A Past Born From Fire: ‘The Politzer Saga’

In this interview with writer Linda Ambrus Broenniman, we learn the history of family and how her book ‘The Politzer Saga’ had its start.

Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland, in May 1944. Linda Broenniman discovered that her mother had aided Jews during World War II, including Linda’s father. This led to Linda researching her family's history, which culminated in a book. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

When Linda Broenniman was in her late 20s, the godmother to her oldest sister accidentally revealed that their father, who had emigrated along with their mother from Hungary to the United States in the years following World War II, was Jewish. Ms. Broenniman attempted several times to find out more about her father’s hidden past and the family’s European background, but he flatly refused to revisit that time of his life.

In 2006, Ms. Broenniman was astonished when the Israeli government declared her mother Righteous Among the Nations, an honor bestowed on non-Jews who had risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust.