Motherland: A new way to meet secondary schools' need for a compelling, accessible Holocaust text

With a reporter's precision and clarity and a novelist's mastery of theme and narrative, Fern Schumer Chapman has written in "Motherland" a compelling, concise memoir that offers an exciting new approach to secondary schools' vital obligation to provide sensitive and provocative texts in their Holocaust curriculum.

"Motherland" is a beautifully nuanced work that explores a seldom discussed aspect of Holocaust survival: the long-term impact of being an escapee -- one sent away from the cataclysmic destruction of the Holocaust, though at an enormous psychological cost to the "fortunate" child whose parents chose her life over theirs.

Vivid in its emotional landscape but absolutely non-graphic in touching on Holocaust violence, "Motherland" offers a real-life answer to the young reader's oft-asked question: "What would have happened to Anne Frank if her parents had saved her but not themselves?" In a driving narrative as gripping as any novel's, "Motherland" tracks a hard-earned victory of hope over memory as Chapman recounts her mother's journey back to her German childhood home where she heroically, if sometimes reluctantly, confronts her past in the context of Germany today.

It is this present-day context and immediacy that distinguish "Motherland" from many other Holocaust works. Sensitive yet clear-eyed, the book explores how modern Germans must wrestle with their own tormented consciences and stained past in confronting their history. In one vividly drawn character after another, we see how each individual faces these issues and how their responses measure up to the questions that torment the entire nation. Painting even more broadly on the canvas of history, this story leads organically to discussion of how the aftermath of any genocide can and does linger for generations.

This broader adaptability of "Motherland" is a rare attribute, one that makes it a strong classroom selection. Through her mother's tragic story, Chapman investigates themes with deep and universal resonance for adolescents: the quest for authentic identity, conflicted parent-child relationships, the challenge of living a moral life in a corrupt world, and the purpose and place of personal history in our lives. "Motherland" could serve as an ideal complement to Elie Wiesel's classic memoir, "Night". Both are elegantly written, emotionally absorbing and deeply instructive -- yet their differences are intriguing. Night focuses on the primary, direct experience of concentration camp existence; "Motherland" examines the agonizing legacy of those who never knew the camps, and the enduring impact of that legacy on succeeding generations. If the lens of Night focuses on the devastation of an individual boy, "Motherland" expands its scope to discern how one escapee's trauma spreads itself through a family. Wiesel writes of the present nature of destruction; Chapman speaks of the post-Holocaust experience, where ruin is more subtle and anguish more submerged.

"Motherland" was written for an adult audience, but this memoir easily adapts itself to secondary students' needs and abilities. Chapman's style is wonderfully lucid and graceful; a former journalist, she understands the power of well-crafted sentences and short paragraphs. She never flaunts vocabulary, instead using direct, powerful words elegantly and movingly. Perhaps most important of all, "Motherland" possesses a strong narrative and taut psychological stresses, two essential qualities in engaging the adolescent reader.

Chapman is an eloquent speaker who frequently addresses middle and high school audiences. She also is available to groups wishing to conduct phone interviews with her. Both the author and "Motherland" are a refreshing new approach to every school district's search for significant, accessible and memorable Holocaust literature.

Bruce Jay Wasser
Newark (CA) Unified School District

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