Reviewed by Lucinda E Clarke for Readers' Favorite

There have been many stories about the horrors of the Holocaust before and during the Second World War, but Surviving Remnant by Hanna Perlstein Marcus is one of the few that tells us what happened to those who survived. I learned so much from this book, which I read almost in one sitting. Hanna’s mother spent four years in a displaced person’s camp, waiting to be resettled after the war. The paltry amount offered in reparation by the German government took my breath away, and the difficulties so many faced when they finally landed in America. Despite them being welcomed, few people consider the problems of settling into a new country with a different language, customs and culture. Hanna vividly describes the small Jewish community, which became a second family, and the bewilderment of being the only child of a single parent which was very rare in the 1950s – she spent years wondering who and where her father was.

The most amusing part of Hanna Perlstein Marcus’s book, Surviving Remnant, was her matchmaking attempts to find her mother a new husband and herself a new father. She was doomed to failure. Typical of many mothers of that time, hers was not a warm, cuddly mother, but often cold and distant, possibly due to the amount of pain she had suffered. Life was not easy for any of the families and some were more successful than others. Hanna’s mother was a skilled seamstress and eventually made a name for herself in the community. One thing I liked about this book was the lack of complaining, with no victim mentality, although surviving Jews had good reason to complain. Instead, they each in their own way began a new life and made the best of what little they had. The majority did very well in America and I’m sure with the attitudes described in this book the majority of the next generation excelled in their chosen field. Well-drawn characters, and enjoyable descriptions of various events and celebrations make this book a good read.