Description
Book SynopsisHow does a nation - how do successor generations, moral beings - overcome a bloody past? How do we judge the bystanders, collaborators, perpetrators, rescuers, and ourselves? These are the questions Ellen Cassedy confronts in
We Are Here, one woman's exploration of Lithuania's Jewish history combined with a personal exploration of her own family's place in it.
Trade Review“Pioneering. . . . [
We Are Here] will reach out to . . . all those who care about not replaying in this new century the disasters of the century that has just ended.”—Michael Steinlauf, author of
Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust“This eloquent book can help us to reach out, open our hearts, and rediscover one another in a spirit of mutual understanding.”—Hon. Valdas Adamkus, former president of Lithuania
“A most captivating read. Cassedy offers an extraordinary perspective, human and moving, to concerns that often are hidden by tired clichés, sentimentality, or anger. A rare document.”—Samuel Bak, survivor of the Vilna ghetto and author of
Painted in Words"Uncovering this history with an intimate, personal and investigative approach, Cassedy explores how the people of this country, Jews and non-Jews, are confronting their marred past and moving onward."—
Jerusalem Post"All answers are tentative. All questions are crucial. Cassedy's quest is brilliantly balanced, totally engaging, and constantly penetrating."—Philip K. Jason,
Jewish Book World"Ellen Cassedy's
We Are Here challenges us to think again about what it means to remember the Holocaust in the present. . . . The struggle Cassedy so eloquently engages in to resist the logic of competing memory may be only that much more urgent today than when she was there."—Laura Levitt, H Net
Table of ContentsPreparations
Part 1. Mir zaynen do
Here, on This Spot
The Nazi Era
The Soviet Era
The Bystander
Part 2. Mes Dar Esame
Our Goal Is to Transform Ourselves
An Indelible Memory and an Unhealing Scar
Jewish Ways of Learning
Landsman
I Helped What I Can
Part 3. We Are All Here
From the Archives
At the Gate
Leaving the Jerusalem of the North
Voices of the Shavl Ghetto
The Bystander and the Jewish Policeman
Important Dates in Lithuanian History
Author's Note
