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    When the Diamonds Were Gone: A Jewish Refugee Comes of Age in America in the 1940s
    Unavailable
    When the Diamonds Were Gone: A Jewish Refugee Comes of Age in America in the 1940s
    Unavailable
    When the Diamonds Were Gone: A Jewish Refugee Comes of Age in America in the 1940s
    Ebook235 pages7 hours

    When the Diamonds Were Gone: A Jewish Refugee Comes of Age in America in the 1940s

    By Julian Padowicz

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    After a grueling and dramatic escape from occupied Poland in 1939, at age eight, Julian and his mother arrive in America in 1941 with big plans. Julian's beautiful, former socialite mother Barbara wants to write a memoir and regain her former social position. Julian just wants to fit his war-damaged psyche into the American way of life. As Barbara climbs her social ladder, she succeeds in opening for herself doors that few manage to open. In the process, she slams in Julian's face the very doors that other parents struggle to open for their children.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChicago Review Press
    Release dateJul 1, 2015
    ISBN9780897339216
    Unavailable
    When the Diamonds Were Gone: A Jewish Refugee Comes of Age in America in the 1940s
    Author

    Julian Padowicz

    Born in Lodz, Poland into a middle class Jewish family, Julian Padowicz was 7 years old and living in Warsaw when WW II began. With bombs falling on their heads, Julian and his socialite mother began a trek that took them into southern Poland, where they endured Soviet occupation before escaping, in dramatic fashion, over the snow-covered Carpathian Mountains, into neutral Hungary. These experiences, as well as subsequent ones on their way to the United States, have been recounted in a three-part memoir by Padowicz under the titles, “Mother and Me: Escape from Warsaw 1939,” (Book of the Year Award, ForeWord Magazine) “A Ship in the Harbor,” (Second Prize, Connecticut Press Club) and “Loves of Yulian.”In 2010 Padowicz broke into the field of fiction with “Writer’s Block,” a humorous romance/adventure about the retired literature professor, “Kip” Kippur who sets out to avenge the wrongs of his life by writing a thinly disguised memoir and ends up in a series of life-altering and life-threatening adventures. The success of “Writer’s Block” led the author to produce a series of sequels featuring the same humorous characters and the coastal village of Venice, Massachusetts. They include “The Best Sunset in Venice”, “A Scandal in Venice”, and “Alexander’s Part Time Band.”Padowicz received a degree in English from Colgate University, and served 5 years in the Air Force as an intercept instructor and navigator, prior to a 35-year career as a documentary filmmaker. As president of BusinessFilm International, he wrote and produced films on the role of newspapers in a democratic society, alcoholism, and the legitimacy of feelings, among other subjects, as well as scripting a series on the American way of life for the U.S. Information Agency.Retired from filmmaking in 1991, Padowicz went on to write books on photography, dealing with angry customers, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, before launching his memoir series and his novels.In demand as a speaker about both his Holocaust-related experiences and the creative process, Padowicz speaks in libraries, synagogues, churches, and universities throughout the country. He was recently invited to do annual book signings at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.With his wife, Donna, Padowicz lives in Stamford, Conn. He is an avid tennis player and is frequently seen on his daily runs along Hope Street, where he says he does his most creative thinking. In a blog entitled “Confessions of the Hope Street Stalker” (hopestreetstalker.blogspot.com) Padowicz shares many of the thoughts and incidents that occur during these runs.Padowicz has three daughters, two stepsons, ten grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. Born under the sign of Capricorn, he professes to be a “late bloomer.”

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    Reviews for When the Diamonds Were Gone

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    • 4/5
      This memoir by Julian Padowicz was incredibly sad to read although it was also funny and surprisingly uplifting too. What was shocking to me is how disconnected the author was from his mother and unloved he was, in general. Mr. Padowicz and his mother's journey from Europe to America was so brazen and hard fought (from is other books) that it is heart-breaking that she hardly saw him when they settled in America when you especially need the care and comfort of a parent.I have read many books on the Holocaust but never read one that was about someone who came to American with money. Everyone I know, including my grandparents, came here dirt poor. While it is true that money can't buy you love it is also true that his family's money allowed him to be shuffled to elitist schools that inspired him to do his best. However without support he was left to manage his own insecurities and fears and what was later diagnosed as ADD. He was also left to a mother who seemed to hate a part of Julian, mostly his looks especially his nose, his obvious Jewishness and she constantly cruelly badgered him to have a nose job. I greatly admire Mr Padowicz for his ability to understand that this was due to his mother's own fears and self-hatred and he was able to challenge her about it and to come to peace with her. With all of these challenges you might think that Mr. Padowicz might bash his mother or be angry or bitter but he actually tells his complex story in a straight-forward, funny and sardonic manner. Quite compelling.Thank you to NetGallery for allowing me to review this book for an honest review.