Author shares story of Holocaust survivor
East Brunswick woman writes of mother’s experience in labor camp
BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

Longtime East Brunswick resident Shirley Russak Wachtel is the author of “The Story of Blima: A Holocaust Survivor,” published by Townsend Press.

EAST BRUNSWICK — She’s not afraid of exploring old wounds as long as it means teaching something to a new generation.

Shirley Russak Wachtel, an East Brunswick resident and author, recently released “The Story of Blima: A Holocaust Survivor,” about her mother, who survived a labor camp in Poland during World War II. The book, which was taken from Wachtel’s doctoral dissertation, was released in May, published by Townsend Press, of West Berlin, Camden County.

Wachtel will be speaking on the issue Sept. 25 during a Jewish Community Day at Barnes & Noble, Route 18. The event, involving several authors who will host discussions and book-signings, runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is the result of several area synagogues joining together to celebrate Jewish authors and literature. Funds will be raised for the participating congregations through an in-store voucher book fair.

Wachtel is hoping her latest book will be integrated into school systems as part of the Holocaust studies required in New Jersey curricula.

“[Townsend Press] started their own library series, and they provide these books to schools to get kids interested in learning,” Wachtel said of the publisher.

Part of the reason she wants the book used in schools is “to speak to students and tell my mother’s story.”

Much of that story is sad, as her mother was the first of her family to be taken into a labor camp, Wachtel said. Blima Weisstuch was put to work sewing officers’ uniforms, and only survived because a female guard at the camp “took her under her wing.” The guard, named Gizzella, was a Catholic who deplored the war.

“She did save her,” Wachtel said.

However, her mother later heard that the Nazis found out about Gizzella and killed her.

Townsend Press chose to publish only the first part of the dissertation, but Wachtel is hoping to get the remainder published as well. Collectively, the three sections are known as “My Mother’s Life.”

The second section is about her mother’s adjustments to life in America and with her new husband and family, she said. It is also about Wachtel’s own life as a child of a Holocaust survivor. She alternates voices in the section, taking her mother’s voice for one chapter and switching back to her own for the next.

The third section is short, and involves only her voice, Wachtel said. It is based around the end of her mother’s life, as Blima died in 1999, and reflects on what it means to be the child of a Holocaust survivor.

“Children of survivors have a unique bond,” she said. “We grew up with overly protective parents. We try and please and protect our parents. Many of us are overachievers. There’s a need to ease our parents after they suffered so much. We are here for a reason, and have to make up for their losses.”

“Overachiever” could well be a good tag for Wachtel, who not only is an author but also a professor of English at Middlesex County College, Edison. Among the books Wachtel has had published are “The Eight Days of Hanukkah” and an early-reader mystery called “Charlie Wonder: Chef-Detective,” both children’s books.

Wachtel said she will probably read the Hanukkah book to children at the Sept. 25 event, and will return Sept. 27 at the same store to discuss the mystery book.

Wachtel, who has lived in East Brunswick for 17 years and has a husband and three children, said another reason for writing the Holocaust book was to point out the strength of her parents.

The books grew out of her 2002 doctoral dissertation at Drew University, Madison. Students were allowed to do something creative, she said, so she decided to pursue a study of the generation under those who survived the Holocaust.