East of the Storm: Outrunning the Holocaust in Russia

by Mary Maddock, Hanna Davidson Pankowsky

Release Date: December, 1998

Edition: Hardcover

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Surviving Displacement and Loss During WWII

EAST OF THE STORM recalls a very personal story of one family's flight from Poland as the Germans moved into Lodz,Poland, in 1939. Hanna Pankowsky, a very small, frightened girl, walked away from her beautiful home in Lodz with her mother holding her hand. Thus began their flight from the German occupation of Poland.

Hanna's story is told with honesty and clarity. She never reaches out to the reader for pity. Although her story is one of moral and ethical value, Hanna simply tells her own story of survival--her unique story. During the years that her family traveled from place to place attempting to find a safe home, a home free from prejudice and brutality, she attended schools whenever possible and learned much about diverse cultures and people. She learned four languages out of necessity.

Much is revealed about Hanna and the difficulties of living during WWII through her travels from childhood into adulthood. As others have shared their experiences during this difficult time, she too tells us her story "so that we shall never forget."

East of the Storm

East of the Storm: Outrunning the Holocaust in Russia
By Hanna Davidson Pankowsky

This book takes the reader back to the beginning of World War II. We witness the invasion of Poland through the eyes and ears of a young Jewish girl who, along with her family and the Jewish community in Lodz, are caught up in the middle of a gathering storm which threatens to sweep across Europe and Russia before engulfing the entire world. East of the Storm chronicles the Nazi threat and upheaval in Europe from a personal perspective. Instead of troop movements we learn about the movement of one family as it escapes the Nazi occupation of Poland to the Soviet Union. Fleeing deeper into Russia as the Nazis opened the Eastern front and advanced to Stalingrad, Moscow and Kiev, they were finally forced to seek refuge in the United States as the political situation in Russia took an ominous turn under Stalin in the wake of the German retreat. This is living history, a story of danger, pathos, and the triumph of the human spirit as the Davidsons found deliverance and a better life in America.
Hannah Pankowsky has written a warm, moving account of her life as a refugee and a portrait of courage in the midst of unimaginable hardships and terror. It is an uplifting story, one told with humor and graciousness (in recounting the story of the Soviet repulsion of Nazi forces from Stalingrad she writes: "The heroism and love for Russia displayed by soldiers and civilians alike cannot be denied or ignored. They were defending their country, not Communism.") that reveals an "old world" sensibility. This book is especially recommended for young readers, looking for inspiring stories from WWII other than Anne Frank's Diary. Documenting a period in History that is receding from collective memory at a time when there are fewer and fewer actual survivors of the Holocaust still alive, it is poignant reminder that these terrible events did happen and they should never be forgotten.