The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir by Margot Bettauer Dembo

The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir Reviews

• 
  Jeanne

  Yes this is a harrowing story about this little girl and a fascinating insight to what it must have been like in Krakow at that time. Sadly I did not warm to the author. She came across as obsessed with herself. Throughout the book she seems to want to put across how beautiful she was and how men would pursue her and ask to marry her at the drop of a hat. This may well be the case but I really felt I did not need this information.
  This author, despite her terrible childhood, did not ever have to endure being in a concentration camp. You can walk away, as she did, from an alcoholic. You could not walk away from Auschwitz. She should not have put this comment in the book. Also, there is a theme throughout the book about her wanting to disappear or be invisible. Despite this she still tells us how she would dress in colourful clothes and low cut tops. Of course she has been mentally damaged by her past and I do feel for all of the children who endured what she did and far worse. But I get a sense of this woman capitalising on her past in a way which I find a little irritating. I also think the family who kept taking them into their home were not given as much attention as they deserved. We are told, Manuella, the lovely daughter of this family had died. The author idolised this young woman but all we are told is that she is dead. I wanted to know more about her and how she came to die. I was also surprised to learn that the picture of the little girl in the red coat was not in fact the author - she just 'recognised' herself in her. I imagine so did many many other children.
  
• 
  Ingrid

  2.5 stars.
  Unfortunately I didn't like Roma much. The story of her life started in the ghetto of Krakow at the beginning of the war. It is told with a great distance, the words didn't reach my heart.
• 
  Meaghan

  It would really be misleading to call this a Holocaust memoir. Roma Ligocka does write about the Holocaust, but she was a very young child during that time and her vague, fragmentary memories of it take up only a few chapters of the book. The rest of the book is about her growing up and her adulthood as an artist. I didn't find the book all that interesting, and I thought Roma liked to promote herself a lot, talking about how beautiful she was, etc. Interesting detail: Roma's cousin is the famous film director
  Roman Polanski, and he's one of the major characters in the early part of the book.
• 
  joyce g

  Brutally beautiful.
• 
  Laura

  I read this book over the course of a day because I found it hard to put it down. It's well written and very compulsive. I found some of it very distressing and I got quite upset during the first half of it. This is partly down to the subject matter, but mostly down to the fact that the observations of the horror are written from the perspective of a young child. The simplicity of the writing and the confusion of the child are very moving.
  
  It's an autobiography of Roma Ligocka and starts with her earliest memories. She was born in Poland in 1939 to Jewish parents. Her first years were spent in the Krakow Ghetto and are absolutely horrific. Roma and her mother escaped the Ghetto and spent the rest of the war in hiding.
  
  I was particularly interested in Roma's account of Ghetto life because she was so young. Adults heap huge responsibilty on her. She is expected to keep secrets and remember cover stories but is never told why. She sees people shot in front of her and is told to look away and not think about it. This particular way of thinking is something she adopts as an adult and she refuses to talk about her past even though she suffers from fears and phobias that stem from that time.
  
  The chapters that cover Roma's teenage life are fascinating. I have read a few books about adult Holocaust survivors and the way they coped after 1945, but it was the first time I'd read about a young person at that time. Roma is creative and rebellious and desperate to find a place that she feels she belongs. She throws herself into things she loves with passion, like art and music. She finds herself drawn to Communism and then becomes disenchanted by it. There are also a number of references to Roman Polanski, who is her cousin.
  
  I think the thing that I liked most about this book was that I came away with a full picture of Roma. Often autobiographies about the Holocaust end when the war ends and I'm left wondering what happened. By writing a book that deals with the Holocaust and then goes on to write about her subsequent successes and failures, Roma Ligocka becomes a rounded person to the reader.
• 
  Nick Handfield-Jones

  Thoughts:
  
  1. I would hesitate to call this a Holocaust memoir; it's more of a life memoir. And for the most part, it works. Half of the book is during the war, and the second half follows her life afterwards. The transition between the two sections is really well handled.
  
  2. Ligocka writes her memoir almsot like a novel. It's very beginning-middle-end, with the various people in her life weaving in and out like characters of a play. I think that she misses beats in some areas. I felt some of the people she talked about were under-developed, like her friends in her twenties, as well as the relationship she had with some of the men that entered her life. Furthermore, the pacing is a bit all over the place. Ligocka rarely stays at certain moments for long, which disconnected me with what she was feeling at each part of her life. I think a part of this has to do with her writing, which is here-and-there. Of major issue is her descriptive writing. I never felt like I was with her in the moment. I coulnd't imagine what the scenes looked like, or what he life really felt like, especially earlier on.
  
  3. The way she reminisces about her mother is on-point, and the flow of their relationship is handled extremely well. There were some moments where you could really feel all the feelings. That was excellent.
  
  4. Yeah. It's hard to rate a memoir, as I sort of feel like I'm giving critique on a person's life. But from what I read about her elsewhere, I think this book could have been revised a few more times to make more connection with the readers.
  
  Rating: 3 stars out of 5
• 
  Kate Hamlet

  I really felt that this could have been over halfway through the book. The author seems to be craving attention and is awfully spoiled as you'll find in the second half of the book. I found her to be whiny about the people and events in her life (not the Holocaust part....the rest of her life). The part about her going through the Holocaust was really good. After that though it seemed like she didn't want to wrap it up and by the end of her book I didn't care for her much. She even complained that she wasn't given the time of day after the premiere of Schindler's List when she claimed to be the girl in the red coat. Honestly, why would it necessarily be her? So she had a red coat too.....? I'm not sure I'd give that claim the time of day either. Her story about surviving the Holocaust is powerful and intense. I just think she could have ended it with that.
• 
  Peachy Macauley

  This is not a book about her life as a holocaust survivor. Rather, a memoir of what came to be her life after escaping the horrors of the holocaust. As such, it is misleading. I won't take away that it is an easy read, and because it is written as memory recollections, it is interesting. It is not daunting, harrowing, or even captivating. In fact, I was taken aback at how manipulative, selfish, and ignorant she turned out to be! After all her mother went through!! Cannot recommend this book as a good holocaust memoir. For that, read The Boy in the Stripes Pajamas (fiction) or even Diary of Anne Frank (non-fiction).
• 
  RedSaab

  I got a dose of survivor's guilt reading this heart-rending memoir. It divides naturally into two halves, the latter surprisingly just as distressing as the first The first half tells of Ligocka's oft-times miraculous survival as a Jewish child in Poland as the Nazi occupation and the Holocaust gather pace. The second half depicts her valiant but vain attempts to process the deeply traumatic impact of it all as her adult life unfolds. Despite achieving a superficial measure of professional success, her talents cannot prevent her personal life repeatedly stalling or unravelling in slow motion.
  
  If you approach this book expecting a conventional story of hard won triumph over adversity you will be thwarted. And, to those reviewers who find Ligocka's memoir 'whiny' or 'narcissistic', I would merely say that surviving existential trauma does not necessarily endow you with glowing or heroic personal attributes. But it's the cracks that let the light in. I just hope that by penning this haunting personal tragedy the author found a measure of recovery and peace.
• 
  Alina 🌳

  *4,5
  
  Das war eine mega erstaunliche Autobiografie. Sehr mitreißend und spannend, vor allem der Zeitgeschichtliche Hintergrund. Aber auch die Entwicklung Romas ist sehr interessant, da sie wirklich ein schreckliches Schicksal hinter sich hat. Das Ende hat den Anfang total gut abgerundet.
  
  Einziger Kritikpunkt ist, dass Roma häufig gerade in jüngeren Jahren zwischendurch sehr erwachsen reflektiert. An sich eigentlich ja super, aber das ist immer sehr aus dem Kontext gerissen sodass man manchmal aus dem Lesefluss rauskommt. Eine Reflektion am Ende hätte es etwas besser abgerundet.
• 
  M.S. Shoshanna Selo

  The Girl in the Red Coat is a touching and heartbreaking autobiography about the life of a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor. Roma Ligocka was a young child when her and her family were forced to move into the Krakow Ghetto. Luckily, Roma and her mother were able to escape the Ghetto and were taken in by a non-Jewish family who hid them and passed them off as "cousins".
  
  Roma poignantly describes the trauma of life in the Ghetto and the constant fear of her and her mother being caught by the Germans and making even the slightest mistake that could cost them their lives. Roma is forced to grow up at a young age and cannot have a normal childhood. Even simple things that most children take for granted such as playing outside and being with other children are forbidden to Roma.
  
  Although Roma and her mother survive the war and are reunited with her father and other family members including Roman Polanski, the trauma hangs over their heads and their lives will never be normal. Roma not only bears her own trauma but the trauma of the family and friends who survived the concentration camps and subject the children to the horrendous details.
  
  Roma doesn't get to catch up on the childhood that she missed as her father tragically dies two years after the war and communism takes hold over Poland, restricting people's lives and subjecting them to poverty and lack of freedom.
  
  For those who say that this isn't a Holocaust memoir, they are wrong. You don't have to be a survivor of a concentration camp to be a Holocaust survivor and tell your story. Those who were hidden during the war have just as much right to tell their story and carry their own trauma.
  
  Roma's account was extremely moving and tragic. The tragedy continues to impact her life as is the case for all Holocaust survivors. My grandparents were both Holocaust survivors who fled from Germany. I know that my grandmother's trauma impacted her until the day that she died.
  
  The only problem I had with this book is that Roma dwells more on her life after leaving Poland during the communist era, living in West Germany, her marriages and social life. I felt like it took the focus away from her early experiences of the Holocaust and life in communist Poland and felt a bit irrelevant. I didn't really feel as connected to Roma in the latter part of the book. Perhaps the book wasn't marketed properly as I expected that it would just be about Roma's childhood, but it ended up being a memoir including a large portion of her adult life.
  
  All in all this was a very evocative and moving book. Through such dark and harrowing times, Roma interweaves colour and child-like wonder and hope into her very traumatic story. I would definitely recommend this.
  
  Grade: A
• 
  robinie

  Die erste Hälfte dieses Buches erfüllte meine Erwartungen vollkommen: Roma Ligocka berichtet von ihren Erlebnissen während des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Ich war neugierig darauf, zu erfahren, an wie viel sie sich erinnern konnte, denn immerhin war sie beim Ausbruch des Krieges kaum ein Jahr alt gewesen. Sprich: Sie hat den Krieg als Kleinkind erlebt. Trotzdem hat sie eine sehr klare, eine sehr detaillierte Erinnerung an das, was sie und ihre Familie durchmachen mussten.
  
  In der zweiten Hälfte geht es um ihr Leben nach dem Krieg. Sie erzählt von ihrem beruflichen Werdegang und davon, wie sie ihren Mann kennenlernte, von ihrer Ehe, wie sie Mutter wird und so weiter. Das war mir ehrlich gesagt ein wenig zu viel des Guten. Mir ging es nicht unbedingt darum, zu erfahren, wie sie als Künstlerin durchstartete, daher empfand ich die zweite Hälfte des Buches als überflüssig.
  
  Da ich diesem Buch nichts unter 5 Sternen geben möchte - es erscheint mir nicht richtig, ein solch persönliches Werk derart zu bewerten -, habe ich beschlossen, überhaupt keine Bewertung abzugeben.
• 
  Allyson

  This was an incredibly moving read, but I had two objections. I thought she actually was the one in the red coat- it was a metaphor only, probably something a lot of reviewers unwittingly passed on and I distrusted a lot of her early memories. Not so much the memories, just the pure dialogue involved. Why can writers not simply provide a general impression of early recollections, rather than entire dialogue there is no possibility of being truthful? This was my big complaint against The Glass Castle and I felt the same way reading her early memories, actually the dialogue surrounding her early memories. I completely believe she would remember full scenarios in toto but not the conversations as explicitly written. I would have preferred something different and found I had to read beyond and was able to accept her storytelling for what it was.
  Very powerful and moving and also laudable she did not trade on her relationship to Roman Polanski to sell this book.
• 
  Aisling Doonan

  I cannot rate this book highly enough, to say it is moving is an understatement of epic proportions. It is a chilling and heartbreaking account of a child, whose voice I think will haunt me for ever. I spent the last few pages not wanting it to end and then having a complete breakdown in the bathroom when it was finished. So beautifully and simply written, it will be one I always remember.
• 
  Sandra de koning-vd pol

  Dit boek heeft me enorm geraakt en ik weet zeker dat ik nog dagen zal blijven denken aan dat meisje in de rode jas en de vrouw die uiteindelijk niet anders kan, dan op zoek gaan naar zichzelf. Draai je om. Denk eraan. Herinner je. Vertel... Zo mooi!
• 
  Mindy

  Great book. Moving. Important. Great perspective on the years after the war for this particular survivor.
• 
  Steffi

  No rating because I usually don't rate non-fiction (especially not biographies)
  
  Really liked seeing Romas perspective, her journey and the long-lasting trauma she sustained from her traumatic childhood.
  I've read quite a few non-fictions from jewish people during the Second World War, but I feel like this really gave me something I had not read before. I don't think I've read about that time from someone who was that young when it happened, nor from someone who actually managed to hide out throughout the entire war. And I also liked how it didn't just stop with the end of the war, but also shows you how Roma was haunted by her past throughout her entire life.
• 
  Mirjam de Graaf

  Ik was best wel verrast dat in veel reviews staat dat dit ‘geen holocaust memoire’ is. Kennelijk heb je alleen recht op die vermelding als je in een kamp zat en daar het hele boek over laat gaan, anders is men teleurgesteld? Ik vond het boek juist erg mooi weergeven hoe het in je hele leven lang doorwerkt als je in een vijandige oorlogsomgeving opgroeit en dus als klein meisje geen andere werkelijkheid kent. Nee, Roma is niet supersympathiek, maar als je met aandacht leest snap je ook precies waarom.
• 
  Marjolein

  I really liked this book. The beginning gives a great view on the Holocaust through the eyes of a little child (and because she is so small, it gets really uncomfortable, because she doesn't understand everything we do understand). The rest of the book is a great tale of how what happened in her early years influences her and her choices and further life. Roma is not always the smartest or most sympathetic character, but it is all very logical and can be explained as a consequence of what she has lived through.
• 
  Melanie Glass

  Whilst wandering round a bookshop in the Jewish Quarter of Krakow I spotted this book and added it to my reading list. Having visited Auschwitz and explored quite a bit of the Jewish Quarter provided context to reading this book on my return. Following the story of the author from her childhood in Krakow, through the war and beyond was really interesting - hearing the story from a child's perspective really added to the story and provided a different understanding of what was going on and how it impacted children.
  Well worth a read.
• 
  julia

  Ze względu na to, że jest to opowieść autobiograficzna, nie będę jej oceniać. Mimo wszystko była ona okrutna, wyciskająca łzy, ale też niewinna, bo była z perspektywy dziecka. Najbardziej łamiące serce momenty, to byłe te tuż po wojnie, kiedy ludzie, niby bezpieczni, ale straumatyzowani, wciąż nie mogli odnaleźć siebie (odnosi się to również do dzieci, co było w tym wszystkim najgorsze). Mam wrażenie, że dotknęła mnie nawet bardziej, niż ,,Chłopiec w pasiastej piżamie".
• 
  Bookwood

  Pamiętam z tej książki jedno,. historię chłopczyka, który znów chciał byc dziewczynka.
• 
  Books_my_big_love

  Wojny nigdy nie powinny wybuchać, nigdy nie powinny mieć miejsca. W wojnach giną niewinni ludzie, ale giną też dzieci, którym nie było dane rozpocząć na dobre życia, a już im ktoś je odebrał. Oczywiście nie wszyscy giną, ale wydarzenia i obrazy z tego czasu zostają w pamięci do końca życia.
  
  „Dziewczynka w czerwonym płaszczyku” to nie tylko wstrząsająca, wzruszająca i poruszająca powieść. To przede wszystkim ważny przekaz i świadectwo tego, jak wyglądała wojna oczami dziecka i jaki miała wpływ na dalsze jego życie.
  
  Rominka to czteroletnia żydowska dziewczynka, która początek swojego życia pamięta jako wieczny strach, ucieczki i ukrywanie się. Na swojej drodze spotyka jednak dobrych ludzi, którzy mimo lęku o własne życie, pomagają jak tylko mogą. Dzięki temu mała Romka wyrasta na piękną, dojrzałą kobietę. Nie pozwala to jednak zapomnieć o wydarzeniach z przeszłości, które mają ogromny wpływ na to, jak wyglądało dalsze życie kobiety.
  
  Była to jedna z pierwszych pozycji literackich XX wieku, która opisywała wydarzenia Holocaustu. Została przetłumaczona na dwadzieścia dwa języki, dzięki czemu trafiła do ponad miliona czytelników na całym świecie.
  
  Osobiście nie do końca rozumiem fenomen tej książki. Przyznam szczerze, że już od dawna planowałam jej przeczytanie, jednak dopiero wznowienie wydania skutecznie mnie do tego zmobilizowało. Oczywiście nie mam zamiaru umniejszać tragedii, o której ona opowiada. Po prostu spodziewałam się troszkę czegoś innego.
  
  Zabrakło mi więcej wspomnień z okresu dziecięcego – zdaję sobie sprawę, że autorka była wtedy małym dzieckiem, a książkę napisała znacznie później, więc na pierwszym planie pojawiły się te wydarzenia, które najlepiej zapamiętała, ale mimo wszystko liczyłam na więcej.
  
  Jednak bardzo podobało mi się, w jaki sposób główna bohaterka przekazała nam swoją wewnętrzną walkę ze wspomnieniami. Tę, która miała wpływ na jej dalsze życie. Na ufanie nieodpowiednim ludziom, na szukanie miłości tam, gdzie jej nie było, na to, w jaki sposób ona sama się zachowywała. Na to, że bardzo długo trwało, nim w ogóle była gotowa na to, żeby w całości swoją historię opowiedzieć i wrócić wspomnieniami to tych najgorszych i najtraumatyczniejszych przeżyć ze swojego życia.
  
  Absolutnie nie mam zamiaru oceniać wartości tej pozycji. Przekazuję jedynie swoje osobiste wrażenia z jej lektury. Cieszę się, że sięgnęłam po książkę i się z nią zapoznałam. Wiele nowych faktów do mnie trafiło, mimo że odczuwam lekki niedosyt. Niemniej zachęcam do przeczytania i wyrobienia sobie własnej opinii na jej temat.
• 
  Tabitha

  Man ... where do I even start? I guess I should say that first off, this is so much more than a memoir. Ligocka's story speaks to the struggles we all face; to fit in, to love ourselves, to seek pleasure in life that doesn't come at the expense of others needing us (nor us needing them in an unhealthy way). While her story is one that begins in the brutal and tragic time of the Holocaust, it winds up in a place that I defy any reader to be unable to connect to. Love, loss, depression, addiction ... the turmoil far surpasses the year 1945. This, my friends, is so much more than a book surrounding a war - and yet it is also simply that: a stark look at how far-reaching the after effects are for so many. They continue today, make no mistake.
  
  Spanning over four decades, the author takes us through her terrifying and tumultuous childhood, fraught with dangers so real they will cause the even most hardened of readers to require pause. We've all heard and/or read of the atrocities of WWII, but somehow, this book shakes the reader to the core yet again. Perhaps it is the age of the author as we set out along the path with her: a mere 2 years old. Perhaps it is equally the prose used. There is no fluffy filler in this story. There are simply a string of heartbreaking and yet breathtaking occurrences that flow into each other and rather somersault downhill - often at an alarming rate.
  
  I often hasten to say that a book has truly changed my life. It may just be me, but I feel that's a tad melodramatic. This one, however, will stick with me for a long time. It has changed my views of history, if not on a global scale, at least on a personal one.
  
  I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I fail to see how a single person could possibly read this memoir and not come out ahead of where they were before reading it. If nothing else, you will appreciate the smaller things. You will take less for granted and perhaps even find an appreciation for your circumstances that you've never previously considered.
  
  And if that isn't a key definition of what makes a book great, I don't know what is.
• 
  Jordan

  I wanted to DNF this after only 30 pages.
  
  I always feel l bad when I dislike memoirs because they are based on someone's life and experiences, but I'm not too fond of Roma's story. While reading, I found Roma to be an unlikeable character as she came across as being full of herself and too obsessed with beauty, looks, and the opinion of others.
  When I chose to read this, I believed it would focus more on her life before, during, and immediately after the Holocaust, as that is what t is portrayed as with the synapsis. Still, the parts mentioning the Holocaust were mainly the first 30 pages. After that, the memories were sporadic, most likely due to young age, and do not flow well together. Overall, Roma had a very clumsy writing style and splotchy memories, which caused everything to come off as detached, which caused the reader to distaste the story and have no emotional attachment.
  There are also too many contradictions in the book. For example, she always talks about being invisible yet constantly wears bright and unique fashion, marries eccentric people, chooses eccentric types of lifestyle, which is the opposite of invisible. She also mentions other people and talks about their importance in her life yet glosses over her relationship with them.
  
• 
  Willeke

  ik vind met dit boek hoe verder ik kom hoe mooier ik het vind. alle traumatische situaties van vroeger die naar boven komen, te veel voor een mens om in een leven te kunnen bevatten.