Saving What Remains

Elli, whose story I wrote about in an earlier blog (I Have Lived a Thousand Years), is now a grown woman with a husband, family, and Ph.D. living in the U.S. In 1980, her mom calls her from Jerusalem to tell her that there will soon be a dam built on a part of the Danube and, as a result, the old Jewish cemetery will be flooded. She cannot stand the thought of her parents' bodies washing out into the Danube and tells Elli that she must go to Czechoslovakia and bring the bodies to Jerusalem for reburial. Elli agrees, despite the fact that she is listed as an enemy of the state, and if caught in a communist country, could go to prison for 20 or more years.

What ensues is a story that is unbelievably fascinating. I never dreamed that I would get into this book as much as I did. Elli and her husband Len begin making the proper arrangements to go to Czechoslovakia, which include certain passports, which could give her identity away to the wrong people. Going behind the Iron Curtain in and of itself is quite frightening, and I found myself holding my breath until they got to Bratislava without raising any suspicion. Then the red tape begins. Permits are acquired with some difficulty, but with the warning that they can be revoked at any time. After getting the permits, they find out that the laws require that exhumed bodies be sealed in zinc containers. This revelation leads them to hunt for zinc to purchase that will seal the inexpensive child size coffins that they have ready. They find out that zinc is virtually impossible to purchase in a Communist country, and they settle for tin painted to look like zinc.

They also start the almost impossible search for the Jewish cemetery, now grown up into a jungle. Once they find it, they then have the extremely difficult task of finding the correct graves. Once found, they still have to employ grave diggers, a hearse with driver, and get more permits. During the days and weeks that they are there, Elli also continually runs into people that she knew as a child, goes to her old family home, and even, almost impossibly, tries to keep a kosher diet for Len and herself. The places and people often bring up both bad memories of the Holocaust as well as good memories of pre-war times.

This book is a multi-layered tale of Elli coming to grips with her past and preserving her Jewish heritage. The danger and intrigue involved in what should be an almost simple task was very involving, and, believe it or not, kept me reading as much as I would a good detective novel.

Although I can't see the teenagers who use my library "getting" this book, I liked it very much and recommend it to adult readers who find this period interesting.