Never Tell Anyone You’re Jewish
Maria Chamberlain shares the story of her father Artur and mother, Jadwiga who were born in Kraków, Poland in 1914, and 1915.
When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, both her parents’ families were caught up in in the escalating nightmare of the Holocaust. Artur endured the ordeals of Kraków ghetto and Plaszów concentration camp, then a winter death-march out of Auschwitz. Jadwiga escaped from a cattle truck destined for Belzec extermination camp and spent the rest of the war years in hiding. They owed their lives to chance, resilience, guile and the selfless support of random ‘good people’, Polish, German and Ukrainian.
After the war, in 1946, they married and Maria was born soon after. To protect her, they changed their name from Bieberstein to Jurand, a more Polish sounding surname. The family emigrated to the UK in 1958, where her parents and later Maria, pursued academic careers at Edinburgh University. Her parents died in Edinburgh in 2000, and 2011.
While Maria was growing up, her parents shared the stories of their anguish and survival with her, but rarely with others, initially bidding her to hide her Jewishness. Later they relented, realising that collectively testimonies make history. Her book “Never Tell Anyone You’re Jewish”, published by Vallentine Mitchell in May 2022, reconstructs the family history and pays tribute to those that perished. She tells their story in print and in person because she feels that future generations need to understand what happened, but also how easily it can happen, so that together we can hope for a more just, humane and peaceful world.
This presentation is suitable for Year 9 (S2 in Scotland) students and above and adults. It can be made suitable for Year 7 (P7 in Scotland) upwards.
