Claiming My Place: A True Story of Defiance, Deception, and Coming of Age in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Description

Gucia Gomolinska grew up comfortably in Piotrkow, Poland, a devoted student, sister, daughter, and friend. Still, even in the years before World War II, she faced discrimination as a Jewbut with her ash-blond hair she was often able to pass as just another Pole. When her town was invaded by Nazis, she knew her Aryan coloring gave her an advantage, and she faced an awful choice: stay in the place she had always called home, or leave behind everything she knew to try to survive. She took on a new identity as Basia Tanska, and her journey led her directly into Nazi Germany.

Planaria Price, along with Basia’s daughter Helen West, tells this incredible life story directly in the first person. Claiming My Place is a stunning portrayal of bravery, love, loss, and the power of storytelling.

Author Information

Planaria Price has published six textbooks with McGraw-Hill and University of Michigan Press. She met the then-90-year-old Gucia Gomolinska in 2006, interviewed her at length, and conducted extensive historical and social research in order to write this book.

Helen West is a psychoanalyst and the daughter of Gucia Gomolinska. She lives in Washington, DC.