The Gift
Ita Willen
Reviewed by Barb Radmore
The Gift is one woman's journey to find an answer from the horror of
the
past. It is a quest to bring to rest the guilt of the next generation,
the children of the survivors and refugees "surrounded by immense
family of ghosts...with eyes that shine out of single saved
photographs." Instead of rejoicing in
being the progeny of the ones who managed to survive the
Holocaust, she
is trapped in a search for meaning and acceptance.
Seen through the cycle of the seasons, she, the first person narrator,
tries to put the past, not to rest, but to life. She searches through
time and place, religions and philosophies for the answers to unknown
questions. She has embarked on a pursuit of the past. Her personal path
is smoothed by the study of Buddhism, not as a denial of her Jewish
heritage but as a means of explanation and acceptance.
She can not find comfort among her own peers for she sees those who are
children of refugees and those who are not as very different, "She had
gloves on her hands and I had blood in my pockets."
"In attempting to escape it we open doors we never would have opened.
In confronting it we see what absolute bliss a normal life in peacetime
is.
In returning to it, our selves, our parents, our people, we become
quintessential Jews who choose the fate of our people. We choose
Auschwitz with our people and attain nobility through that choice.
One's self respect hinges on the ability and desire to go with one's
people wherever they go....the recognition that one would be willing to
sacrifice everything in the face of doom."
The gift is the acceptance and the ability of the children of the
survivors to give voice to the pain that their parents feel but can not
put into words, "to not have wounds but to feel that pain is a great
gift." Willen has written with a bravery that is unexpected. She has
been able to confront the confusion, the onus of innocence of a
population who has not been acknowledged by the post Holocaust world.
The burden of the survivor is to face a part of history that will never
end. The Gift is in a material sense a very short memoir at
100 pages but in a true sense it is infinite. It is a work that
deserves study and contemplation. Its multilayers of
understanding, of comparison and of discussion will make it
a fiction legacy.