Authors Interviewing Characters: Susan Weissbach Friedman

KLARA’S TRUTH

It is May 2014, and Dr. Klara Lieberman—forty-nine, single, professor of archaeology at a small liberal arts college in Maine, a contained person living a contained life—has just received a letter from her estranged mother, Bessie, that will dramatically change her life. Her father, she learns—the man who has been absent from her life for the last forty-three years, and about whom she has long been desperate for information—is dead. Has been for many years, in fact, which Bessie clearly knew. But now the Polish government is giving financial reparations for land it stole from its Jewish citizens during WWII, and Bessie wants the money. Klara has little interest in the money—but she does want answers about her father. She flies to Warsaw, determined to learn more.

In Poland, Klara begins to piece together her father’s, and her own, story. She also connects with extended family, begins a romantic relationship, and discovers her calling: repairing the hundreds of forgotten, and mostly destroyed, pre-War Jewish cemeteries in Poland. Along the way, she becomes a more integrated, embodied, and interpersonally connected individual—one with the tools to make peace with her past and, for the first time in her life, build purposefully toward a bigger future.

Meet Dr. Klara Lieberman from Susan Weissbach Friedman’s novel Klara’s Truth.

Welcome Dr. Lieberman. Thank you for joining us. Can you tell us why you decided to fly to Warsaw, Poland from Holbrook College in Bangor, Maine where, I understand, you’re an archaeology professor?

Well, first, you can call me Klara, as I’m not lecturing right now, and I appreciate you’re having me. I just received a very troubling letter from my mother a few weeks ago. She tried to call me, but never left a message, deciding to write instead.

Can you tell me more about this letter?

I’m so upset. She just told me, after forty-three years of lying to me, that my father is dead and buried somewhere in a cemetery here in Warsaw. I’m quite overwhelmed, confused, and angry at her. How could she do something like this? I know she can be secretive, but this was inhumane!

I’m sorry to hear you’re so distressed. Why did she first tell you about this awful news now?

Because she wants me to make sure I secure my father’s reparations from Poland’s government without any interference from his sister, my Aunt Rachel, or her family.  She doesn’t want Aunt Rachel, to somehow finagle taking all the money for herself and her family, but that’s not why I’m going. It’s so that I’ll finally have closure that my beloved father’s really dead. For so many years I just thought he was missing. I think a part of me knew he was dead, but I just didn’t want to face it. Now I’m going to face it by locating and visiting his gravesite. Also, I want to meet his sister, my aunt, and her family, if they still live here. I wasn’t able to find out before making the trip here. (Please note a disclaimer here. Poland has never given reparations to Holocaust survivors or their families. This was made up by me.)

I don’t mean to be rude, but why wouldn’t your mother have shared this news with you sooner?

When it happened, I was very young. My father and mother had separated, and my father was trying to find a job in Philadelphia that a friend had told him about. There was a terrible accident on the train ride there in which five passengers died. He was one of those passengers. Apparently, my mother contacted his sister, Aunt Rachel, who somehow had my father’s body flown back to Warsaw where he was born, and buried him there. She must be an amazing person because it was the time of the Cold War, so I really don’t know how she did it. My mother kept it a secret from me.

But so many years have passed since then, you said forty-three years had passed, and she’s telling you the truth now. Why do you think?

My mother’s like that. She likes to have complete control over all situations, and my father and I were very close. She was neither close to him nor to me. She told me he left us, me, her, and my grandfather, her father. She tried to convince me he just didn’t care about us, and was never coming back. It was all too much for me, so I just buried this part of my life. And I know it seems crazy, but I never searched for him.

Last summer I was on a dig in the Yucatán Peninsula and a Mayan healer I met there, Rosario, asked me why I was so interested in artifacts from other peoples’ cultures, and wondered what I knew about my own family history. I became curious about my family for the first time, and then when I received this letter from my mother, I knew I had to fly to Warsaw, and now I’m finally here. I’m going to find out where my father is buried, and try very hard to meet his sister.

What’s your first plan?

I’m on my way to catch a bus to a reasonably priced hotel in Warsaw. I’ll need to figure it out from there. Maybe I’ll ask around to find out how I might go about finding my family in the area. Do you have any thoughts?

I’m sorry, but I don’t, Klara, but I wish you lots of good luck, and I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me.

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Susan Weissbach (Friedman), LCSW, is a psychotherapist with a specialty in women’s issues, family therapy, and trauma-focused therapy. A graduate of Hamilton College, Boston University’s MSW/MPH program, and the Ackerman Institute for the Family, She is also EMDRIA certified and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP). She has been in practice for more than twenty-five years. She is not currently accepting new clients. She lives in the New York area with her husband, and has two young adult daughters and an Australian Shepherd. “Klara’s Truth” is her first novel.

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Category: Interviews, On Writing