Holocaust survivor tackles trauma and family's past in new novel

Lillian Boraks-Nemetzstarted writing about her experiences as a Holocaust survivorin an effort to heal herpain.

TheWarsaw-born author, best known for her award-winning 1994 children's novel The Old Brown Suitcase, published a new book earlier this year aimed at adults.

She presentedThe Mouth of Truth as part of Vancouver'sJewish Book Festival on Sunday.

"My childhood was grisly.It was good up until age five and then everything changed that one day when Germany invaded Poland and then it got progressively worse," she told CBC host of North By Northwest Sheryl MacKay.

Boraks-Nemetz escaped the Warsaw ghetto as a young child and, for the remainder of the war, hid with a false identity in the countryside.

In her latest book, a fictionalized autobiography, the protagonistdiscovers a rumour about her father and his time in the Jewish police force in the ghetto.

It leads to a journey to find answers to a betrayal by her father's friend, the death of her younger sister and events her family had been quiet about for years.

Digging deep

Writing the book tooka lot of digging, Boraks-Nemetz said, and she was in contact with a historian researching the topic of Jewshiding in Poland during the Holocaust.

"I felt terrible.I felt like I was digging into a grave and finding remnants of horrible things," she said. "It was terrifying actually."

Weaved throughoutthe narrative is an examination ofchildhood trauma and its lifelong effects somethingBoraks-Nemetzcan speak about with authority.

"The constant fear and the constant deprivation is what constitutes trauma in a child," she said. "I didn't realize it but I knew there was something horribly wrong when I grew up and had my own children and I looked back."

Facing trauma

Boraks-Nemetzsaid many other child survivors of the Holocaust have reached out to her about her writing.

"They identify with it struggling but not knowing what they were struggling with," she said.

Transmitting that trauma across generations is something she is sensitive to, she said.

Speaking before her book reading,Boraks-Nemetzsaid she looked forward to her family being there to hear it.

"I think it will be very important for them and for me, a very uniting moment," she said.

To hear more, click on the audio link below:

With files from North By Northwest.