The Burned Letter - Helene Ritchie

During the Holocaust, Lidi, as a teenager, flees from Hitler and the Nazis. Forced to leave behind everyone she loves, she eventually arrives in New Zealand as a Jewish refugee, with her mother. Alive in their new country, but labelled again, they immediately are called `enemy aliens,' monitored by the police, their letters censored, their lives and movements restricted.

Five years later in 1945, a few months after the liberation of Auschwitz, Lidi burns the letter written to her that tells her what happened to those she loved most dearly. She hopes that in turning the letter to ashes, her survivor guilt and trauma would disappear too. But her efforts are in vain. They - all those relations - just perished, Lidi says over and over again.

Nearly 70 years later, just before she dies at the age of 92, Lidi said she regrets burning the letter.

Too late.

They' remain a mystery to Helene, Lidi's daughter. As does their fate. For 50 years, she travels the world, searching for her grandparents and her “just perished” family. It was as if “they” all just disappeared in a puff of smoke. But she does find traces in the killing centres, ghettoes and death marches across Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany, discovering murder, suicides, theft, and tragic love affairs.

Unintentionally, she also unearths some hidden parts of her mother and her self.

Listen to this radio interview with the author: The Burned Letter: Helene Ritchie on her family's Holocaust mystery 

Helene Ritchie, 2023. Paperback, 554 pages. 

ISBN: 9780473662417

Condition: secondhand paperback in very good condition. Signed by the author.