Things I Learned From Writing My Memoir
To know all of the details of your life is one thing, but then to revisit those details, to write about them and examine them anew, is a completely different thing. I was an eyewitness to history, and Adieu: A Memoir of Holocaust Survival is my telling of those survival details.
(How You Know When the Time Is Right to Write a Memoir.)
While I knew that my—and some of my family’s—survival story was one of beating the odds, I have a fresh perspective on that side of my story in writing this memoir. To know the details of my story so intimately is, of course, to be expected, but then to see those details laid out on a timeline is another thing entirely. Place my own personal details within the timeline and details of history, and it becomes fairly shocking.
Given everything that was transpiring around us, how did we survive? How did we get from one day to the next? We focused on the details of our need for survival so intently that we didn’t often see the bigger picture or even have information about that bigger picture. But now I have that gift of information. It has profoundly shocked me to realize that so many survived a similar plight as some of my family. This has been one of the greatest things I have learned.
Another thing that surprised me, and actually now I think it is rather magnificent as I look through my Writer’s lens, is the variety of things that I have seen, participated in, suffered from, gained from, and achieved. If you looked at my odds of survival and living a full life at the age of 4, 7, 12, 16, those would not have been good. But survive and live and achieve, I did.
The importance of getting my life story out to the world is a way to thank the many who helped me survive and were involved in my story. Additionally, I wanted to make sure that the events of my life had a chance to reach a bigger platform than as a history for my family only. I had a lot of people who looked out for me, a lot of people who sacrificed for me and risked everything in their lives to keep me safe. I overcame when so many others couldn’t.
But I had help from people who had enough love, decency, encouragement, and faith within themselves that they allowed themselves to put their lives on the line for another human being. The tale of their strength, humanity, and the danger they endured must be told and preserved, as well as my story.
Another topic that I felt was very important for me to discuss in my book relates to the absolute feeling of loneliness and isolation that I experienced. When a child is deprived of normalcy: no parents, no home, no friends, no relatives, no knowledge of what the next hour or the next day will bring, it’s almost impossible to adjust to that terrifying reality or to retain any hope. However, instead of being depressed and defeated, I refused to accept those feelings as my reality. I would not allow myself to succumb to that.
I hoped to put my story in book form for a long time, and to that end, I dictated notes for many years. While I wrote on a daily basis as an attorney, I have never written a book. Loren Stephens of Write Wisdom helped me put my years of verbal notes into book form.
The truth feels evident to me now: As much as there is ugliness and evil in the world, there is so much good in life. This comes from the basic drives of people to help, love, and pursue good. I have certainly experienced both in my lifetime.
Check out Alfred J. Lakritz’s Adieu: A Memoir of Holocaust Survival here:
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