Overview

"In 1940, when Michel Jeruchim was three, Nazi Germany invaded France. Two years later, a roundup of Jews living in the Paris metropolitan area was staged, to deport them to concentration camps. The Jeruchim family, Michel's parents, and his brother and sister, avoided arrest, but could no longer remain at home. Arrangements were made for Michel to hide in Normandy with a French Catholic family. His parents attempted to cross into the unoccupied zone of France, were caught, and sent to Auschwitz where they were murdered. Michel formed a loving bond with his protective family, and after the war, with no word from his parents, they sought to adopt him. But an uncle who survived came to ""reclaim"" him and his siblings. Michel was placed in an orphanage. Later, in 1949, Michel and his siblings immigrated to the United States where Michel became an aerospace engineer and was among those at the forefront of the communication age. But he never fully came to terms with the loss he suffered early in life. Years later, his wife, Joan, a psychologist, urged him to attend the first gathering of Jewish children who had been hidden in WWII. There, Michel found kindred spirits, who like him kept their traumatic childhoods inside. His journey to healing and bearing witness, unfolds in his compelling memoir."

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PRAISE FOR OUT OF THE SHADOWS Michel Jeruchim, a French child hidden after the Nazis invaded Paris in 1940, publishes a deeply moving biography of his life, there and then, and later in America. Drawing on multiple layers of memories...meticulously retrieving rich and varied details...he draws out of the shadows a past buried for many decades. The fasci- nating chronicle structured in an original cinematic reverse motion explores...an early youth in Normandy with a family that sheltered him and reminiscences, happy, humorous and painful, that emerge through the prisms of his innocence and his losses. The voice of a boy paired with the deeply humanistic perspective of an adult... sifting through conflicting emotions, Michel remains...attached to the country where he was born, the language he spoke first, and to the early events imprinted in his very soul. -Danièle Thomas-Easton, Former Counsul of France in Philadelphia Out of the Shadows is a remarkable memoir ... of a resilient life, fashioned out of turbulent beginnings. Michel Jeruchim, is one of many Jewish children....who survived the Holocaust in War II ... due to the heroism of families and organizations that hid them at great personal risk. Although Jeruchim avoided the Nazis in occupied France he tragically lost his parents... who perished in Auschwitz. Jeruchim eventually made his way to the United States, where he persevered and became a prominent and successful electrical engineer. Written for his family, Out of the Shadows sends a wider message about resilience in the face of tragedy...the importance of education and the promise of America to immigrants. Out of the Shadows makes this reviewer recall other notable writings, e.g. The Diary of Anne Frank, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Suite Française .- Martin Garrell, Professor of Physics, Adelphi University With few exceptions, those among us who...were victimized by the Nazi-driven disaster were silent-for decades. But, as Michel Jeruchim writes, the experience never left us. Even suppressed into our unconscious minds, it was with us, within us. But in time, encouraged to bear witness, some among us have spoken out.... It took nearly 50 years for those who suffered the same fate to be able to speak out about their early-life pain-laden experiences. ... Remarkable how ... Michel built a life that is productive and gratifying, driven by superb strength of character, a man of vigor, optimism and resilience. ... This telling is not just writing, it is reliving. And doing this, he bears witness.. - Henri Parens, MD; Professor of Psychiatry, Thomas Jefferson University, Sidney Kimmel Medical College

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