An Ordinary Woman in Extraordinary Times

Maria H. Krisztinkovich is a retired University of British Columbia
senior library assistant.

The Multicultural History Society of Ontario has brought out a hybrid
kind of autobiography. It is the story of the voluntary emigration of a
Jewish widow and her son in 1956. During the Hungarian Revolution, this
woman recognized the opportunity given by a temporarily open border and
made a decision. There was no “push,” or “pull,” or persecution:
she simply left. The author belonged to an Orthodox Jewish family whose
life was one of hard work and adherence to a petit bourgeois morality.
Although she had talents, her wings were clipped by a zionist religious
tradition that made her acquiesce to the limited opportunities of her
social class. Humble anecdotes build up to the catharsis brought about
by the Holocaust. Her naive, “staccato” storytelling makes a queer
contrast to the apocalyptic scenery of the era. She survives
bereavements, hiding, famine, and ghetto life. Oddly, she remains silent
about the years under communist rule. Life in Canada started again for
her with poverty and manual labor. She acquired some clerical skills and
lived a modest existence. She raised a well-adjusted son, and made
friends in Canada. “Does one need more?” she asked.

Readers with a similar past may wonder what made Mrs. Grossman’s
character so indomitable. Another emigré from Hungary, the writer
Alexander Mбrai, stated that those who left Hungary in anger adjusted
better to a new land. Perhaps Mrs. Grossman was fortunate that she never
had to identify with her country’s history. Her unfailing health and
inherited pragmatism caused her to make critical choices without
patriotic qualms. Her sublimation of the Holocaust into private chatter
can be forgiven because of her “clipped wings.”

This is less than a documentary, and less than a novel. The book
succeeds, nonetheless, to become a gripping account of a
Hungarian-Canadian settlement.