Toward the end of last year, armed with a big box of tissues and a sense of mission, social workers Leah Kaufman and Susan Schechter set about giving a group of local Holocaust survivors something they wanted very much – a published record of their wartime experiences. Meeting for three-hour sessions once every two weeks for five months, with the help of English professor Mark Altschuler from Bergen Community College, they guided the 20 or so participants through the often heart-wrenching struggle to put their past into written words.

"We cried a lot," Kaufman said, of her colleagues and the writers. Kaufman is director of Jewish Family Service of MetroWest's Transitions Eldercare Services.

Now those stories have been collected in Rediscovering Voices: Stories of the Holocaust Survivors. The book was published by JFS MetroWest and its Cafe Europa Holocaust Survivors Friendship Society, the organization through which the group was organized. The anthology provides a varied, intensely poignant view of the lifestyle they lost, what they endured, and the life they forged for themselves in the United States. It is illustrated with old family photographs, often their only family mementos.

The writers came from the areas served by the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey and the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey, and some from Fort Lee and Jersey City. Their origins, however, were more widespread, from all over Western and Eastern Europe.

And as one participant pointed out, their war experiences took them as far afield as Russia and China. The resulting stories, some fictionalized though based on the truth, are just as varied.

The image on the front cover was created by John Less, a Cafe Europa member, who came up with the stark barbed wire design even before the writing group formed.

As they age, many survivors are expressing a need to record their wartime experiences before it's too late. "They feel a growing urgency. They're asking, 'Who'll tell my story after I'm gone?'" Schechter said. "Now they want to speak."

Various factors stand in their way – the pain of remembering, fear of how others will react to their horrendous stories, language issues, and the "hierarchy of suffering" – the "I suffered more" competitiveness that so often makes such efforts impossible to share. With this group, all that was overcome.

They got to see that everyone's experience was unique, but that pain was the common factor," Kaufman said.

"They became more tolerant and patient with each other." The key, she said, was consistency. "By continually empowering them, by pointing out that they had something to give, it helped them open doors. The bottom line is, they trusted us.

"Crucial to their success was the atmosphere of mutual support the group developed. They became so close-knit, they didn't want to end their association, and they've chosen to continue the writing program.

"We became a family," said Eva Zysman, a Union resident and longtime member of the JCC of Metropolitan New Jersey in West Orange.  "What Leah and Susan did was incredible! They were so wonderful." She had written poetry and prose about the Holocaust before and has given talks about it, and she took part in a similar program at Drew University, so it was easier for her than for some others, but she said the cohesiveness of this group was very rewarding.

A human 'dynamo'

Zysman, whose grandfather was the chief rabbi of Poland, spent time in various concentration camps, among them Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Muhlhausen. She came to the United States in 1947 with her husband, a fellow survivor whom she met in Stuttgart. Though he chose not to join the book group, the two of them took part together in another survivor project run by Kaufman and Schechter, the creation of a memorial quilt made up of images provided by the participants.

She said the book, like the quilt, provided the survivors with a way to honor loved ones for whom there are no gravestones. She hopes they can bring out a second volume. "Even if you were writing before, it's almost impossible to get published. This was our chance and we seized it."

One of the toughest challenges facing the writers was selecting what to write from the overwhelming mass of memories clamoring for expression. Kaufman, Schechter, and Altschuler helped them narrow their focus to specific days or incidents they could describe. For the three members of the group who couldn't get their words onto paper, they took dictation and did the typing.

Hanna Keselman, a child survivor who lives in Springfield, said, "When I first came to this country, I tried once or twice to tell our relatives what had happened, but I saw their reactions. They didn't want to hear about it." She joined the group because she wanted to have a written account for her son, but at first she thought she wouldn't be able to handle hearing the stories.

She persisted though and was glad she did. Though she'd told her story on video for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, she'd never written it before, and she found the experience gave her new insight into how her parents felt when they had to hand her over to strangers for protection. "For me, this was a very good thing," she said.

Listening to the grim, often long-buried memories, Schechter and Kaufman geared themselves to respond appropriately, despite their own tears. "We modeled tolerance for them," Kaufman explained. "Seeing us able to tolerate their stories helped them see that others could, too."

Inspired by the experience, and by seeing their words in print, the writers now plan to bring out a periodical newsletter, offering news about community events and also providing a forum for survivors' poetry and prose. Given the positive response to the book, they know now that even if their words make people cry, the communication is life-affirming.

Copies of the book can be obtained by calling JFS at 973/467-3300. They cost $18 each, or $20 if mailed.

Elaine Durbach can be reached at