A son’s promise to his father is kept in a book
leave from August 2016 to January 2017 after the birth of his son, Jonah, who is 2. The author and his wife, Rachel, also have a daughter, Hannah, who is 12.
“There are lots of sections in the book where you’ll be laughing, not just crying,” said Kogul, who will donate a share of the book’s proceeds to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and to Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. “Even in the worst of times, there’s humor,” he said.
The story of survival against considerable odds was as emotionally wrenching for the author to hear as for his father to tell.
“He was 19 in 1941,” Kogul said. “There were 15,000 Jews in his hometown of Dubno, which is located in present-day Ukraine, and only 300 survived.”
But there was a second, deeply painful aspect to his survival story. Contributing to a nearly lifelong case of survivor’s guilt for the elder Kogul was the fact that he was the sole survivor among his parents and two siblings, the author said.
There was no record of how any of his family members died until around 1982, when Van Kogul finally learned “the horrifying circumstances” of his mother’s death, Morey Kogul explained. “This was all very difficult for my father to reconcile,” he said, adding his dad was so utterly devastated by the information that he couldn’t bear to ever discuss it with anyone.
Rabbi Craig Axler of Temple Isaiah in Fulton, where Kogul and his family are members, was given an advance copy of the novel and wrote a review for the back of the cover.
“Many survivors are not capable of sharing their experiences because it’s too massive and too painful a subject,” Axler observed. “Part of the power of this book is how one individual’s story shapes the narrative of the family he builds after the Holocaust.”
Another aspect that sets the book apart is the wide gap in age between father and son.
“Morey is on the very young side of being a direct survivor and he has an interesting perspective because he’s considerably younger,” he said.
Axler also emphasized that the timing of the book’s publication matters. “It’s important right now, in this moment, to tell these stories of survival,” he said, “and humanity has an obligation to stand up” against modern-day acts of bias. “In the Jewish community, there’s a phrase, ‘Never again.’ It not only applies to the Holocaust, it means never again should this happen to any people at any place or time,” he explained.
As Kogul conducted research for his novel, he turned to Miriam Isaacs, a retired professor of Yiddish language and culture at the University of Maryland, College Park and a former visiting fellow at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. “It’s very important to tell these stories and to write them down,” said Isaacs, who endorsed Kogul’s book in an online review.
“The Holocaust destroyed much of traditional Jewish life in Europe,” she said.
“My own father wouldn’t have survived if he hadn’t illegally migrated to the Soviet Union from Poland, so I have great empathy for those who cross our [nation’s] border illegally.”
Kogul said the current state of the world and our political culture, along with increased incidences of hate speech, has led to many conversations with readers about their present-day experiences.
The author said he hopes the event may inspire a call to action in Howard County.
And despite the weightiness of the topic, the book concludes on an upbeat note.
“There is hope at the end,” Kogul said. “I want people who come to this event to know that they’re not just going to hear an author talking about his dad. This is a subject with relevance to all of our lives today.” janeneholzberg76@gmail.com
“There are lots of sections in the book where you’ll be laughing, not just crying,” said Kogul, who will donate a share of the book’s proceeds to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and to Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. “Even in the worst of times, there’s humor,” he said.
The story of survival against considerable odds was as emotionally wrenching for the author to hear as for his father to tell.
“He was 19 in 1941,” Kogul said. “There were 15,000 Jews in his hometown of Dubno, which is located in present-day Ukraine, and only 300 survived.”
But there was a second, deeply painful aspect to his survival story. Contributing to a nearly lifelong case of survivor’s guilt for the elder Kogul was the fact that he was the sole survivor among his parents and two siblings, the author said.
There was no record of how any of his family members died until around 1982, when Van Kogul finally learned “the horrifying circumstances” of his mother’s death, Morey Kogul explained. “This was all very difficult for my father to reconcile,” he said, adding his dad was so utterly devastated by the information that he couldn’t bear to ever discuss it with anyone.
Rabbi Craig Axler of Temple Isaiah in Fulton, where Kogul and his family are members, was given an advance copy of the novel and wrote a review for the back of the cover.
“Many survivors are not capable of sharing their experiences because it’s too massive and too painful a subject,” Axler observed. “Part of the power of this book is how one individual’s story shapes the narrative of the family he builds after the Holocaust.”
Another aspect that sets the book apart is the wide gap in age between father and son.
“Morey is on the very young side of being a direct survivor and he has an interesting perspective because he’s considerably younger,” he said.
Axler also emphasized that the timing of the book’s publication matters. “It’s important right now, in this moment, to tell these stories of survival,” he said, “and humanity has an obligation to stand up” against modern-day acts of bias. “In the Jewish community, there’s a phrase, ‘Never again.’ It not only applies to the Holocaust, it means never again should this happen to any people at any place or time,” he explained.
As Kogul conducted research for his novel, he turned to Miriam Isaacs, a retired professor of Yiddish language and culture at the University of Maryland, College Park and a former visiting fellow at the Holocaust Memorial Museum. “It’s very important to tell these stories and to write them down,” said Isaacs, who endorsed Kogul’s book in an online review.
“The Holocaust destroyed much of traditional Jewish life in Europe,” she said.
“My own father wouldn’t have survived if he hadn’t illegally migrated to the Soviet Union from Poland, so I have great empathy for those who cross our [nation’s] border illegally.”
Kogul said the current state of the world and our political culture, along with increased incidences of hate speech, has led to many conversations with readers about their present-day experiences.
The author said he hopes the event may inspire a call to action in Howard County.
And despite the weightiness of the topic, the book concludes on an upbeat note.
“There is hope at the end,” Kogul said. “I want people who come to this event to know that they’re not just going to hear an author talking about his dad. This is a subject with relevance to all of our lives today.” janeneholzberg76@gmail.com
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