Hadley Freeman, author of House of Glass, explores her family's hidden history from a Polish shtetl to post-war Paris. She reveals surprising family secrets, including a daring escape from a train during WWII. The podcast also touches on the brilliance of her father and a connection to Donald Trump's brother. Freeman reflects on the process of uncovering her family's story and the tragic fate of Jack during the Holocaust.
The book explores the journey of a Polish-Jewish family, highlighting their experiences and struggles in 20th century Jewry.
Freeman uncovers remarkable stories of survival and hidden rooms, shedding light on societal attitudes towards anti-Semitism in France and Poland.
Deep dives
The Shoebox Discovery
Hadley Freeman discovers a shoebox in her grandmother's closet full of letters, albums, and photos from the 1920s to the 1980s, revealing a hidden family history.
The Remarkable Family
Freeman's family memoir explores the journey of her Polish-Jewish family from Polish shtetls to Parisian salons to Long Island, highlighting their experiences and struggles in 20th century Jewry.
Different Reactions to Anti-Semitism
The book delves into the varied reactions of Freeman's family members to anti-Semitism, with some choosing flight, compliance, defiance, or hiding during World War II.
Challenges and Discoveries
During the 18-year research process, Freeman uncovers remarkable stories of survival, dramatic escapes from trains, hidden rooms, and shifts in societal attitudes towards anti-Semitism in France and Poland.
The Book Club will return next week! In the meantime we are revisiting Sam’s conversation from 2020 with Hadley Freeman whose book House of Glass tells the story of 20th century jewry through the hidden history of her own family. The four Glahs siblings — one of them the writer’s grandmother — grew up in a Polish shtetl just a few miles from what was to become Auschwitz. They fled the postwar pogroms to Paris; and then had to contend with the rise of a new and still more dangerous antisemitism under the Vichy regime. Hadley traced their story through two wars and across continents, and tells Sam how the story reflects both on Jewish history and urgent concerns of the present day. She even offers an intriguing cameo of the teenage Donald Trump…
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