Jeanette Katzir: Broken Birds
Book Club Discussion

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Jeanette Katzir

This book is described as a fictional book based on your own recollections of your life events. (i.e. your name is Jeanette but in the book it is Jaclyn) If these questions are incorrect in accordance with the book, please let me know and we will update them accordingly.

The book is a non-fiction memoir. Because the facts are true, and to protect everyone concerned, including me, I needed to change all the names.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Jeanette Katzir

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Jeanette Katzir

Surviving the Holocaust was a major, life changing event for your parents. You write about it with such emotional detail, I was wondering if your parents ever discussed it with you or if it was merely written about through research?

The portion of the book, which chronicles my mother, Channa's time during the war, was based on stories she told my brothers, sisters and me when we were young. After my mother died, I was free to ask my father for further information. She had forbidden him to tell us anything during her lifetime. Whatever facts my father didn't know, I researched. Again, once my mother had died, my father, "Nathan," revealed his stories to us. He even went so far as to write 22 pages of his information down for me. They included many more names, dates and places then I had ever heard of before. I did do some research to further clarify and describe what he had told me about. I lived through the balance of the book, so other than pouring over my many many photos albums, no further research was needed.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Jeanette Katzir

Was your mom really so negative about her children's decisions? How did you decide that it was ok for you not to follow what she said?

Mom was negative about our decisions not so much because she didn't love us, but rather, because she honestly feared that we would surpass her and that she would not be able to help us if we needed it. She would rather have us remain lowly and in need of her so she could be assured we'd never leave her. I tried very hard to be my own person, and with the help of my husband, other family members, and friends, I tested the waters and tried ever so slowly to do things contrary to Mom's warnings.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Jeanette Katzir

"As I watched her drive off, I thought about how our mother-daughter relationship was bound to change." Did your relationship with your daughter change drastically after she married? Do you find yourself giving her "advice" like your mom gave you?

In some ways, it did change. She was no longer JUST my daughter; she was an adult now, on her way to live her life with her husband. We both needed to cut those aprons strings, and as hard as it was for both of us, I think we did a good job. However, the closeness we had enjoyed our entire lives remained, and now we are Mother and daughter with an appropriate dash of best friends.

I have a rule I try to abide by; if I see her doing something that is dangerous or really, really wrong, I will speak out, otherwise I try to allow her to become the woman she is meant to be. It isn't easy, but then again, do I want her to suffer self-doubt about her choices, which is something I have always grappled with? No.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Jeanette Katzir

You mention that Shlomo, Shirley, your father, and yourself are atheists. How did that come to be?

We never discussed how or why some of us ended up not believing in a God. Mom and two of my other siblings are spiritual. I think that when persons and/or their children go through something as horrific as the Holocaust, they can either thank God for their survival or blame him for his inaction. There is also the choice of realizing that He was never there in the first place. For me His presence, or lack thereof, never made any sense.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Jeanette Katzir

You describe your parents as Broken Birds. I believe that I understand what you mean but can you explain it for your readers?

Whenever I spoke with Mom or Dad, I always felt as if they were two little broken birds . . . unable to fly. Their entire world was askew, and their teachings came from that cockeyed way of thinking. I never blamed them one bit for the mess they made of our lives, because the beginnings of their lives were so destructive, so broken.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Jeanette Katzir

This is your first book, why did you decide to write about your family?

Oddly enough, I had begun to write my mother's recollections down for family posterity about a year before she died. She didn't know that I was writing, because she wouldn't have liked it. But I thought that since we have no information about where we came from, these stories, names, places, and dates were important to be remembered. Then when she died and the family fell apart, I was in such pain. The writing was a way to get it all out, and people seemed genuinely interested in hearing about what was happening in the "Poltzer" family. As I spoke with people of every religious background, I found that many families had a Steven, a Shirley, and even a Jacyln. That only fueled my desire to finish the book and put it out there. Currently, I am writing a children's series with two friends of mine. Writing my book indirectly opened the floodgates to a long lost love of mine –writing—and I hope to continue for a long, long time.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Jeanette Katzir