Born and raised in New Brunswick, Carolyn Gammon moved to
Berlin in 1992. Her poetry, prose, and essays have appeared in
anthologies in North America and Great Britain, and in translation.
She is co-author of the Holocaust memoir Johanna Krause, Twice
Persecuted (WLU Press, 2007).
Israel Unger was born in 1938 in Tarnow, Poland, and
immigrated to Canada in 1951. He is Dean Emeritus of Science at the
University of New Brunswick. Israel Unger was one of fifty
Holocaust survivors to be honoured by the Government of Canada in
1998 in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. He was the educational advisor for
Atlantic Canada for the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for
Holocaust Studies.
"This is like a detective story where we are also taken on the
journey with the authors and become witnesses to the discovery of
evidence that, in every detail, supports Israel's memories and
stories. I have seldom been so moved that I literally stop
everything else, including eating until I reach the end. There is a
tension between the utter honesty and attention to detail of
Israel's story, and the need to dig deeper and find out more
emotionally. It makes this book powerful and indeed, empowering.
This is storytelling / history / memoir / biography at its very
best. The Unwritten Diary of Israel Unger deserves an award for its
content but also its methodology. It provides a useful blueprint
for other writing-interviewing partnerships and shows how
dedication to the cause can lead to an incredibly compelling
book.... You cannot read this book fast. It is a slow read. It
needs to be. Nor can you put it down. So, be prepared to find a
safe haven, take plenty of time, and begin this journey. You will
not emerge the same person as you began. This is one of those
unique, life-changing books." -- Cathie Koa Dunsford -- Asia
Pacific Review, 201304
"[The Unwritten Diary of Israel Unger] is a powerful story of
courage, survival, humility, and love--love of family, love of
community, and love of peace, justice, and truth.... Unger and his
collaborator, Carolyn Gammon, wrote this book clearly intending to
tell the story of an extraordinary life. In the process, it became
more than just a writing exercise for them. Like so many works
motivated by passion and discovery and framed within the borders of
historical and family narratives, this book became a journey of
self-discovery and narrative renewal.... This book of memory is as
finely written an account of a life as I have read." -- Richard
Blaquiere -- Bugle-Observer (Woodstock, NB), 20130510
"In a small town in Poland, nine Jews hid from the Nazis in an
attic crawl space for two years. All of them survived. Israel
Unger, professor and dean emeritus of the University of New
Brunswick, was one of them. With the help of Carolyn Gammon, Unger
has shared his story in the Unwritten Diary of Israel Unger. Unger
says the idea to write this book was not his, it was Gammon's.
'When she first suggested to me that we write a book, my answer to
her was that there wasn't a book, that my memories were not very
extensive because I was so young at the time,' he says. Unger was
five when they first hid in the attic, seven when they left that
tiny space after Poland was liberated. 'And I was 1 1/2 when the
German war machine crashed into Poland,' he notes. 'But Carolyn
then said, what happened afterwards is also interesting.' Looking
at himself as a representative of what happened to many survivors,
he realized that there might be a book. 'There were 350,000 Jews
that survived Poland--10 per cent of the 3.5 million that were
living there before the war--and I was one of those,' says Unger.
'It seemed to me, in telling the story, you could also tell in some
ways the story of many other people.'... What [Unger] found
particularly gratifying was that the external reviewer said his
story wasn't just part of Holocaust history, it's part of Canadian
history. The reviewer also said his story filled a gap. 'To me, it
was kind of a justification for the book, that somebody considers
it a part of Canadian history,' he says." -- Lori Gallagher --
Fredericton Daily Gleaner, 20130406
The book's final section sets it apart from many other memoirs, in
detailing the extensive research undertaken by Unger and Gammon,
greatly facilitated by the internet, to reconstruct the
circumstances of his Holocaust childhood: the hiding place, the
Polish citizens who helped the nine Jews, others who knew about
their refuge but did not denounce them, and even the fates of the
five others who hid with the Unger family. Correspondence and
personal encounters with various helpful and unhelpful Polish
authorities enliven this account. A high point is Unger's meeting
with the mill owner's son, who had known about the hidden Jews, and
the discovery of and visits with two women from the group, sisters
living in Israel. Another strength of the book is its rich
photographic documentation, again largely the result of careful
research.... Gammon and Unger have produced a readable,
unpretentious, straightforward book that will be of interest to
those studying immigration and exile, Holocaust memoir, and
Canadian university life. Closing the account, the reader is
inclined to agree with Unger's assertion that "every survivor story
... is unique and extraordinary" and to concur with his own
self-assessment: "I have had a very good life." -- Cecile Zorach,
Franklin and Marshall College -- Yearbook of German American
Studies, Spring 2015
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