The First and Final Nightmare of Sonia Reich by Howard Reich

The First and Final Nightmare of Sonia Reich Reviews

• 
  Pam

  Prisoner of her Past: a Son’s Memoir is by Howard Reich. This is one of the most upsetting Holocaust memoir I have read. It is one thing to be having flashbacks into your past when you know what is happening; but to have flashbacks and not have any idea what is happening must be simply overwhelming for the person and the family. This book makes me wonder just how many Holocaust survivors have experienced this without the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or Dementia. To have symptoms of PTSD and not know it is quite distressing. This is what happened to Howard Reich’s mother.
  Howard’s Mother was from Dubno, Poland and was “the spoiled first grandchild of an extended family.” This existence was torn from her as a child when the Soviet Union took over her town as part of the deal with Germany. Then, the town was retaken by the Nazis and at the age of eleven, she was on the run by herself. All but four of her extended family were massacred here in Dubno. She made it to the United States, married, and raised her family in Chicago. However, she never talked about her four years of running to her family. It wasn’t until after the death of her husband, also a Holocaust survivor who rarely talked about his past and never to his son, that she began to have problems with hearing voices and becoming paranoid about people killing her. It was only after many doctor and hospital visits, stays in institutions and nursing homes, as well as her son’s visit back to Poland, that Howard became aware of exactly what was wrong with his Mother. Unfortunately, there was little the doctors could do to help her due to her intense paranoia and her determination to fight them this time.
  The book is well-written and is compelling to read. In addition to the book, Howard went back to Poland and with the help of those still living in Dubno who remembered the past, made a documentary film of his Mother’s life. Hopefully what he discovered in this search will be of benefit to others who have traumas and develop PTSD. In addition, the book gives a very explicit description of the horror of the massacres of the Einzsgruppen as they exterminated the Poles near Dubno. I would be very careful to use this book in schools while teaching the Holocaust.
  
• 
  Liza Wiemer

  This is unlike any Holocaust story I've ever read. Howard is the son of survivors. When his mother had a late on-set post-traumatic stress disorder episode at the age of 69, believing that there was someone in her house who was going to murder her, she ran from her home and was eventually picked up by the police. This memoir takes readers on a journey of discovery from Howard's childhood to walking in his mother's footsteps. He travels from Skokie, Illinois to New Jersey to Warsaw to Dubno in the Ukraine, his mother's hometown. Howard discovers the root of his some of mother's trauma and we see the worst of humanity.
  
  PRISONER OF HER PAST: A Son's Memoir is haunting, powerful, and unforgettable.
  
  Highly highly recommend.
• 
  Beth

  This was a totally absorbing story of the author's journey to understand his mothor's mental breakdown. Both of his parents were Holocaust survivors, but the author never knew any of the details surrounding his parents' horrifying childhood pasts because they had repressed the memories and would not talk about them in their adulthood.
  The mother's breakdown was misdiagnosed as dementia until it was recognized to be PTSD, albeit almost 60 years after WWII. One of Reich's motives for writing the book was to reach psychologists and psychiatrists to educate them on this phenomenon that had really been applied only to Vietnam war veterans at the time of the book writing.
  
• 
  Julia

  I've read a lot about the Shoah but this was new territory for me. The author's mother had a mental breakdown when she was older based on her early life trying to survive the horrors of that time. All of that horror comes back to her in the form of late-onset PTSD. It's a gut wrenching story that shows that the pain of trauma never really leaves.
• 
  Meagan

  This is a powerful, heartbreaking read. It shed light on an aspect and after effects of the Holocaust that I knew nothing about. I strongly recommend reading it so that we not only learn more about PTSD and how it likely impacts children of war both then and now - but so we truly never forget what happened in the Holocaust.
• 
  Lynda

  Incredibly sad.
• 
  Linda

  Heart-breaking and admirable.
• 
  Rachel

  Such an important story that really hasn't been explored fully. Reading his memoir provided the background to understand Howard Reich's new book The Art of Inventing Hope.
• 
  Heather

  This must have been an incredibly difficult book for the author to write, but it is extremely compelling - I read it straight through in one day.
  
  Reich points out that American awareness of the Holocaust tends to be very focused on the concentration camps, but there were many other Jews in Europe who died (or survived) through equally horrendous circumstances who were victims in other ways, in mass killings such as at Babi Yar. This is the story, as best as he was able to piece together, of his mother's path out of eastern Poland, and how that history affected his family and his own life many decades later.
• 
  Becky

  A report of a mother's horror running and hiding as a child during WWII. Howard Reich's mother is suffering dementia, sure people are out to get her. Howard knows his parents are holocaust survivors, but their stories are never talked about. Howard goes in search of his mother's stories, talking to relatives who were also survivors, and travels to Poland to research. He complies his research and shares the stories with us. This is told very factually, the horrors unthinkable, and the focus is on the lasting effects these survivors are heroically suffering. These stories need to be told in first persin like this in every history class. 3.5 stars.
• 
  Sonia Reppe

  Howard Reich grew up thinking that everyone's mother sat up all night at the kitchen table sipping coffee, because that's what his did. The severe effects of her post-traumatic stress didn't show up until her old age, prompting him to find out about her past as a holocaust survivor. Warning: there are some very disturbing things in the second half of this book, as he uncovers some holocaust history of his family members.
• 
  Jillian Goldberg

  This is a wonderfully written memoir by the son of a Holocaust survivor. Deeply compassionate and loving, it highlights the little known syndrome of late onset of PTSD; in survivors, it can first manifest fifty years and more after the events occurred. As in so much of Holocaust literature, one is left wondering how anyone actually survived the horrors of the mass genocide. And how they lived afterwards.
• 
  Fishface

  This book was so hard to put down that I read straight through it in about 4 hours rather than shower or eat. Left me feeling that I'd been dragged backwards through a waterfall. This, in spite of page after page of idiotic marginal notes left by the previous owner -- usually something that makes me slam the book shut and never open it again.
• 
  Linda

  I never fully realized that the murders of millions of Jews during the Holocaust was really only half of the horror. What the survivors and people of Eastern Europe saw and experienced ruined their lives.
• 
  Autumn

  I felt this book was well written, I recommend this book to anyone. You feel like you're seeing a movie except in your mind. It was sad real story of someones like but none the less you can learn from a person struggles and be more grateful.
• 
  Kris

  A holocaust survivor deals with post-traumatic stress - almost 50 years after she escaped Nazi Germany.
• 
  Ruth

  Haunting and bittersweet tribute to a brave woman facing down her demons and past. Read and remember.
• 
  Renee Yesso

  A quick and haunting read about the author's mother's late onset PTSD, sixty years after having survived the Holocaust.
• 
  Jackie

  wow! amazing. I just finished and am speachless.
• 
  Karen

  Very sobering....
• 
  Sue

  I am really grateful to have read this book. I heard Howard Reich talk about his friendship with Elie Wiesel. He mentioned this book. He wrote it about his own aged mom who was sort of trapped in her mind, vividly re-living her holocaust-childhood memories. He went to the part of Poland where she grew up, and met some of his mom's peers there, in his quest to understand her traumatization. So sad.