THE TAKEAWAY MEN

A Jewish family that survived the Holocaust begins life anew in the United States but remains haunted by the past in this historical novel.

Aron and Dyta Lubinski escape the terror of Nazi tyranny in Poland and spend four years living in a displaced persons camp in Warteplatz, once a summer camp for Hitler Youth. While there, Dyta gives birth to fraternal twins Johanna and Bronka. They relocate to New York City and are given a home Aron’s relatives Izzy and Faye. The two New Yorkers also offer Aron employment at one of their bakeries. But despite the Lubinskis’ good fortune, they are haunted by the traumas they suffered in their native Poland, especially Dyta’s familial past. Now answering to the Americanized name Judy, she shamefully hides her father’s role in the abuse of Polish Jews just as Aron zealously attempts to shield his daughters from the weight of the hardships the couple shouldered: “Although he was grateful to be alive and in the United States at this moment, the pain and horror his own family had endured was never far from his mind. But he had already vowed to himself that he would not inflict his story on his children.” Ain poignantly captures the painful paradox of the Lubinskis’ new life—safer and more prosperous than ever before, they can still never outrun a dark history that doggedly follows them like a shadow. When a neighbor spots Rudolf Schmidt, a former Nazi guard from Auschwitz and cruel murderer of Jews, Aron and Judy are again reminded of the long reach of the past, which their daughters are increasingly curious about. The author’s tale is sensitively composed, a thoughtful exploration into the perennially thorny issues of religious identity, assimilation, and the legacy of suffering. But Ain’s prose is plainly clear at best and earnestly lachrymose at other times. She also overindulges in didactic commentary—she strains too laboriously to draw a moral lesson for her readers.

A powerfully touching story sometimes prone to sentimental sermonizing.