Tell the Children, Letters to Miriam
… an important Holocaust book, but also the before and after. The letters in the book were written over a
period of 15 years in no particular order, short stories of specific incidents suggested by everyday
happenings. Some are sad or tragic, others are funny or sweet. Together they chronicle the life of a family
against the backdrop of the main historical events of 20th century Europe.
Chapter I: Sighet
Vignettes of a traditional Jewish life in the Northern Transylvanian town of
Sighet between the two World Wars.
Family portrait,
1920. Dora's
mother, top left,
her parents and
sisters.
Picnic in the Carpathians,
1940. Dora in the center,
boyfriend Tzali on her right
Chapter II: A-7603
The darkest, most shameful moments in the history of the modern world. Life and death, despair and
survival in the Nazi concentration camps.
Hometown of Sighet, center right, and the infamous Auschwitz, where some 10,000
jews from Sighet were sent to the gas chambers upon their arrival in May 1944.
Tzali's sister, Dori, and son
Yorrzo perished in Auschwitz.
Chapter III: Expectations
Liberation, coming home, optimism, building careers, starting a family, the promise of a bright future.
Dora and Tzali shortly after
they were married, 1945.
Chapter IV: Behind the Curtain
The promise of the Communist utopia and Workers’ Paradise gone sour.
Chapter V: Free World
Another liberation. Escape from the grips of Communist dictatorship and new beginnings in the West.
Leaving Europe behind, a sojourn in Brazil, and final immigration to the United States.
Queens, NY, fall 1965.
Epilogue
Jump forward 30 years. Dora and Zoltan, her high school boyfriend and husband of close to 60 years, have
retired to the San Francisco Bay Area. They now live in Berkeley, California, close to two of their children
and (at times) their seven grandchildren.
Dora and Tzali at the Berkeley Marina, 2004.
Tell The Children Table of Contents, Excerpts, Pictures
