Alicia: My Story

In Niskor’s project aboutAlicia’s book “The Cover of Alicia Appleman-Jurman’s book entitled, ‘Alicia: My Story’” Alicia Appleman speaks about her life during the Holocaust and now. She describes that during the Holocaust she was a young Jewish girl growing up in the southeastern Polish city of Buczacz. Also, in that city for a Jew to survive the Holocaust was very difficult, nearly impossible. Then, Alicia lost a brother named Moshe Jurman. In addition, her father was killed by the Germans and her brother was hanged. Alicia points out that she was able survive a prison of death because once an SS man crossed upon Alicia’s body realizing that she was dead. Then, he threw her away the prison and two men picked her up and took care of her. Another important point to mention is that she also survived another tragedy because her friend, a boy that she loved, had a gun and began shooting at the firing squads and he said to Alicia, “Run.” Alicia could escape and she promised to her mother and brother that they would return to Buczacz no matter how risky. Additionally, she says that there were a few families in Poland who helped some Jews because the punishment of helping a Jew was death. Finally, after the war Alicia was married to Gabriel Appleman. Now they live happily in California and have three grown children. In the conclusion some people add: “The world depends on people like Alicia who still today, are heroes and survivors.”

            In my opinion this is a very interesting story because it made me think about what really happened with some Jews during the Holocaust. Also, I say that Alicia Jurman is a real hero and we need people like her because we must know the story of the people who survived during the Holocaust. I from the bottom of my heart felt impotent when I read that Alicia was sick because the Germans were giving her water laced with typhoid germs.