Alicia Appleman-Jurman
Alicia Appleman-Jurman (born 9 May 1930, Rosulna, Poland [present-day Rosilna, Ukraine]) is a Polish-born Israeli–American memoirist, who has written and spoken about her experiences of the Holocaust in her autobiography, Alicia: My Story.[1]
Early life
The sole female and the second-youngest child of Sigmund and Frieda Jurman in a family of five children, she was raised from the age of five in Buczacz, which was roughly 1/3 Jewish at that time. Her parents and four brothers (Moshe, Bunio, Herzl and Zachary) were all murdered during the Holocaust.
She escaped the Germans by being thrown through the window of a train taking her family to an extermination camp. After Germany's defeat, she joined the underground group Bricha, helping smuggle Jews out of Poland to Austria, then on to the Palestine Mandate, which would become Israel. In early 1947 she sailed aboard the Theodor Herzl, which was stopped by the Britain's Royal Navy. The ship's crew and passengers were sent to Cyprus and interned for eight months there. In December 1947, Jurman made it to the Palestine Mandate. She was part of the Palyam, later serving in the “Chayl HaYam” naval forces that fought at Jaffa. There she met Gabriel Appleman, a volunteer from the United States. They wed in 1950 and came to the United States two years later. They returned to Israel in 1969 and were there during the Yom Kippur War (1973), and returned to the U.S. in 1975. The couple had two sons, and a daughter.[2]
Alicia: My Story
Her autobiography, Alicia: My Story, was published in Toronto and New York by Bantam in 1988. According to WorldCat, the book is held in 1176 libraries.[3] It has been translated into French (Alicia: l'histoire de ma vie); into German (Alicia: Überleben, um Zeugnis zu geben); into Danish (Alicia: min historie); into Swedish (Alicia: min historia), into Dutch (Vergeten kan ik niet), and into Spanish (Alicia, la historia de mi vida).
Other writing
- Alicia: My Story, Bantam; Spine Lean edition (Bantam Books), 1988). (ISBN 978-0553282184)
- Alicia: My Story Continues: a Journey in Historical Photographs,[4] Desaware Publishing, 2013. (ISBN 978-1936754090)
- Six Cherry Blossoms and other stories (ISBN 978-1-936754-01-4), Desaware Publishing, 2012. It includes incidents that occurred both before and after the events in Alicia: My Story.[5]
Filmography
Alicia Live: A Presentation by Alicia Appleman-Jurman, April 10, 2012.
References
- ↑ Alicia: My Story, Bantam, 1988, page xiii
- ↑ Profile of Alicia Appleman-Jurman, annefrankwall.org; accessed 8 September 2014.
- ↑ WorldCat book entry; accessed 8 September 2014.
- ↑ Alicia: My Story Continues: a Journey in Historical Photographs, San Jose, CA: Desaware Publishing, 2013.
- ↑ Six Cherry Blossoms and other stories reference, aliciamystory.com; accessed 8 September 2014.