Esther Adler, a gifted educator, is far from finishing the work that has been a lifelong passion. At 96, she has important lessons to share, and for this, we are truly grateful.
When she was in her late 80s, Esther authored Best Friends: A Bond That Survived Hitler, a novel geared for young adults to help them understand the horrors and losses of war. She is particularly adept to tackle this goal. She needs only to recall her own feelings when she was growing up in Breslau, Germany. Just recently, the book’s target audience was significantly broadened with the publishing of a German translation: Beste Freundinnen: Eine Freundschaft die Hitler uberdauete.
In the book, Esther tells the story of her childhood through the eyes of the character Elli Cohen. Elli’s early years are sweetened when she meets Gina Wolf the first day of school. The girls know immediately that they will always be one another’s most cherished friend. The book describes many happy times together. These are curtailed after Kristellnacht, a night in 1939 when Nazis burned synagogues and Jewish businesses throughout Breslau and other cities in Germany.
Elli’s and Gina’s families respond to this horrifying event differently. Elli’s decides to flee Germany. Elli, who has dreamed of moving to Israel, sees this as her opportunity to make aliyah (immigrate). The other members of her nuclear family secure visas to America. Gina’s family, however, is immobilized. When Elli leaves for Israel, her friend’s family is still uncertain about whether the Nazis are a real threat.
The first part of Best Friends is based on real events. The book’s ending, however, is fictionalized. The actual story remains so painful that Esther can’t write about it. After the war, she tried earnestly to find her friend. In 1947, she learned the ugly truth. Gina and her family perished at the hands of the Nazis.
As the author of Best Friends, Esther could give the story the ending she was seeking.
In the novel, Gina is hidden by a non-Jewish family and at the end of the book she and Elli reconnect.
Esther felt compelled to write this book in 2016 after she returned to Breslau (Note: the city is now in Poland’s borders and has been renamed Wroclaw). She had been invited to be filmed in a documentary “We are the Jews of Breslau.” While there, Maria Luft, who had organized the filming, brought Esther and three other survivors to meet with a group of German and Polish students who currently live in Breslau. The young people were captivated to hear firsthand accounts of what happened in their city during the war. Esther was profoundly moved by their reactions.
“These young Germans and Poles listened carefully and asked me thoughtful questions. And they cried and cried. They were so apologetic. They felt guilty for actions that happened generations before they were born.”
Ms. Luft was also struck by the students’ eagerness for information about the burden they had inherited. She encouraged Esther to write Best Friends and then, put the pieces in place to publish a German version. She felt Esther’s story, told through the lens of a young girl, could help German young people grasp the enormity of the Shoah.
Esther is delighted with the translated edition. Unlike the English version, she had room to include family photos and a map of the city before the war. The retelling of her story in German has offered some unanticipated closure. This is the language she spoke when the events occurred. It has drawn her closer to her past. Much of her history was unbearably painful, but there is more to Esther’s story. Best Friends is a lovely tribute to the endurance of friendship.
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