
Publisher: Amsterdam Publishers
Imprint: Amsterdam Publishers
Publication Country: Netherlands
Category: Biography & Memoir
Postage through the website is NZ nationwide only, standard mail.
RD customers, please deposit a further $5.70 to the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand account 03-0515-0507281-000 with your name or 'RD post' as a reference.
For international shipping inquiries, please contact [email protected]
