“Sometimes, the only way to survive is to believe in the impossible.”–Georgia Hunter, We Were the Lucky Ones
This is an amazing novel based on the true story of the Kurc family during WWII. They are a Jewish family living in Poland whose lives are forever changed when the unthinkable happens–Poland is invaded and their survival is threatened. They are separated with one son trying to leave the continent, another exiled, and the remaining family members lives depend on working in terrible conditions in the ghetto or pretending to be gentiles and hoping they are not discovered. By the end of the war, they are scattered across the world.
I found this story fascinating as it addressed aspects of the war I was not familiar with. The author, Georgia Hunter, did not know she was descended from Holocaust survivors. While in high school, she was assigned a family history project and that is when she started learning the story. Several years and much research later, she wrote “We Were the Lucky Ones” and we are lucky that she shared the story with us.
Content Advisory: War violence, disturbing conditions and situations, references to sex