WVWN Event Details:
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Topic: Letters from the Lost: A Memoir of Discovery
Speaker Info: Dr. Helen Waldstein Wilkes
Dr. Helen Waldstein Wilkes will speak at the WVWN May 2011 meeting on her book Letters from the Lost: A Memoir of Discovery.
On March 15, 1939, Helen Waldstein's father snatched his stamped exit visa from a distracted clerk to escape from Prague with his wife and child. As the Nazis closed in on a war-torn Czechoslovakia, only letters from their extended family could reach Canada through the barriers of conflict. The Waldstein family received these letters as they made their lives on a southern Ontario farm, where they learned to be Canadian and forget their Jewish roots. Helen Waldstein read these letters as an adult - this changed everything. As her past refused to keep silent, Helen followed the trail of the letters back to Europe, where she discovered living witnesses who could attest to the letters' contents. In her book she has interwoven their stories and her own into a compelling narrative of suffering, survivor guilt, and overcoming intergenerational obstacles when exploring a traumatic past.
Since receiving her PhD in French literature, Helen Waldstein Wilkes spent 30 years teaching at every level in the US and Canada. Now retired and living in Vancouver, BC, she is actively examining her own cultural inheritance and its impact.
This should be a fascinating evening, so book your calendars now and