Set in World War II, Georgia Hunter's debut novel, We Were the Lucky Ones, is based on actual events in her family. At 15, Hunter discovered her family had once lived in Radom, Poland, and had been persecuted for being Jews. Her desire to know more led Hunter to conduct years of interviews with family members, friends and other Holocaust survivors as well as extensive research of the war through movies, books and stacks of records. The story Hunter tells through the eyes of her grandparents, great-grandparents and other relatives is one of amazing endurance, bravery, determination and unwavering love.
In early 1939, young Addy Kurc is living in Paris, enjoying the music and food of the city on his days off from work as an engineer. Although he's far from his family in Poland, he knows he'll return to share Passover with his parents and siblings. Then a letter arrives from his beloved mother, begging him to stay where he is, not to attempt to cross German borders because it's dangerous to do so. He realizes his mother is not telling him everything and that he's missed or ignored clues that indicate unrest and hostility toward Jews. It will be many years before Addy sees his mother again.
Meanwhile, his sisters, brothers and parents are facing their own dangerous situations. On September 1, 1939, Hitler invades Poland and begins his systematic annihilation of the Jewish population of Europe. Within weeks, the Red Army takes over the eastern part of Poland. Forced into ghettos or shipped off to Siberia, family members struggle to get through one more day under the harshest of conditions. Severe cold during the winter, intolerable heat in the summer, little to no food for days at a time and the constant fear of deportation to one of the many "work" camps--which are no more than death zones--take their toll, but each Kurc is determined to survive. Each has his or her own hell to live through, whether bombings, beatings, fierce battles or months of hidden confinement, but, miraculously, they emerge scarred but alive.
Hunter does an excellent job of bringing history to life, with just enough gruesome details of what happened during the Holocaust while conveying the desires and hopes of the Kurcs as they fell in love, got married, and had children during this horrific period. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer
Shelf Talker: This story of one family's incredible ability to stay alive during the Holocaust is based on true events.