Overview

As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Anna Salton Eisen's memoir, Pillar of Salt: A Daughter's Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust, breaks down the barrier of silence that was intended as a protective shield for her parents and their children. From early childhood, Anna, as a second-hand witness to the Holocaust, felt overwhelmed by the unspoken but ever-present trauma of her parents' past. Her father, born as Lucjan Salzman, survivor of ten different concentration camps, is enveloped in impenetrable grief and his history encased in secrecy. But Anna is determined to look backwards, breaking through her father's reticence to confront the unspoken terrors of the past. The entire Salton family embarks on a journey through Poland unlocking a history sealed in silence and buried by time. The Salton family's quest takes them to the towns where Anna's parents lived as children under Nazi occupation. The family returns to the ghetto where a 15-year-old Lucjan experienced his first selection and bid farewell to his parents before they were herded into a boxcar and sent to their deaths at the Belzec concentration camp. They continue their travels through the picturesque Polish countryside, still pockmarked by the remnants of former concentration camps and a spattering of Holocaust memorials. By the end of her odyssey, Anna acquires a new understanding of her legacy as a child of Holocaust survivors and how trauma is revisited upon subsequent generations. By revisiting those places of trauma with her father as her guide, Anna Salton Eisen's tour of terrors provide her with a new understanding of how her identity has been shaped under the shadow of the Holocaust. Anna confides that by looking back like Lot's wife, and by taking in the whole story, I could carry the pain of the Holocaust and find there is more to me than a pillar of salt. Building on Salton Eisen's own background as a Holocaust author-she co-wrote The 23rd Psalm: A Holocaust Memoir with her father George Salton-Pillar of Salt completes their story. The book will be launched with a documentary film about Anna and her father with a global release.

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9781942134824

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Reviews

With its clear, unadorned recounting of a family's pain, and of the echoes of the Shoah that continue down through generations, Pillar of Salt stands alone as a firsthand account. - Jewish Book Council Anna Salton Eisen inspires me. Antisemitism and Holocaust denial are real. Quality Holocaust education is necessary. By sharing her family stories and personal journey with honesty and clarity, she illuminates our past and helps us recognize the truth and challenge of the Holocaust. -Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, who was held hostage at his synagogue during an antisemitic attack in January 2022 Anna Salton Eisen's important exploration of her Holocaust heritage is about building community, building connection, through history, through your family, through your story. -Deb Liu, CEO Ancestry.com Pillar of Salt is a profoundly moving story, soon to be the subject of a feature-length documentary film, In My Father's Words. . . She claims her hidden family history, and in doing so, grapples with questions in the hearts of all of us. -Jacob Wise, Cinematographer and Documentary Filmmaker A true and beautiful story of a daughter's quest to understand her parents' haunted past, and to discover . . . the indissoluble nature of love and family. A powerful and poignant read. -Jennifer Rosner, author of The Yellow Bird Sings, a National Jewish Book Award Finalist A vividly colored, elegant study of family dynamics as two generations eventually came to terms with a tragic Holocaust past. -Richard Breitman, author of The Berlin Mission: The American Who Resisted Nazi Germany from Within Navigating her way through the ruins of memory, Anna bears eloquent witness to the scope of the Holocaust that continues to cast its shadow over generations . . . . Anna found the courage to pen these powerful words [and] we must find the courage to read them and be transformed into witnesses. -David Patterson, Hillel A. Feinberg Distinguished Chair in Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas

A vividly colored, elegant study of family dynamics as two generations eventually came to terms with a tragic Holocaust past. -Richard Breitman, author of FDR and the Jews and The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution Anna's important exploration of her Holocaust heritage is about building community, building Connection through history, through your family, through your story. -Deb Liu, CEO Ancestry.com Anna bears eloquent witness to the scope of the Holocaust that continues to cast its shadow over generations.... If Anna found the courage to pen these powerful words, we must find the courage to read them and be transformed into witnesses. -David Patterson, author of Sun Turned to Darkness: Memory and Recovery in the Holocaust Memoir A true and beautiful story of a daughter's quest to understand her parents' haunted past, and to discover, in looking back, the indissoluble nature of love and family. A powerful and poignant read. -Jennifer Rosner, Author of Yellow Bird Sings A profoundly moving tale of generational trauma and healing between father and daughter. Through her travels with him to Poland and her relentless search through personal keepsakes and Nazi archives, she discovers her own history. -Jacob Wise, filmmaker, and documentarian

Author Information

Anna Salton Eisen was a founding member and the first president of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. She has conducted extensive research into the Holocaust and spoken on that topic to school and community groups. She served as a docent for the Dallas Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies (now the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum) and conducted Holocaust survivor interviews for the USC Shoah Foundation. Anna is an Ambassador to #everynamecounts, a digital initiative of the Arolsen Archives, the world's most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of Nazi persecution. A licensed social worker, Salton Eisen formerly practiced as a therapist, specializing in mental health and trauma. She lives in Westlake, Texas. Aaron Eisen is a third-generation Jewish writer. In addition to coauthoring Pillar of Salt, he has played an important role in developing the documentary film In My Father's Words. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Aaron is working on a memoir about how the legacy of the Holocaust shaped his life and how the lessons of the Holocaust can help humanity address an alarming breakdown in empathy and connection.

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