Don’t Forget to Remember
Don’t Forget to Remember by Aviva Haber Levin is a poignant exploration of personal history and resilience, published by BookBaby on April 7, 2021. This 118-page memoir recounts Aviva’s early life in the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons camp, where she was surrounded by Holocaust survivors. Through her narrative, she shares her parents’ harrowing experiences during the Holocaust and reflects on how these stories shaped her own struggles with fear, anxiety, and addiction.
In this memoir, Aviva delves into the impact of her upbringing on her mental health, detailing her challenges with eating, social interactions, and academic focus. The narrative highlights her journey through decades of alcoholism and her eventual path to recovery, supported by her family and friends. Aviva’s hope is that her story will resonate with others facing similar battles, emphasizing the importance of remembrance and the lessons imparted by her parents. This edition presents a deeply personal account that intertwines themes of biography and personal memoir, inviting readers to reflect on the complexities of life and healing.
Official synopsis Publisher
Born in the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons camp, Aviva spent the first three years of her life among Holocaust survivors. Her earliest memory, which still haunts her today, was of a strange odor lingering over the camp, which people referred to as the smell of dead people.
Aviva brings her parents’ stories of their experiences during the Holocaust to life, creating a context for the unfolding of her story, one of her struggle with the fear and anxiety that dominated her thoughts, actions, and interactions throughout her life.
This constant state of worry affected her ability to eat, to interact with other children, and to concentrate in school. Knowing what her parents had suffered, she felt the need to protect and watch over them at all times. With no one to help her process her feelings, Aviva developed coping strategies to help numb her tangled emotions. By the time she was a teenager, she had turned to alcohol and drugs.
Her parents watched their only daughter slowly kill herself as her struggle with alcoholism continued for decades. After many years of attempts at recovery, the unrelenting support from her family and friends and a change in perception gave her the strength and commitment to recover. No longer tormented with the cravings of alcohol, she hopes her story will help others.
To her parents, Aviva says, “I’ll never forget to remember. That’s what you always said about life. You were my greatest teachers, and I’ll remember you every day.”
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