We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

An extraordinary novel based on the true story of a family of Polish Jews who are separated at the start of the Second World War determined to survive-- and to reunite.

But equally as fascinating a read is the author’s own true story and how she came to write the book.  At age 15, the seeds for this novel were planted when a high school teacher assigned an I-search project for students to explore their ancestry.  In talking with her grandmother, Hunter, who not being raised in the Jewish faith, was surprised to learn that she came from a family of Holocaust survivors.  She didn’t think about the project for another six years until she attended a family reunion where more stories of the war were revealed.  “I knew then that I needed to investigate and write about what happened.”

Hunter took off on a nine-year journey, armed with a digital voice recorder, that took her around the globe. The result is her acclaimed book starring her ancestors, the Kurc  family.

Page one opens in the spring of 1939 in Radom, Poland, where three generations of this family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war looms closer.  The talk around the Seder table is of new babies and budding romances.  But soon the horrors become inescapable. Driven by an unwavering will to survive and by the fear that they may never see each other again, the Krucs must rely on hope, ingenuity and inner strength to persevere.

This novel spans five continents in six years.  It transports the reader from the jazz clubs of Paris to Karkow’s brutal prison to the ports of Northern Africa and the farthest reaches of the Siberian gulag. 

There are countless stories of WW II and often when I begin reading one, I wonder how it will differ from the others. This one, because it is based on truly incredible circumstances, renews the human spirit and  yes, it is aptly titled.  They were indeed the Lucky Ones.