Good for a Single Journey (Holocaust Survivor True Stories)
Good for a Single Journey is the novelization of a true story: that of the author’s family. From her great-grandparents down the years to her own presence, Helen Joyce weaves an intriguing tapestry. Their story begins as World War I is ending when her great-grandparents fled Galicia to escape the Russian pogroms, winding up in Vienna. All is peaceful for a time, but their children don’t want to follow in their old ways, strictly following Orthodox Jewish rules. But after much anger and compromise on both sides, a new way of living is hammered out.
The 1930s sees the rise of Hitler and fascism, and once again the family is torn between those who don’t want to leave their homes – not even to move to Israel – and those of their children, who desperately urge them to emigrate. This section is particularly compelling; I kept wanting to scream at the characters, “Get out of Hitler’s path and go to Israel!” Some of the family survives World War II; some do not.
Then we follow the family as they settle into a new life in the new state of Israel. And as the family continues to adjust to yet another new land, and continues to grow…
Good for a Single Journey is a fascinating, compelling saga of a real-life family. None of them are notable save to their family, but in the skilled pen of Helen Joyce, they become notable to the reader. This is a story of faith and hope, of despair and loss. I heartily recommend this book!
