Book Tour and Book Review: The Strange Ways of Providence in my Life by Krystyna Carmi #review

Biographies & Memoirs

Date Published : april 11 2015

Publisher - Ebookpro

Happy childhood, horrors of war and the miraculous rescue of the only child survivor from Obertyn

Krystyna Carmi's childhood in Obertyn was full of happy moments. Her childhood was filled with friends, both Polish and Ukrainian, and she attended a Ukrainian school. 

Krystyna Carmi was gifted with an extraordinary memory, and in this memoir, she vividly recounts the history of her family and her life before, during and after World War II. But her happy childhood did not last long; World War II changed it forever.

A girl’s survival in the face of pure evil: loss and persistence against all odds.

However, the worst was still ahead for the Jewish community in Obertyn and for Krystyna’s family. After the Germans ordered the Jews to move into the Kołomyja ghetto, Krystyna’s family went to live in the ghetto. People died in the ghetto because of hunger and physical exhaustion; their bodies were collected on a platform placed in the street. These deaths did not escape the attention of the sensitive girl, and she’ll be forever haunted by the faces of those who died.

Her parents and her sister did not survive the family’s attempt to escape the ghetto, but despite her loss, Krystyna struggled to stay alive; she was hiding in order to save her life, she faced hunger, thirst, fear for her life. Nevertheless, Providence has chosen for her to live, to be.

More than a memoir, The Strange Ways of Providence in my Life, gives the reader a piece of history.

The book contains more than 100 photos, taken by Krystyna’s father, a professional photographer, who sent them to his family in Israel before the war. In the book, you will also find amazing photos of the members of the Jewish community, drowned in the Dniester river by Ukrainians few years later.

Doctor Markus Willbach, a friend of Krystyna’s family, an adult at that time, depicts an account that emphasizes the authenticity of Krystyna Carmi’s memories as a little girl. His account of the events is part of the book.

This powerful memoir will leave you breathless and heartbroken, yet, inspired. A must read!

Review

The man word that I can think of to describe this novel is emotional. I think that the way the author was able to put her life in to words was really well done. The fact that I felt her emotions so deeply is a true testament to her writing ability.

This novel was the ultimate Happy, Sad and Defeated, and eventually her Prevailing over the circumstances. Such a strong woman to have survived everything she did.

I think stories like these really put into perspective our lives vs. the lives of our ancestors. Growing up in a time of war and so much grief and sadness is so unimaginable for me, yet I feel like reading Krystyna Carmi's words helped me envision some of the things people and children went through back then. 

About the Author

Krystyna was born in Obertyn, Poland. Her father was a photographer by profession. Initially, she attended a Ukrainian school in Obertyn. Further education was interrupted by the war, when the town was under the management of the Ukrainian and German Nazis and Krystyna, as a 9 year old girl, was exiled with her family and all other Jews from Overtyn to the ghetto in Kołomyja.

The life conditions in which Obertyn Jews had to live are described in the poem Molasa - Ghetto Sweets; she shows in a fictile, detailed way, psychophysical suffering caused by hunger. People die in the ghetto because of hunger and physical exhaustion; their bodies were collected on a platform. These deaths do not escape the attention of a sensitive and suffering girl, who years later will write a poem with the title In Remembrance of Innocently Suffering People of Different Ages and Sexes from Kołomyja Ghetto; a picture of the platform will stay in her memory forever. "The open mouth and eyes of these human corpses have been hunting me all my life...

Then she escaped from the ghetto with her parents. Her sisters were murdered and her parents executed.

After the loss of her entire family she was adopted in 1944 by the family Gaczyńskich who took care of her further education. In March 1945, when the Ukrainian Bandera increased persecution of Poles, including Kolomyja, Gaczyńskich family agreed to return to their homes in Brzesko. Krystyna moved to Jordanow home for orphans, called "Our House", where she attended High School, which ends in 1951.

Since 1958 Krystyna lives in Israel. In 1997 she established a small library located in the Polish belonging to the Franciscan church, St. Peter monastery in Jaffa. Her contact with the Polish book memoirs that soothe the longing for the homeland - indeed, as she says has two Homeland - Poland and Israel.

She is married with 2 children and 5 grandchildren.

Her poems were published in local journals in Poland:

"Echo Jordanowa" (Bible Society of Friends of the Earth Jordanów), March - April 1996 years No. 20; Religion poem,

School newspaper, "What's the matter," Pulawy No. 2/98 (6) Charming rows like a dream, Ash Wednesday in the Holy Land and the memories of school days in high school school in Jordanow.

(P. 27 - 32 of that magazine)

"Source" Weekly Catholic Families, Kraków, Bielsko - Biala, Rzeszow, Sosnowiec, No. 30 (239) July 28, 1996, contains a poem Meeting in the Garden.

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