Description
A baby is born in Warsaw in 1939. Stalin has signed a pact of nonaggression with Hitler, marking the beginnings of the Second World War. As the city is attacked, Ola, a young nurse, escapes with her husband-to-be and their newborn baby to a small town in Soviet territory just across the border. Two years later, when the German forces attack the Soviets, she is separated from her partner and again has to flee. With immense courage and resourcefulness, Ola keeps herself alive, along with her baby Halina and the twenty injured soldiers she has to care for.
For years following the deaths of her parents, Halina Rubin avoided looking inside two dusty boxes filled with letters, papers, photographs and notebooks. Finally, spurred on by her young daughter Annette, Halina unpacked these boxes and began discovering the details of her family’s traumatic history. Through reading old papers and travelling to those long-forgotten places, Journeys with my Mother was born – a remarkably intimate memoir that would otherwise have been lost forever.
The narrative asks: what determines our behaviour in extreme situations? Here is a woman who, in the direst of circumstances, adhered to her moral code and never abandoned those who depended on her. Most Holocaust narratives detail stories of immense suffering and loss; this book tells the story of active opposition to the Nazi oppressors.
About the author: Halina Rubin was born in Warsaw just as Germany invaded Poland. Her family fled to the Soviet Union where she and her mother survived together, against all odds. In 1968, in response to government-instigated anti-Semitism, she emigrated to Australia and settled in Melbourne. She qualified as a microbiologist, specialising in virology. In 2001, moved to action by the plight of asylum seekers, she started writing to young people incarcerated in Nauru. Since then Rubin has been an active advocate for refugees.
To read the speeches from Halina’s launch, please click the links below:
Speech by Mustafa Najib
Speech by Arnold Zable
To read some great reviews, please click the links below:
PS News: “This is a captivating book apprised by empathy that conjures up vivid images … It’s a memoir that touches your soul”
ANZ LitLovers
Whispering Gums
About the author: Halina Rubin was born in Warsaw just as Germany invaded Poland. Her family fled to the Soviet Union where she and her mother survived together, against all odds. In 1968, in response to government-instigated anti-Semitism, she emigrated to Australia and settled in Melbourne. In 2001, moved to action by the plight of asylum seekers, she started writing to young people incarcerated in Nauru. Since then, Rubin has been an active advocate for refugees.
