Stolen Headstones

In this memoir, a journalist details his Polish family’s flight from the Nazis during World War II and his own efforts to fill in the many blanks.

Schneider grew up hearing his Jewish grandfather Louis relate how he narrowly evaded capture by the Nazis as a young boy, clearly apocryphal tales that “had been adulterated by heroic fantasies.” In 2022, 26 years old and a journalist, the author visited Louis, 88, to unearth the truth. Among his grandfather’s personal effects, Schneider found a brief but detailed memoir written by Louis’ mother, Deborah. The account, deliberately suppressed by Louis, would become the springboard for a wide-ranging investigation that would take the author across Europe. In this moving memoir, Schneider chronicles both his family’s desperate flight from the Nazis and his own attempt to piece together a coherent historical narrative. Born in 1934 in Belgium, Louis was separated from his parents more than once and finally posed as a Roman Catholic boy in Fossano, a town in northwestern Italy. His parents faced horrific obstacles. Afraid her family was going to be arrested by the Nazis while on a train headed to Nice, France, Deborah leapt from the transport with Louis and his sister, Regina, in her arms, sustaining serious injuries. His father, Joseph, spent three grim years in various concentration camps. The emotional impact on Louis, of course, was extraordinary—here, he sadly explains his unhealed psychological wounds: “I’m afraid if I form an attachment, it will be taken away from me, and therefore, I deprive myself in the first instance.” Schneider’s research is impeccable—this is a remarkable example of relentless journalistic investigation. Moreover, this is much more than a historical study—the author vividly portrays the horrendous travails of his family with great dramatic power. This is a brief book—just over 100 pages—but it is filled with historical and psychological insights.

An enthralling study of generational trauma created by the Holocaust.