Many powerful books, both fiction and nonfiction (and in between) have been written about the Holocaust. What is most unique about Tell Me Another Morning?

The relationship between the three girls coming of age in the concentration camps is very unusual.

What would you say was your primary purpose for writing this book?

To share the experiences that we went through – not only I but thousands of others. To make a truthful and powerful statement about the life in concentrations camps from the perspective of a teenage girl — which had not been done.

I wanted to convey growing up in that atmosphere — the maturing of the character within that framework of the concentration camp, and the relationships between the three girls –which is at the core of the story. I’ve always thought that none of us would have survived if we didn’t have each other.

Why did you write the book as a novel rather than a memoir?

I would not have been able to write a memoir. I wanted to tell the story in a way that would let a reader feel and see what we did, and fiction made it possible for me to do that. Fiction allowed me to focus on the small details of our daily life.

Truth is not only in facts. There is truth in fiction, emotional truth. Fiction is an extension of memory.

In reality Ilsa is based on two girls. I felt that one personality would not have been as strong as the composite of the two. This illustrates the difference between the “factual” and the “creative fact.”

The friendships – the interrelationships between the three girls is at the core of the story. They survived — we survived — because of each other.

I needed to present my story in as honest a way as possible. By calling this new edition “an autobiographical novel” we are now meshing the two true aspects of the book.

How much of the book is autobiographical? What is a specific episode that you can point to and say, “It happened just like that”?

All events in the book are based on facts — some that I experienced and some that I witnessed. I did not make up anything.

How do you feel about the decision when you reread the book 45 years later?

I do not regret choosing the form of a novel — fiction — rather than memoir.

How much is the protagonist, Tania, like you?

She is like me. I tried to have an objective view about her at the time that I wrote the book. Looking back on her now, I find her very passive. I was reading the section “The Circle” last night and thought – I don’t understand her. Why didn’t she try to persuade the mother? I became almost angry at her. Did she fail in some way to protect her mother? By not taking a stand.

Yes, she was like me and she is a young girl — and I tried to remember how I acted and what I thought at that age when I was writing the story. I see her as introspective and timid and she becomes strong as she goes along. She grows up rather fast.

What, to you, are the most powerful scenes in the book? Is there one episode in particular that you feel stands out?

After sixty years, it is “The Safety Pin.” It still brings tears to my eyes. That’s the one that holds the most emotion for me.

Why did you write the novel in English? Did you think of writing it in one of the other languages you knew?

I changed languages as I changed countries. I was very fluent in French but had begun to learn English in Prague when I was a young girl – 12, 13, 14. I was then taken away in 1941, when I was 16. When I moved to Paris in 1948, I developed my basic knowledge of French, which I had begun in school, and then perfected my knowledge of English while working in an office at the American School. Once I moved to California, English was my language – and it never occurred to me to write in either Czech or French.

How long did it take to write the novel?

It took me between three and four years. I started it the first year I arrived in the US. I was employed as a keypuncher, and would return home in the evenings and work on the book.

Can you say a bit about your writing process—especially as it pertains to this book?

It’s such an innermost process. I would remember an incident and start working on it. The writing comes from inside, it is not thought out in an analytical way. There is an urgency and desire to express the feelings surrounding the particular incident, to share it.

Who have been your favorite writers throughout your life?

Flaubert, Balzac, Emily Dickinson, Hemingway, Anthony Powell, Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Bowen, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Camus, Colette, Ford Madox Ford.

How do you feel about the book coming back into print?

Honored and surprised – I cannot quite believe that this is true. There is something beautiful in the fact that this is happening while I am still alive – that it is a validation of what I tried to do, the story I needed to tell.

Students may study this book, and readers in book discussion groups will talk about it. What do you hope will stay with these readers after reading your book?

I hope readers understand that it was possible to survive with dignity. And that the friendship between the girls was truly saving — there was tenacity and there was tenderness between them, and they know they have to support each other without ever talking about it.

Elie Wiesel talks about bearing witness; he says "Never forget." Simon Wiesenthal said, "For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing." Anne Frank said, "In spite of everything that has happened, I still believe that people are really good at heart." What do you say?

One has to believe that people are basically good because otherwise you would not be able to go on. There is a constant battle between the forces of good and evil. We have to have hope that the good will prevail eventually.

Copyright © 2007 Paris Press