We just finished our Book Club review of Motherland, and it is the book of the year in our city of Racine, Wisconsin. The connection I have stilted my reading
of the book, for while many found it's main focus to be the mother/daughter
connection, which was done so wonderfully, it was a door opened to me through
your family's experience and writing, to the history of the Holocaust, the
feelings from the German and the Jewish experience, also unspeakable in my
family. I am a first generation American, with my Father, Oma and Opa from
Germany also. Except for other's discussion and written record, we were never
engaged in discussion about our German heritage. The response was usually a
quiet "We don't talk about that." It's a personal loss for me, but your book
helped me understand it more clearly. Thank you.

Dear Fern,

I am reading Motherland for the third time because I love the story. It touched my heart and soul and does everytime I read it. What your mother went
through was terrible. I hope your mom is well. Also I hope this note finds you
well too.

I really enjoyed the book, and after finishing it, I am about to send it to my cousin whose Mother is a "survivor". My maternal grandparents adopted two French war orphans in the late 1940's when they were 10 and 11 years old. They had been hidden in a farm and then sent to the US after the war. Their parents and some of their siblings were killed in the Holocaust. The younger surviving siblings were adopted and the older brothers got jobs and were on their own. My cousin is the daughter of one of the girls adopted by my grandparents. I think she will relate very much to this book, as her mother has always struggled with her sense of obligation to her two families.

Thanks so much for speaking at our Saint Mary's Guild meeting. It was amazing to hear all of your wisdom! I absolutely love your book. It has moved me immensely. I plan to use my writing skills for something that will help people too! You are an inspiration and a blessing to all of your readers!

I am reading this book with Mr. Watser at the NJHS and this is a amazing, intresting, and very detail book. I hope to meet you later in the future and maybe learn a little more about the book.

Dear Fern,

Happy Hanukah and a happy and healthful New Year to you and your family. You may remeber that we met on a United flight from Chicago to San Francisco on October 29th. I bought your book as soon as I got home but just now picked it up and read it.

What a touching personal story with such insights into childhood, loss and war! I felt that I really got to know you and your mother. I just wanted to get back to it to pick up and read on. I was sort of proud of myself for identifying your mother as a heroine before you said it yourself.

I am passing it along today to my friend who is also an author.

Best wishes to you in your life and work.

Hello Fern,

I heard you speak at Temple Sinai in the Milwaukee area this past year. I can't remember exactly when that was. I introduced myself to you after the program -
my parents were Holocaust survivors from Poland and I am active in Holocaust education in our community. I found your book very moving and am glad to read that the story may be put on film.

Dear Fern,

Your mum has sent me the good knews from your book and I give you my congratulations! It´s no wunder that the book and your work is succesfull, we are proud of you!

Your friends from Stockstadt, Riedstadt and Rüsselsheim . I wish you and your family a merry christmas and a happy new year

Looking forward to your visit with us.

I, too am an OTC, arriving in New York without parents 1 Feb.1940 at age 14. I went to live in a foster home in Philadelphia,which turned out to be serendipidous. I visited my home town in Germany several
times, ones with my young children, a very emotional experience. I found your very interesting and well done web site through Iris Posner. I am a retired engineer and enjoying the good life here in America.

We will be discussing your book at our next bookclub meeting. I would like to know if there is anything more you'd add to the book or anything more you'd like to mention at this time. Have you kept in touch with any of the people in Germany? I loved the book! Also, I have found your website very helpful. Thank you.

Thanks for charing with us your family-history. I can't stop thinking about it all. I was very glad to see your family photo's of you, your mother and Mina! Mina isn't dead, she is still alive in all your readers! Thanks for your book!!!!!

This certainly gave an entirely different perspective on a so-called Holocaust survivor. I had a hard time reading the book only because I kept shedding so many tears for your Mother and her hardships.

I see you do give presentations and I was wondering if you would be able to tell your Mother's story at our Business and Professional group of Hadassah, that meets on a Thursday afternoon, some time next fall either Sept. or Oct?

Do you charge? Because we are a small group, we wouldn't be able to afford much, but that could be discussed, later. Thank you again for such an enlightening book. Doris Sopkin

Dear Ms. Chapman, I have been is a woman's book club for the past 17 years. Some woman come and go but for the most part most of the original woman still remain.We have read hundreds of books in the past and each woman takes her turn to review each book. We always have a lively discussion since each woman thinks that she has the deepest insite into the author and her reason for writing the book we have chosen. All of the woman in the book club are Jewish woman and jewish mothers and we have had many mother related books. Some woman have had various relationships with our mother and we have discussed our battles but none of us have had mothers who have come from Germany or any other countries similiar to your mother. I know that these woman would love to have you visit our discussion group as we have picked your book for our April 9th book club night. Please email me your thoughts on my invitation. Sincerely, Lesley Elisco

Dear Ms.Chapman, after rereading "Motherland" I wanted to let you know my admiration for the uncanny, sensitive and resonant manner in which you have caught the mood and the emotion of the escapee/returnee. I know, because I have been there, and again, I held my breath at the precise nuances with which you have depicted the entire emotional spectrum. We, too, have taken our children back, except that they wanted to go and we really did not. Anyway, you have created a wonderful book and much luck to you.

Having been profoundly moved by Fern Schumer Chapman's Motherland, I looked forward to her book talk with enormous expectations.  A dynamic, forceful and persuasive public speaker, Fern more than exceeded my hopes.  Her presentation somehow managed to both advance the understanding of her remarkable memoir for those who had already read it while fostering intense interest in the essential themes of Motherland for those who had not.  In addition to her memorable formal address, Fern responded flawlessly to audience questions and commentary, met with local students in a private seminar and graciously consented to inscribe personal messages in her book for those who asked.  I travelled five hundred miles to hear her and would do so again on a moment's notice.

Very well put together site

The book is awesome...

As a survivor who spent her childhood in the same part of Germany, it evokes many feelings and happenings in my own life as a child during the Nazi time. It brought back all the memories of my first visit back, all the anxieties of going "home" and meeting the very people who drove us out.

The author shows incredible insight and compassion; it helped me understand my own relationships with my family, my own confusion about my past.

I will give the book to both my adult children. I will also order the German edition.

Dear Fern,

I enjoyed meeting you at the Rancho Santa Fe Literary Society. Thank you for coming to our town!

I have a question for you. I am a volunteer in a book club for girls in juvenile hall in San Diego. These are teens, ages 12 to 17. We attempt to provide a wide range of literature to them, but certainly selections with female protagonists, women's history, strong women as role models. Though I am just starting to read your book since the luncheon yesterday, I am wondering if this might be a good selection for our girls...especially since we like to touch on history and themes of tolerance. The other question, if I may be so bold, would be to ask if there would be any chance to get books donated to this reading group. (Northern Trust might even be able to help, but I would have to ask Ron Phillips.)

Thank you for your inspiring talk. I have been a member of the literary society since its inception here in RSF, and when the questions don't stop...you know the author was a hit! We loved having your visit.

Sincerely,

Christina Fink

Fern,

I so enjoyed your talk today, it gives a different perspective to the holocaust and the "escapees". It's a nice rainy day and I'm going to sit down and read it and recommend it to my book club, and I will pass it on to my daughter. Thanks so much for sharing this story and to your mother for finally
being able to let go.

One of the most compelling and well-written books I have read this year.

Dear Mrs Chapman,

I am just writing a comment on your book for a scientific journal on gender studies in Freiburg/ Germany and wanted to express how deeply impressed I am by your poetic and touching way of expressing the complex problem of still dealing with the holocausst 57 years later.

As I am German I am in an way quite "fed up" with stories about national-socialist Germany. That does not mean that I am not interested in them any more, it is just that not all texts about the time still touch me profoundly.

But your book did and in my comment I will recommend vividly to read it! I hope it is going to be a real success in Germany. I was particularly impressed about your - in my opinion - particularly well done mixture: on the one hand the generation that just wanted to forget the war an felt the unease of meeting Edith again so many years later although they had still been children when it happened, on the other hand those who felt their cowardness and suffered from it even so many years later - like Hans

I also admire your poetic style and your capability to find the words that fit although your text is not complicated to read!

Again: My compliments!

Best regards

Ruth Brand (ruthbrand@gmx.de)

Hello, I would like to have contact with you to invite you to our book club. We are a group of 12? 13? 14? women fro from down-town area, who are self-lead and truly interesting. The problem is that our meeting, in a Hancock Building home is next Wednesday, April 10, and would greatly appreciate you joining us from 11AM to 12. We have enjoyed having other authors, and they have enjoyed us, also. One you might check us out with is Elizabeth Taylor of the Trib. Would it possibly work for you? If yes, or if not, would you please contact me at (312) 280-8373? I know this is very late notice, and I apologize for that.

Sincerely, and with much appreciation for your work,

Joan Lourie, LCPC

A friend of mine tells me that you were at her bookclub and reported that the German edition is about to be released in March 2002. Could you please post German reviews and reaction to Motherland on your website? Thanks.

It's a great book. I insist that anyone who has had a mother will love it. And I, have a terrific mother, the author. (A terrific grandma, too!) Isabelle Chapman

Motherland is a must read for: anyone who has or has had a mother, anyone whose mother had a traumatic experience, anyone who seeks insights into mother-child relationships, Well, that's about everybody. Read and relish. Try not to weep too much.

...I assure you the highlight of the trip was the fact I was able to read "Motherland". What a beautifully written book - and such a touching account of one family's holocaust experience. The guy next to me on the plane was polite enough not to stare at me crying on the airplane. I almost didn't notice all the bumps! I truly enjoyed reading it.

...I could hardly put it down. However, I kept stopping to savor the beautiful images you had captured in the printed word. Thank you for a reading experience I will pass on to my daughter and my daughter-in-law this Christmas.

Just finished "Motherland" and am still feeling each page. Perhaps the most important thing to me is that it was forwarded to me by my adult daughter.I am not an escapee,but in each persons life things happeen that affect them and their children as wellThis story of the relationship between mother and daughter is so real and so important to me personally that I thank you for letting me share it What your little Isabelle will gain from you and her grandmother cannot be measured.

Again,many thanks and my copy goes on to another daughter.

Jackie Kasnetz

This book is perfect for book clubs. It gives them a great opportunity to explore mother/daughter issues.

Hey Fern,

Nice site! And just for the record, I read the book three times and it made me cry each time.

xxxx Marian

Your book made me reflect upon my relationship with my mother. Her past wasn't as traumatic as your mother's, but she never talked much about her family. Now, I am going to ask more questions. I want to know more about her identity. I expect I will learn much about myself.

I just finished reading your book "Motherland," and I want to thank you very much for writing it. On the one hand it is very universal, about how little we know the people we live with and who shape us. On the other hand, it gave me a lot to think about in terms of the Jewish experience, specifically in terms of the effect on the next generation. Your book arouses so much compassion. I've bought a few copies and am passing them around to my friends and family. Thanks again for this marvelously human work.

I finished Motherland and am blown away. I plan to give a copy to numerous people.

I could not put Motherland down. I wept through nearly every chapter. Wept over the mother brave enough to send her daughter away, knowing she would never see her again. Wept over the relationship that Chapman had with her own mother: by turns close, puzzling, quirky and anxious. And incredibly, I even wept for a German man who had done nothing to help the Schumer family in their time of greatest need.

You bet I am telling my friends and family about the book!

I want you to know that I was deeply moved by your book. Ever since my school days I've been anxious to learn as much as possible about the terrible crimes against the Jews. When watching documentaries from those times I was the only one in class who would cry. Although I was born in 1965 and didn't live at that time, and although I'm not Jewish, I've always felt strangely drawn by that dark spot in German history.

Your book moved me enormously a) because my background is very similar to your mother's as is my age (72) and b) we both come from the same part of rural Germany, though mine was even more rural, the Odenwald, which you also describe.