Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood

As is so often the case, it's the little, seemingly innocuous, niggling details that hit home the hardest, even more than the outright horrific. It's not that the accounts of the brutal murders and unthinkable cruelties are minimized-- it's that the human brain refuses to dwell on, refuses to really wrap one's brain around them, as sort of a self-preservation. But the little details hit you upside the head like a 2x12 and you get it, and your brain wraps around it firmly, and you can understand as well as anybody who has not experienced the Holocaust can understand. Two examples: when the family was going into hiding, they left their city of Lublin to travel by train to Warsaw, before going to their final destination. The parents did not speak Polish well, and because the mother definately looked Jewish, she decided to dress as a woman in mourning, wearing a hat with a veil to obscure her face. Both kids looked Polish, and spoke the language fluently. (The older sister went ahead of the others.) The father repeatedly coached his daughter beforehand, saying, "Don't look sad!" That was how the Nazis and Poles could ferret out Jews trying to pass as Poles. "The Jews have sad eyes." Voila! And why wouldn't a Jew look sad? How could they not be sad? And yet, if they wanted to live, and wanted to pass, they had to act like everything was fine whenever they were out in public. With all the horror, with all their relatives who had been murdered or deported, with all the brutality they saw in the streets, and heard about through the grapevine, with all the hardship of finding a place to stay, and working, and feeding oneself, and worrying about one's family, who was scattered, on top of that, you had to look happy, because if you didn't, a Nazi or Pole would see your sad eyes and know you were Jewish! How excruciating!!Another thing was the author mused about how one's life could change in a fleeting moment. You could just happen to miss an "Aktion"...or just happen to arrive home when one started. Life was so capricious. A Nazicould spot someone entering a home, or selling on the blackmarket, or you could just miss being seen. These fleeting moments were fraught with life or death consequences, and yet you had no control over them.Were you seen or not seen, and by whom? As much as the brutality of genocide, it would seem to me that the constant stress of being on your toes every minute would be like traversing an unmarked minefield every day for years. Think of the psychological toll it took on the survivors!I can't think of another Holocaust survivor's story which articulates those aspects as well as this author does.You know the thing they tell writers, "Describe, don't tell." This author does. You feel you are there with her.It is very telling, that when she first wrote the book, she ended it when the war was over, and they went back to her father's chemical factory. She describes how she's afraid to look, and closes her eyes... and there it ends. In this edition, however, she write a rather extended epilogue, explaining that to go back to that time, even after a distance of 30 plus years, was too difficult. The memories of having to sort out all her feelings, her identity and place in the world, continued anti-Semitism, an assassination attempt on her father, plus her post traumatic stress disorder (which she doesn't call by name), was far too depressing and too daunting to even try to go there in her own mind, let alone to write about it.I just finished reading this, but I imagine it'll stay with me for a long, long time, right up there with Elie Wiesel's "Night".This is one of the most moving, succinct first-person accounts of the Holocaust I've read.

This book is a tough one to review. I understand why the reviewers up until now have said that this is a deeply moving book, but I didn't find it to be so. The book, as pointed out by many, is a first person story told by a jewish woman who grew up in Poland during WWII. It was instructive in explaining how some jewish people survived the Nazi Holocaust by "passing" as Poles (with forged family documents), and in describing some of the extremely difficult wartime daily lives of the average Pole and the Jews during the Nazi occupation. I did feel the incredible burden placed on the child the author was, inasmuch as one mistake might have cost her entire family their lives. However, because this story is told from the perspective of the child, it never quite rises to the deeply moving category for me because so much of the story details fairly childish observations of the men and women in her world. It's not surprising that a child would see the world around her in a fairly egocentric way, but I think this story would have benefitted from a little adult hindsight. Several reviewers have noted that the Polish family who provided a haven for the author's family were anti-semitic, and the author attributes a desire for money as the motivation for the protection she and her family received from the Poles. While that may have been part of it, when the risk of discovery could mean death I think that there was at least some courage and morality involved in the protection and that should have been recognized, but wasn't.Another issue I had with this book was the depiction of the men and women the child came into contact with. The perspective was definitely childish and had a tendency to demonize some and lionize others. Much of the description of the people in her world was tedious, and petulant (understandable for a child in such horrendous times) but again, a little adult hindsight might have improved on the balance this book lacked: balance regarding the Polish people and the Jewish refugees hiding in the country - not in regards to the Nazis.My biggest problem with the book however is in how much of it to believe. Because it is written from such a childlike perspective, I'm not sure how much is historically accurate, and how much came from the fear of the child, and the stories she heard during and after the war. I will certainly check out at least one more book by her, but I think that if you are interested in the history of the area and the people during the war, it would be very worthwhile to find a polish author from that era to balance out this author's narrative.It wasn't a bad book, and I'm very glad I read it, but I'm not sure it's one of the truly moving books about a deeply troubling historical tragedy. So, three stars - and a recommendation to read it, but also to put it in context with other literature of that era.

I first learned of Necama Tec while listening to audio commentary for the film "Defiance". I then bought the book "Defiance" and was thoroughly engrossed with the text. I then read "In The Lions Den" and was even more impressed and I recently finished "Dry Tears" and I was seriously moved and actually felt as if I were in the authors situation. Necama Tec has a way, a special gift, or some writing technique which transported me back in time while I was reading this book and that is a powerful tool. I was emotionally drained by the time I had finished reading the entire text. Reading this book has been such a sincerely painful journey for myself. While I was viewing the documentary "Taxi To The Dark Side" I somehow viewed the US Military as Nazi's with their cruelty towards the innocent victims who were kidnapped from their villages all the way in Afghanistan under W Bush and the Patriot act. While reading "Dry Tears" Necama Tec described the Nazi's beating Jew's with "Their Shinny Black Boots" which is what was happening a Guantanamo Bay. Necama Tec is an outstanding author therefore "Be prepared to become deeply moved and emotionally involved!

I'm not a big reader. Historical stories, both fiction and non-fiction are books I especially have a hard time staying awake for. Yet, somehow this book is able to capture my attention. If you're not a big reader like me (especially for historical books), you will enjoy this one. The perspective is unique: it focuses on a young child who survives by "passing."

Sad but excellent.

Wonderful book for teenagers and adults alike. An opus of filial love and survival.

sad story