Zipora Klein Jakob: On Ordinary People in Times of War

Zipora Klein Jakob holds academic degrees in Literature and History. She was a high school History teacher, a pedagogical counselor for university History education, and the manager of the Educator’s Promotion Division at the Open University. She also coaches memoirists.

Zipora Klein Jakob

Photo by Shirley Katzman

In this interview, Zipora discusses the personal connection that drew her to write her new biography, The Forbidden Daughter, her advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Zipora Klein Jakob
Book title: The Forbidden Daughter
Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher
Release date: April 23, 2024
Genre/category: History; Jewish Biography; Autobiography
Elevator pitch: The Forbidden Daughter is the true story of a girl born in defiance of the Nazis, a war orphan who moves from one family to another, changing her name each time, and struggling with her identity. Then, after finally building a new life in America, her story reaches a tragic end. She was “born in fire and died in fire.”

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What prompted you to write this book?

I first heard about Elida, my cousin and the protagonist of the book, when I was a teenager. Over the years, I was always intrigued by the drama of her life and the fate of my family in the Holocaust, and I spent a lot of time studying this period of WWII. I became determined to write about Elida’s unique story in order to perpetuate her memory and describe the fate of children who survived the Holocaust but continued to pay the price of war.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I worked on the book for eight years before it was published in Hebrew in Israel. A year later, it was translated into English and became available for purchase on Amazon. Much of the work involved research, including many interviews with members of the family and searching for documents, certificates, and letters. I found long-lost photographs and read many books on historical events connected to Elida’s life. I thought about writing the book as a novel at first, but the authentic material I collected enabled me to tell her story as a non-fiction biography.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

While collecting material for the book, I came across surprising sources of information, some of which added significant new “twists” to the plot. For example, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Israel, I was surprised to discover the identity of the Lithuanian family that had hidden Elida in their home during the war, when she was still a baby. When I traveled to meet with the family, they gave me a box of letters, photos, and other items the mother of the family had received from Elida’s mother 70 years earlier. The box also contained letters and pictures from the years Elida spent with their family. The names and events written on the back of the photos also led me to the story of the people involved in passing the girl from one family to another.

Another learning moment came when the Welfare Services office in Israel gave me access to a legal file with Elida’s adoption papers, and this information provided the basis for writing an important chapter in the book.

Letters written by Elida and the recollections of family members provided another vital source of information that helped me to describe the protagonist’s personality and not only the events she experienced.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

My motivation for writing the book was the desire to recount a chapter in the history of WWII. But instead of focusing on the major historical events of the war, I wanted to tell the story of ordinary people and the heavy price that families and children paid (and continue to pay) because of crazy leaders.

The story of Elida’s life illustrates how the personal fate of human beings in war is at the mercy of external, cruel forces and how their bitter fate continues to haunt them many years later.

And in particular, I wanted the book to introduce readers to the heroine of the story and to imprint an indelible memory of her in their minds.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

I have one piece of advice for those interested in writing a biography or a story with a historical background: It is critically important to conduct thorough research. Don’t leave any stone unturned in trying to discover what gems might be hidden in the information you collect. Conduct interviews, read novels from the period, collect pictures, testimonies, and official documents; tour the site of the events and do whatever else you can to shed light on the character, the setting in which she lived, and the central events (public and private) of her life. The more you invest in research, the better the writing process will be. 

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