Kwasova is part of Poland when Hitler invades the country on September 1, 1939. However, with the German invasion, the Russians race to occupy the eastern half of Poland. As a result, Kwasova becomes part of Soviet Russia with the arrival of the Red Army. Polish flags are replaced by the Soviet red flag with its sickle and hammer, the Polish street signs are replaced with Russian ones and classes are taught in Russian.
However, things gradually begin to change for Hanna and her family and their Jewish community as well as for others in the town. Stalin forbids all public practice of religion so in April of 1940, the Jews must hide their preparations for Passover. The last Shepherd's Parade held in the shtetele happens in 1941, only because Hanna's father is able to convince the Russians to allow it. Her father has considerable standing in both the Jewish and Ukrainian/Russian community. He is not only a sheepherder, but also is able to repair things for the Russians. This allows him to be on friendly terms with Commissar Egorov who is in charge of the NKVD officers stationed in Kwasova. Hanna's family live in the only brick house on the lane that leads to the meadows where the sheep graze. The only other dwelling on the lane is Mrs. Petrovich's thatched cottage. This older lady is a good friend of Hanna's family, hired as their Shabbes goy, doing work Hanna's parents cannot do on the Sabbath.
One night Hanna overhears the men talking downstairs. Visiting their home are the two Cohan twins Pavel and Jacob, Mr. Rabinowitz, and Mr. Stadnick who is Hanna's friend Leon's father. The Cohan brothers who are able to travel freely in the area and are the only source of information reveal that the war has come to their country now. The Ukrainians are welcoming the German army in the hopes that they will be free from the Russian occupation and will sponsor an independent Ukraine. The Red Army is fleeing, the NKVD has left. Gradually the Jewish community finds itself more and more isolated from Kwasovians.In the winter of 1942, Hanna's family is drawn into sheltering refugees fleeing north from the Germans. When Hanna questions her father about their secret guests he tells her only that they have come from Romania and "are people like us." Hanna's father gives her a leather bound copy of Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.
In the spring, a Ukrainian farmer, Stepan Illiouk drops off two very young boys whom he helped on their journey north. While Hanna and her mother are attempting to figure out what to do, Mrs. Petrovich quietly deposits a basket of fresh chicken eggs on their doorstep. This means she has seen the two boys come to their home. Mrs. Petrovich makes pysanky eggs for her clients for Easter and Christmas which Hanna helps to deliver. It is now clear that Mrs. Petrovich is an ally. Hanna and her mother come up with a scheme, disguising the two boys as being injured in a farm accident. After dark, Hanna's papa escorts them to the house of the Ukrainian Catholic priest, Father Dubrowski, who is baptizing Jews and creating new birth certificates for them, in the hopes of saving them.
Eventually the refugees stop coming, the Wehrmacht soldiers advance into the valleys, followed by the Einsatzgruppen with their guns, dogs, gas vans and classical music. The borders are closed. Life becomes much harsher for everyone but especially for Jewish families. Hanna still attends school although as the oldest pupil she just reads. However the Polish students are careful to sit far away from the Jewish students. Hanna's friend, Leon now attends a small private school in the town for the Jewish boys. The many shops in the market square close and there are long lines for what little food can be found. Because Hanna has blond hair she is sent to stand in line for the two ounces of bread their family is entitled to. In line, Hanna sees the poster warning people to avoid Jews in case of typhus. In a bold move Hanna manages to secure double their bread ration.
Gradually time begins running out for Hanna's family and the other Jewish families in Kwasova. The dreaded SS invade smaller rural towns and villages. In September they arrive Kwasova with a long line of Romanian Jews. They steal the horses and what little food remains in the town. Hanna's family watch from a hilltop outside of town waiting until the Germans move on. From the Cohan brothers, they learn the Germans massacred all the Jews marching with them, near the village of Borszczow, disguising the sound of machine gun fire with classical music played on a gramophone.
In Kwasova, the Jews are ordered to register and to wear a blue Mogen David or Star of David. However, Hanna's father forbids them from doing either, counting on their neighbours not to turn them in. The SS and the Ukrainian police are searching barns for hidden Jews whom they force into ghettos or murder. Hanna's Uncle Levi and her father dig underground bunkers to hide in during raids, while Hanna, her mother and sister will hide in an attic bunker. A pane of glass is removed from Hanna's bedroom window and the family takes turns listening at night for an unanticipated raid. That raid does happen and for two days Hanna and her family hide.
On an afternoon in the fall of 1942, the Germans force the closure of the schools for good, and the Ukrainian police steal Hanna's family's sheep to feed the Germans. On September 26, 1942, Mrs. Petrovich comes to Hanna's home bearing wooden crosses. She tells Hanna's father this evening, the Germans are coming through the town to forcibly remove all Jews to make it Judenfrei. Any home without a cross will be considered Jewish. Hanna's father takes the cross and brings one to his brother Levi. The night passes and Hanna's family and her cousins are safe. In the morning they learn what happened through the blackness of night from Stepan Illiouk. Many Jews were murdered in their beds, others were marched to a culvert near Stepan's fields and shot in groups while the Germans ate confiscated food and played classical music. Stepan is horrified that he now has a graveyard at the edge of his field.
Hanna and her family finally understand that this is no short-lived pogrom they they can survive but the systematic annihilation of every Jew. They set out to save themselves, not realizing just how much it will cost them and how much their lives will change forever.
Discussion
My Real Name Is Hanna is based somewhat on the real life story of Esther Stermer who saved the lives of her family and five other families by hiding in the gypsum caves in Eastern Ukraine during World War II. Esther and her husband Zaida lived in the small Ukrainian village of Korolowka, when it was invaded by the Germans in 1941. Determined to save her family, Esther and Zaida, along with five other families packed up some belongings and fled into the dark, cold night to the network of gypsum caves near their village. They were told about the caves by a forester in the District of Galicia. Thirty-eight persons would live in the caves for five hundred and eleven days, a record that still stands today, only emerging in when the Red Army had pushed the Germans out of the area in 1944. The families lived in a second cave which had good ventilation and lakes, creating areas to bath and digging latrines. Artifacts from their time in the caves were discovered in the 1990s by cave diver, Chris Nicola. Eventually he was able to discover the story behind the artifacts.
In Masih's novel, the characters are all fictional except for the historical figures of Adolf Hitler and Gestapo Chief Koelner. The author strove "...to be historically accurate in as many ways as possible." in spite of the fact that there were few personal accounts that survive, and the history of the region has been suppressed by both the Ukraine and Russia. In this regard, she succeeds admirably. As a result, Masih relied heavily on Esther Stermer's memoir to craft some of the details of Hanna's story, but she also created her own events too. For example, the Slivkas escape first to the forest, something the Stermers did not do. When that becomes too risky, as a last resort they realize their only chance to survive is to retreat to the caves, a horrifying prospect, effectively portrayed in the novel.
Masih's characters are varied and realistic. There is the lovable, kindly Mrs. Alla Petrovich, a Ukrainian Christian who creates pysanky and who does as much as possible to help Hanna and her family. She recognizes their differences, but is tolerant and caring. And there is the Ukrainian farmer, Stepan Illiouk and Yuri the forester who also help. Stepan does all he can to help his Jewish friends and is devastated when he witnesses the murder of hundreds of Jews near his fields.
Hanna is a strong, intelligent protagonist whose compassion is a central feature of her personality. On her birthday a family fleeing persecution is hidden in their barn. "I listen, eyes wide. A whole family in our barn? Fleeing for their lives? I think of the cold barn, the lack of heat, wind whistling down from the mountains and through the drafty boards, the miles they still have to travel." Hanna gives her father the warm, long scarf her sister Leeba made for her birthday. Later on from the safety of the hilltop, Hanna watches all the Jews huddled together in the town. "My heart breaks to see their misery. How I wish I had many scarves to hand out." When her friend Levi is depressed on his sixteenth birthday because no one notices, Hanna does notice and offers him a handful of dried crabapples.
As a character, Hanna feels very realistic. When they are ready to leave their home for the forest, Hanna struggles to pray. "I am not much in the mood to be thanking God for things that seem frightening, like living in the forest, but when we thank God for the food we can finally eat, I join in." Hanna struggles terribly at times, wondering how Sonia could possibly have a baby when life is so terrible. She has little hope for the future but in the end that hope is restored.
Despite all the evil around them, Hanna's parents endeavour to teach her not to become like the Germans. This is best demonstrated when Fedir Wolinski appears half-dead at their hideout in the forest. Wolinski was the lamplighter in Kwasova, friendly to everyone before the war. But when the Germans came he turned on his Jewish neighbours and became the Tzeler, a Death Counter, actively looking for Jews in hiding and keeping track of the dead in the shetele. When the Germans shoot his wife, Wolinski knows his time of reckoning is coming and so he flees. Hanna learns from her parent's actions. "But my parents taught me something when they took in the Death Counter. Life is not good, however you are living it, if you become like those who don't value you."
Early in the novel, Hanna is given a copy of Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc which she treasures. To Hanna, her journey to survive parallels that of Joan. When she leaves her village, just as Joan left hers, Hanna understands what Joan feels. "I am at the end of the first chapter in Joan of Arc, where Joan, at seventeen, is looking back on her distant village, 'trying to print these scenes on her memory'. I am doing the same." Hanna begins to use Joan of Arc to keep track of time. Like Joan, Hanna notes, "It is easy to lose track of time in one room you never leave, away from normal routines..." Like Joan too, a tree plays an important part in Hanna's life. "I find a beech tree in the Joan of Arc story as well. A fairy tree. A mystical tree connected to the children of Domremy, the hamlet she grew up in. I feel like I am following in her footsteps...." For her it is the Witness tree which is used as a means of communication in the forest. And as Hanna and her family struggle to survive in the gypsum caves, she tries to draw on Joan's heroic example. "I try to be like Joan, who endured prison and torture. 'A great soul, with a great purpose, can make a weak body strong and keep it so,' Mr. Twain wrote." Hanna's purpose is to live.
My Real Name Is Hanna is a well written historical fiction novel that focuses on the plight of the Jewish population in Ukraine during World War II. Not many readers will know how deeply the Jewish people living in Eastern Europe suffered. Very few Jews in the Ukraine survived the war. And years later, Chris Nicola, attempting to learn the origins of the artifacts in the caves, would discover this history hidden. This is a novel that will place readers securely into a little known event, allowing them to experience the trauma of being hunted to the point of having to live for over 500 days in a dark cave.
Book Details:
My Name is Hanna by Tara Lynn Masih
Simsbury, Connecticut: Mandel Vilar Press 2018
195 pp
Despite all the evil around them, Hanna's parents endeavour to teach her not to become like the Germans. This is best demonstrated when Fedir Wolinski appears half-dead at their hideout in the forest. Wolinski was the lamplighter in Kwasova, friendly to everyone before the war. But when the Germans came he turned on his Jewish neighbours and became the Tzeler, a Death Counter, actively looking for Jews in hiding and keeping track of the dead in the shetele. When the Germans shoot his wife, Wolinski knows his time of reckoning is coming and so he flees. Hanna learns from her parent's actions. "But my parents taught me something when they took in the Death Counter. Life is not good, however you are living it, if you become like those who don't value you."
Early in the novel, Hanna is given a copy of Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc which she treasures. To Hanna, her journey to survive parallels that of Joan. When she leaves her village, just as Joan left hers, Hanna understands what Joan feels. "I am at the end of the first chapter in Joan of Arc, where Joan, at seventeen, is looking back on her distant village, 'trying to print these scenes on her memory'. I am doing the same." Hanna begins to use Joan of Arc to keep track of time. Like Joan, Hanna notes, "It is easy to lose track of time in one room you never leave, away from normal routines..." Like Joan too, a tree plays an important part in Hanna's life. "I find a beech tree in the Joan of Arc story as well. A fairy tree. A mystical tree connected to the children of Domremy, the hamlet she grew up in. I feel like I am following in her footsteps...." For her it is the Witness tree which is used as a means of communication in the forest. And as Hanna and her family struggle to survive in the gypsum caves, she tries to draw on Joan's heroic example. "I try to be like Joan, who endured prison and torture. 'A great soul, with a great purpose, can make a weak body strong and keep it so,' Mr. Twain wrote." Hanna's purpose is to live.
My Real Name Is Hanna is a well written historical fiction novel that focuses on the plight of the Jewish population in Ukraine during World War II. Not many readers will know how deeply the Jewish people living in Eastern Europe suffered. Very few Jews in the Ukraine survived the war. And years later, Chris Nicola, attempting to learn the origins of the artifacts in the caves, would discover this history hidden. This is a novel that will place readers securely into a little known event, allowing them to experience the trauma of being hunted to the point of having to live for over 500 days in a dark cave.
Book Details:
My Name is Hanna by Tara Lynn Masih
Simsbury, Connecticut: Mandel Vilar Press 2018
195 pp
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