Mysteries in my family's past prodded me to delve into World War II and
Holocaust history, with valuable assistance >from JewishGen databases and
members, too. Soon, my investigations led me through a side door into
the past, where family history merged with world history.

Part memoir, part detective story, Because of Eva: A Jewish Genealogical
Journey is an intimate tale of one woman's history within the epic sweep
of world events in the 20th century. What began as a seemingly simple
search for "Eva" the elderly relative who had signed my estranged
grandfather Aaron's death certificate long ago became a journey of
discovery after I found her in Tel Aviv. There, I heard Eva's stories of
survival during the Nazi occupation of Budapest in 1944, where she fought
in the resistance, saved other Jews, knew Raoul Wallenberg, and
subsequently cared for Aaron in his final years.

Eventually, I would fly to Budapest to walk Eva's streets in and out of
the former Jewish ghetto, and confirm her stories. I also visited
ancestral towns in Zbaraz, Skalat, and Tarnopol in Ukraine, and
Czernowitz in Bukovina to bear witness to the slaughter of entire
populations of Jews. Amid remains of loss and destruction in Aaron's
hometown, Zbaraz, I learned details of my family's life before relatives
came to America.

Available >from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Syracuse University Press,
independent booksellers, etc.

Susan J. Gordon
White Plains NY
sjgwed@...
www.susanjgordon.com
www.becauseofeva.com