Description
Book SynopsisHolocaust to Resistance, My Journey is a powerful, awe-inspiring memoir from author and activist Suzanne Berliner Weiss. Born to Jewish parents in Paris in 1941, Suzanne was hidden from the Nazis on a farm in rural France. Alone after the war, she lived in Communist-run orphanages, where she gained a belief in peace and brotherhood. Adoption by a New York family led to a tumultuous youth haunted by domestic conflict, fear of nuclear war and anti-communist repression, consignment to a detention home and magical steps toward relinking with her origins in Europe. At age seventeen, Suzanne became a lifelong social activist, engaged in student radicalization, the Cuban Revolution, and movements for Black Power, women’s liberation, peace in Vietnam and freedom for Palestine. Now nearing eighty, Suzanne tells how the ties of friendship, solidarity and resistance that saved her as a child speak to the needs of our planet today.
Table of ContentsContents: In the Mountains of Auvergne (France, 2017) • Recovery from Fascism (France, 1943–48) • The Lady from America (France, 1948–50) • My New World (New York, 1950–54) • Being Jewish in America (New York, 1954–56) • Family in Crisis (New York, 1956–57) • A Blind Date Brings a Miracle (New York, 1957) • A Feud Causes Chaos (New York, 1958) • On Strike for Justice (New York, 1958) • A New Beginning (Los Angeles, 1958–59) • Path to Independence (California, 1959–60) • Honeymoon in a Revolution (Cuba, 1960) • Fair Play for Cuba (Los Angeles, 1960–62) • A Wrenching Decision (Los Angeles, 1961) • Engaging with Black Liberation (Los Angeles and Chicago, 1963–65) • Fajga’s Plan for My Safety (Chicago and New York, 1963–72) • First Woman on the Web Press (New York, 1965–72) • Assistant to Veteran Socialists (Los Angeles, 1972–75) • Pioneering Women’s Rights (New Orleans, 1975–79) • Facing Up to Labour’s Retreat (New Orleans, 1979–83) • Poland, Nicaragua and Uncertainties (1981–84) • The Buck Stops Here (Virginia and New York, 1984–87) • Restoring Family Ties (New York, 1984–87) • Land of My Birth (France, 1988) • New Home in the North (Toronto, 1994–2003) • The Town My Mother Left Behind (Poland, 1939–45) • The Call of Global Solidarity (Toronto, 2004–16) • Not in My Name (Toronto, Egypt, 2005–17) • The Human Thing to Do (Auvergne, 2011–15) • “Solidarity, Generosity and Love” (Auvergne, 2015–17) • The Road Ahead • Acknowledgments • Sources • Index
