Remembrance, Resilience, and Reconciliation in Alicia Appleman-Jurman’s and Anita Ekstein’s Memoirs: A Literary Analysis of Narrative Strategies

Yakiv Bystrov

doi:10.18290/rh257311.3

Published : 2025-12-19

Vol. 73 No. 11 (2025)

Remembrance, Resilience, and Reconciliation in Alicia Appleman-Jurman’s and Anita Ekstein’s Memoirs: A Literary Analysis of Narrative Strategies

Yakiv Bystrov

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6549-8474

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh257311.3

Abstract

The present research explores the narrative strategies that foreground the themes of Holocaust remembrance, resilience, and reconciliation in Alicia Appleman-Jurman’s Alicia. My Story (1988) and Anita Ekstein’s Always Remember Who You Are (2019), two first-person accounts of Holocaust survivors in World War II who grew up in western Ukraine (then southeastern Poland). Through a comparative literary analysis, the study highlights how each author constructs their narrative to convey the trauma of the Holocaust, the lingering resentment toward perpetrators, and the diverse ways toward reconciliation, which result solely from the complete remembrance of past trauma. The article argues that while both self-narrations share common themes of memory and the creation of a Holocaust survivor’s identity, the authors employ different narrative techniques reflecting their personal experiences and perspectives. The analysis of the core themes reveals that Appleman-Jurman’s autobiographical narrative emphasizes resilience and survival, while Ekstein’s memoir foregrounds intergenerational memory and the ethical imperative of remembrance.

Keywords:

self-narration, Holocaust memory, identity, resilience, reconciliation, resentment, violence, narrative strategies

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