Authors Interviewing Characters: Meryl Ain

Interview with Bronka Lubinski from SHADOWS WE CARRY by Meryl Ain 

Meryl Ain, the author of Shadows We Carry, interviews Bronka Lubinski, the book’s protagonist. The novel explores the experience of navigating deeply held family secrets and bloodlines, confusing religious identities, and the scars of World War II in the wake of revolutionary societal changes. It is a sequel to her 2020 debut novel, The Takeaway Men and can also be read as a standalone. 

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MERYL: Bronka, thanks so much for being here to speak with us today. We know that you have a twin sister, JoJo, and that you were both born in a Displaced Persons Camp after World War II and came to the U.S. when you were toddlers. Throughout your childhood, you and your sister tried to discover your parents’ past. But I want to talk to you today about what it was like coming of age in the late ‘60s and ‘70s in New York.

BRONKA: First I’d like to thank Women Writers for inviting me to share my story. I lived with my family in Northeast Queens, and my sister and I attended Queens College in New York. It was a tumultuous time of political and cultural turmoil. My twin JoJo faced an unwanted pregnancy in the years before Roe v. Wade became the law of the land. And my boyfriend was a closeted gay guy before the LGBTQ community achieved rights and recognition. In the ‘70s I sought to be recognized as a journalist – only to face discrimination as a woman. This was all compounded by the fact that my father was a Holocaust survivor who had been rescued by mother, a Polish Catholic. Together, they were trying to raise a Jewish family.

MERYL: What kind of difficulty did you have as a journalist?

BRONKA: Well, for starters, I applied to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and was told by the dean that I had great credentials and would make an “attractive” reporter. Then I was asked if I planned to get married soon and have a family because they wanted to give preference to those who planned to work in the profession. I was informed that since there was a quota for women – only 20 spots – they asked every female that question. Needless to say, I didn’t get into the program. So I got a job for a weekly Jewish newspaper and was relegated to writing women’s features and a weekly cooking column. Finally, there was no one else available to cover a news story and I was sent to cover it.

MERYL: So what was the story?

BRONKA: There was a community on eastern Long Island that was created by the German-American Bund. Only people of German extraction were permitted to live there. Prior to World War II, there was even a flourishing Nazi Youth Camp on the grounds. My editor sent me there on a Sunday morning in July 1973 when the rest of the country was focused on Watergate. The last street honoring a Nazi leader (Goebbels Street) was being changed. I’m sure my editor thought this would be a straightforward uneventful story, but it wasn’t. Neo-Nazis came to protest the change and spewed forth antisemitic venom.

MERYL: Did you get a scoop?

BRONKA: Yes and no. The whole experience was a turning point for me. One of the neo-Nazis was a former SS guard who was hiding in plain sight — he worked at a kosher delicatessen in our neighborhood. In addition, I met a Catholic priest at the event who had been born during the Holocaust to Jewish parents. He and I discovered that we had much in common and developed a relationship. All of these events impacted my life and career for years.

MERYL: In what way?

BRONKA: They impacted me in so many ways. I became absorbed with the notion of bloodlines – nature vs. nurture – and related questions. I became obsessed with hunting Nazis and tried to make sense of my role as a 2G (Second Generation of Holocaust Survivors). All the time, I tried to move forward as a journalist in a career dominated by men.

MERYL: Were you totally absorbed by these concerns or did you have time for romance?

BRONKA: I was always looking for Mr. Right. In retrospect, I see that I was often attracted to guys who were unavailable. But I desperately wanted to get married and have a family – both for myself and to please my father. He believed that having Jewish children was the way to finally defeat Hitler.

MERYL: Thank you again for coming to speak with us today.

BRONKA: It was my pleasure.  

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SHADOWS WE CARRY

In this eagerly anticipated sequel to Meryl Ain’s award-winning post-Holocaust novel The Takeaway Men, we follow Bronka and JoJo Lubinski as they find themselves on the cusp of momentous change for women in the late 1960s. With the United States in the grip of political and social upheaval, the twins and a number of their peers, including a Catholic priest and the son of a Nazi, struggle with their family’s ancestry and how much influence it has on their lives. Meanwhile, both young women seek to define their roles as women, and as individuals.

Enlightening and evocative, Shadows We Carry explores the experience of navigating deeply held family secrets and bloodlines, confusing religious identities, and the scars of World War II in the wake of revolutionary societal changes.

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Meryl Ain’s articles and essays have appeared in Huffington Post, The New York Jewish Week, Kveller, The New York Times, Newsday and other publications. In 2014, she co-authored the award-winning book, The Living Memories Project: Legacies That Last, and in 2016, wrote a companion workbook, My Living Memories Project Journal. She is a sought-after speaker and has been interviewed on television, radio, and podcasts. She is a career educator and is proud to be both a teacher and student of history. She has also worked as a school administrator.

Her debut novel, The Takeaway Men, was named Winner by the American Fiction Awards for Historical Fiction on August 2020, less than two weeks after its publication. The book is the result of her life-long quest to learn more about the Holocaust, a thirst that was first triggered by reading The Diary of Anne Frank in the sixth grade. While teaching high school history, she introduced her students to the study of the Holocaust. At the same time, she also developed an enduring fascination with teaching about and researching the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case. An interview with Robert Meeropol, the younger son of the Rosenbergs, is featured in her book, The Living Memories Project. The book also includes an interview with Holocaust survivor, Boris Chartan, the founder of the Holocaust Museum and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, New York.

Meryl holds a BA from Queens College, an MA from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an Ed.D. from Hofstra University. She lives in New York with her husband, Stewart. They have three married sons and six grandchildren.

Website: merylain.com/ 

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Amazon: The Takeaway Men

 

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers