We were the lucky ones by Georgia Hunter

Impressive. We were the lucky ones is this and much more.

At first I picked up this book for the beautiful, romantic cover and the title. There are moments in our life that we can think are close to the perfection and other ones where we can pronounce these words: "We were the lucky ones..." A disgrace, some illness able to change the face of a family.

Life is long and can be plenty of events, sad and happy. In this family these words can be used with a double meaning: in this case we don't analyze exactly the sad destiny of a family because of the departure of a beloved one for an accident or the illness of a person. No.

In this case we talk of Holocaust. In this case we are back to the atrocities of the last 1930s perpetrated by Adolf Hitler at certain people. The idea of the creation of a pure white race and the suppression of all the Jewish existing in the world including sick people has meant the departure in the various camps established by the same Hitler of more than 6 millions of poor people and a total shame for the world.


So the title can have two meanings: "We were the lucky ones" because of course there will be a long period in which the family will suffer great pains because of the atrocities wanted by Hitler, but at the end when all that horror gone they can repeat this same phrase with a certain relaxation and a complete different meaning because in comparison with most of the people killed in lagers, camps wanted by Hitler this family survived at all of it.

Every time I read a book about the Holocaust is always a sufferance.
Georgia Hunter will introduce to you her family and the problematic that her relatives lived during the Second World War. Her family lived in Lvov, a little village in Poland and during all the years of the war the reports of the facts of the various protagonists.

The book is written with great class, culture and calm. There are not too many dialogues, nor a great sentimentalism although you will find memories, letters exchanged between the various protagonists. What I love the most of this book, because I read various  books about the Holocaust is a true happy end for once. At the end of every chapter, the bulletins of what was going on in Europe, America and other part of the world in that  tragic moments in which world was like suspended.
My favorite characters the one of Addy the granddad of the author and his mom.

What it is important to do with Holocaust and tragedies like these ones is to continue to tell, and never never never think for a second that atrocities like these ones won't never exist anymore.

It's important to remember at the new generations that the freedom obtained has been the fruit of all the people who died during the last Second World War and the men who helped to set free again countries taken hostage by an absurd, absolutely cruel dictatorship.


I thank First to Read and Penguin Random House for this book.


Anna Maria Polidori