Alicia Appleman-Jurman (1930–2017)
Author of Alicia: My Story
Works by Alicia Appleman-Jurman
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1930-05-09
- Date of death
- 2017-04-04
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- memoirist
Holocaust survivor
autobiographer - Short biography
- Alicia Appleman-Jurman was born to a Jewish family in Rosulna, Poland (now Rosilna, Ukraine). She was raised in Buczacz (now Buchach, Ukraine), a part of southeastern Poland annexed by Russia in 1939. In 1942, she was not yet 13 when Nazi Germany invaded in World War II. Her father Sigmund Jurman was murdered, and Alicia was put on a train destined for a death camp. She escaped by being thrown out the train window and, although injured, followed the railroad tracks back to the Buczacz Ghetto. Her four brothers Moshe, Bunio, Herzl, and Zachary all were killed. Her mother Frieda Jurman died saving Alicia from being shot by the Nazis. At the end of the war, at age 15, she joined the underground group Bricha, helping to smuggle Jews out of Eastern Europe to the British Mandate of Palestine. In early 1947, she sailed to Palestine herself aboard the ship Theodor Herzl, which was stopped by the British Royal Navy, and was imprisoned on Cyprus for eight months. In December 1947, she finally reached Palestine and later served in the Israeli Navy. In 1950, she married Gabriel Appleman, an American volunteer who had fought in Israel's 1948 War of Independence, and then went to the USA with him. The couple had three children. They returned to Israel in 1969 and were there during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. In 1975, they moved back to the USA and settled in California. She published her autobiography, Alicia: My Story, in 1988. In 2012, she published Six Cherry Blossoms and Other Stories, followed by Alicia: My Story Continues: A Journey in Historical Photographs (2013).
- Nationality
- Poland
USA - Birthplace
- Rosulna, Poland (now Roslina, Ukraine)
- Places of residence
- Rosulna, Poland (birth)
Buczacz, Poland (now Buchach, Ukraine)
Israel - Place of death
- San Jose, California, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- San Jose, California, USA
Members
Reviews
This is probably the most remarkable memoir I have ever read. Alicia Jurman was a young Jewish girl living in eastern Poland and was nine years old when the Second World War broke out and her part of Poland was invaded first by the Soviet Union then, less than two years later, by Germany when it in turn invaded the Soviet Union. Her immediate family members were killed one by one, her father and all four of her brothers. She and her weakened mother spent time moving around the Polish show more countryside, trying to find food and shelter, Alicia seeking work on Polish and Ukrainian farms using various false identities (she spoke both languages fluently). She narrowly escaped being sent to the camps or shot a number of times through a combination of amazing resourcefulness, bravery and a considerable measure of good luck. Her home town of Buczacz was liberated by the Russians in March 1943 and for a short time, Alicia and her mother and other surviving Jews started to try to rebuild a reasonably normal life. However, after a couple of months the Nazis recaptured the town, they were betrayed and the SS shot Alicia's mother. Alicia and other surviving Jews were taken to a meadow outside the town for a mass shooting, from which Alicia was one of the few who managed to escape. Despite the horrible betrayals, there were also incidents of kindness from some local farmers and a lovely, generous old man who kept bees and sheltered not only Alicia and her mother, but six other Jews in his small cottage. After the second and final liberation and the end of the war, Alicia tried to help Jewish orphan children wandering the streets by setting up an informal orphanage, though only aged 15 herself. Shockingly, the few surviving Jews were still targetted and abused by many individual Poles and the Polish authorities, who did not want to be reminded how they had helped the Nazis to oppress them. Finally, the huge sense of alienation from Polish society led Alicia to make the decision to go to what would slightly later be the state of Israel, as well as helping to run an escape route for other Polish Jews who wanted to leave. One of the most shameful new things I learned from this account was how the British authorities, in trying to limit immigration to Palestine, even attacked and boarded the ship Alicia was on, killing some of the Jewish orphan children in the process. I could say a lot more about this remarkable 400 plus page book, which the author was driven to write in the 1980s to tell her story before it was too late; as she says of her fellow European Jews, "they cannot forget, and they cannot bear the thought that the world will not remember. As they grow older, it becomes more and more important to them that no one be permitted to forget." show less
I'm positive most people that have read this book will say it's completely memorable. This is the 1st book I have read that really impacted my life. I read it 15 yrs ago but I still recommend this people to everyone. The way Ms.Appleman-Jurman tells her story makes you feel you are there with her. It is a book about the Holocaust. I've read other Holocaust books, their stories are just as important today that it was then, but this is the one I would read again.
Amazing WWII memoir by Polish Jewish girl who survived it. Very remarkable story and great history of what was happening in eastern Poland during the War.
Read this book and you will never forget Alicia's story. Her story is about her survival in the Holocaust. A very moving book that had me crying in parts. Alicia was an incredible and courageous young woman.
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