Daniela Gerson met her wife, Talia Inlender, at a picnic in Los Angeles, not knowing that 75 years earlier their grandparents had left homes only blocks away from each other in a small Polish town, and fled east to Ukraine. The Gersons and the Inlenders would go on parallel odysseys of 5,000 miles to survive the Holocaust – one that would, after a deceitful loyalty test from Stalin, put them on cattle cars to a Soviet Gulag, years in limbo in Central Asia, and would end, after a decade on the run, with new lives built on secrets and lies.
For years, Daniela and Talia simply accepted this painful shared history as a sign that they were b’shert, meant to be. Their families’ refugee past fueled their work: Daniela as an immigration journalist; Talia an immigration attorney. But as Daniela uncovered more, she realized that their grandparents shared this escape path in the Soviet Union with most Polish Jews who survived; a group — sometimes collectively called “the Wanderers” – that is almost entirely absent from popular understanding of World War II. And unlike most Holocaust sagas that focus on the exceptionality of the Nazi genocide, theirs was also a universal story of refugees making impossible decisions when forced to seek safety, protect their children, and find new homes. A story that, to the dismay of the world, remains relevant each time a political upheaval wreaks havoc on individual lives.
Part genealogical detective story, part gripping history, part contemporary reporting on war-torn territories, The Wanderers chronicles Daniela’s journey to unearth this past with her wife, and reveal its echoes in still-contested lands from Ukraine to Israel. The Wanderers is a groundbreaking narrative history, and a meditation on how a home left behind and a desperate journey to survive reverberates across borders and through generations.
“Gerson’s powerful, expert inquiry into her family’s Holocaust experience skillfully illuminates our responsibility to carry forth the stories of those who came before us.”
“Self-reflective, committed to truth telling, and painfully aware that victimhood does not imply innocence, Gerson takes the reader on an enthralling journey through multiple hells and layer upon layer of tragedy for more than one people.”
“The Wanderers is a fascinating tale told by a sleuth with the instincts of a bloodhound, uncovering long-lost mysteries that offer warnings for the future.”
“The Wanderers is a heavy-duty journalistic adventure told with novelistic verve. Along the way, you can’t help but be drawn in by the almost mystical romance that develops between two women, passing forward a shared inheritance of survival.”
“A uniquely vivid story of Holocaust wandering, told as a tale of modern self-discovery.”
“In crisp, unadorned prose, Gerson restores a neglected history; notes its contemporary resonances, as people are uprooted by violence across the globe; and tenderly chronicles the relationship that brought this history to light. It’s a profoundly moving account.”
