My Kaddish

“This slim vol­ume is a memo­r­i­al to what was lost in the Holo­caust. … Born Klara Alter, Thérèse (Ter­ri) Mas­son com­posed her own Kad­dish, at once prayer of mourn­ing for her fam­i­ly and her tes­ti­mo­ny as a sur­vivor. … Her daugh­ter has edit­ed it and filled in numer­ous miss­ing pieces…  all of which enhance the sto­ry of a remark­able woman who sur­vived a geno­cide and, late in life, sum­moned the courage to recount every­thing she had faced.”  — Gila Wertheimer, Jewish Book Council “Within the vast, ever-increasing Holocaust literature, Thérèse C. Masson’s childhood memoir stands out. My Kaddish is a compelling, intriguing testimony. … [It] is a ‘lighthouse’ that provides guidance for Holocaust research, education, and remembrance. … My Kaddish depicts the landscapes of [Thérèse’s] early childhood, transforming them into memorial sites. Visual images and sensory triggers link the past and present… What finally emerges is a striking self-analysis which not only illustrates how this childhood memoir has been constructed but also reveals the psychological burdens and damage of a child survivor. My Kaddish is an important and challenging autobiographical account of the trauma, the wounds, Thérèse experienced as a child during the Holocaust—wounds which never healed and that shaped her postwar life.” — Emeritus Professor Dr. Konrad Kwiet, Sydney Jewish Museum, from the preface