Briar

Dear Moeder (Mother in Dutch or in this case Grandma),

I recently finished a book by Jane Yolen that I just could not put down. I was truly captivated by the story that so reminded me of you and I. “Briar Rose” is the retelling of the classic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. Yolen sets the story in America after World War Two. It begins with the death of Gemma, the grandmother of the main character Rebecca, and recounts Becca’s quest to discover the truth behind her grandmother’s mysterious past. That journey takes her to post WWII Poland where she uncovers her Gemma’s heartbreaking past and inspiring story of courage. From your stories I knew readings Yolen’s book would not be easy, but I wasn’t really prepared for it. Words like extermination, survive, evil, forgive, death pulled at my emotions, creating a whole new setting for the stories of humor, love and courage you always told. I knew that world was horrible, I really did, Moeder. I’ve seen Schindler’s List, the Holocaust documentaries but in my mind you were never really there, never really a part of that world. But Rebecca was only 23, my age. I keep thinking I’ll discover a box of mysteries from your past. Moeder, the numbers, oh the numbers: “seven trips for the vans, three van each time, twenty one loads. Between eighty to one hundred dead each time…” it doesn’t seem real. Moeder, I saw you on every page. My heart cried to think that perhaps you had gone through this too. You were there, you saw it; the death, destruction and deception the raked the world around you yet you remain a model of human compassion and love much like Rebecca’s grandmother. I barely remember the main characters, but the lines and words burned images in to my mind that haunt me still. Jane Yolen quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson stating: “The hero is not fed on sweets but daily his own heart he eats.” Did you sacrifice the same, risking your life, your heart for a series of strangers who neither lived nor died once they left your side? Did you lose yourself too, blocking out the life that knew no pain in order to survive this new world of devastation? How, Moeder, how did you continue to hope? How did you keep your heart so full when you were force to devour it? I love you. Your courage and faith in humanities goodness inspires me. You are a true hero Moeder. Thank you for teaching me that.

Love Always, Your Humbled Granddaughter

Diary Entry (Ashley Purdy)

Dear Diary, I just finished the book Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. I can't help but wipe the tears from my cheek as I sit in complete shock. It's not as if I have never been exposed to the Holocaust before. I read Anne Frank and have even been to the secret annex in Amsterdam, I have seen Schindler's List, and have been to the Museum of Tolerance in high school; but for some reason, this book reaches a different side of the Holocaust and has left me with the thirst for knowledge. I want to know more. I feel as if this side of the story hasn't been told, about the other people locked away in the ghettos and in the concentration camps. This book has left me with a call to action, a feeling of wanting to do something. I don't know what, but I just know I have to do something. I feel connected to the material, even though only my maternal grandmother is Jewish, I feel strongly connected to it and it has truly affected me. I recommended the book to my mom and she passed it on to a lady she knows who also enjoyed it. I think the more people know, the better decisions they will make.

Writers Note: I wanted this entry to be a sort of free-flowing thought process that usually diary entries follow. I wanted to talk about a lot of different topics at once, but mostly how the book made me feel afterward. I wanted to capture that feeling.