Book Review: We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

This book is based on the author’s family. After her grandfather’s death, at the young age of fifteen, Georgia learned that she came from a family of Holocaust survivors. This is their story.

This is a historical fiction novel based on Georgia’s grandfather, Addy Kurc. He is the head of a Jewish family living in Radom, Poland when World War II begins. The war separates Addy’s family members and spreads them across the globe.

Addy joins the army in France before deciding to escape from Europe. He eventually acquires a visa and boards a ship to Brazil. During his journey, he meets and falls in love with a Czechoslovakian woman named Eliska and the two become engaged. They become stranded in Dakar when the British refuse to let their ship proceed. He eventually makes it to Brazil and his engagement with Eliska comes to an end. Addy eventually marries an American woman named Caroline. She works at the embassy in Rio.

Addy’s aging parents Sol and Nechuma choose to stay in their home in Radom, Poland. His sisters Halina and Mila stay with them. While living under German occupation soldiers take control of their property and they are forced to move to the ghettos and work under grueling conditions.

Eventually Halina escapes the ghetto with her cousin Franka. Their escape requires them to cross a freezing river and an encounter with German soldiers. Halina marries Adam – a player in the Polish Underground.

Mila applied to a program claiming to send educated Jews to America. This however was not the case. She manages to bribe a German officer allowing her and her baby daughter Felicia to return to Radom. She smuggles her baby across the border under her coat. The two of them make it to a convent where they hope to live until the war comes to an end.

His brother Genek joins the Polish army. He and his wife Herta are apprehended and sent to a labor camp in Siberia. Their son Józef is born in the wretched conditions of war. Genek and Herta eventually secure release from the labor camp. Genek denies his Jewish religion and the family takes on a new identify as Christians in order to join the Polish Army.

His brother Jakob also joins the Polish army. Jakob secretly marries his girlfriend Bella in Lvov, Poland which falls under German occupation. Jakob, Bella, Halina and Franka hide out in the home of a Polish family while Jews are massacred in the streets.

By the time the war finally comes to an end, most of the family members have lost contact with one another and don’t know how to find each other. Individually, they yearn to be reunited as a family once again. It is eventually through a list compiled by the Red Cross that the family members find one another.

Addy and Caroline bring his family to live with them in Rio, Brazil. The Kurc family gets together to celebrate Passover and they ponder on the miracles of their survival through the Holocaust and their eventual reunion.

So many books set during World War II tend to be discouraging — I appreciate that this book has a happy ending. Although I found each of the character’s stories intriguing, there is a lot going on in this book and I struggled a bit to keep track of what was happening with each of the characters. If you are looking for a story from World War II ending with a happy family reunion, you may enjoy this read. On a scale of 1 -5, I give this book 3.5 stars.