The Watchmaker's Daughter: A Memoir

by Sonia Taitz

The Watchmaker's Daughter tells the story of a child of two a watchmaker who saved lives within Dachau prison, and his wife, a gifted concert pianist about to make her debut when the Nazis seized power. In this memoir, Sonia Taitz is born into a world in which the Holocaust is discussed constantly by her insular concentration camp-surviving parents. This legacy, combined with Sonia's passion and intelligence, leads the author to forge an adventurous life in which she seeks to heal both her parents and herself through travel, achievement, and a daring love affair. Ironically, it is her marriage to a non-Jew that brings her parents the peace and fulfillment they would never have imagined possible. Sonia manages to combine her own independence with a tender dutifulness, honoring her parents' legacy while forging a new family of her own.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, History, Holocaust, Biography Memoir, World War II, War

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Sonia Taitz is a playwright, essayist, and author of THE WATCHMAKER’S DAUGHTER, a memoir described by PEOPLE magazine as “funny and heartwrenching.”

The book has been recommended by VANITY FAIR, KIRKUS, The American Library Association (which nominated it for the Sophie Brody Medal), and READER’S DIGEST, which put it on its “Can’t-Miss” List. Author/critic James Wolcott described the book as having “the beauty of a psalm,” adding that it should be immortalized on film by Steven Spielberg; CNN’s Mark Whitaker said that “Sonia Taitz writes with an artist’s eye and a poet’s voice,” and Academy Award, Tony, and Pulitzer Prize-winner John Patrick Shanley (DOUBT, MOONSTRUCK) proclaimed: “Sonia Taitz has a good heart and an unmortgaged soul. Follow where she leads. You want to go there.”

Sonia’s previous work, a novel called IN THE KING’S ARMS, was praised and recommended by, among others, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW and ForeWord Magazine, which placed her “among the best poets, playwrights, and novelists.” NEW YORKER writer and critic Jesse Kornbluth compared Sonia Taitz to Martin Amis, Evelyn Waugh, and Philip Roth (but with more heart), and JEWISH BOOK WORLD (the JBC Magazine) featured IN THE KING’S ARMS alongside Alice Hoffman’s novel THE DOVEKEEPERS as an absolute must-read.

Sonia Taitz is also author of MOTHERING HEIGHTS, featured in PEOPLE Magazine and covered repeatedly on NPR, CNN, CBS, as well as in a PBS special on “The Mystery of Love.” O: THE OPRAH MAGAZINE quoted MOTHERING HEIGHTS as being “one of the best things ever said about motherhood,” and many of its key phrases have been anthologized, for instance by THE COLUMBIA BOOK OF QUOTATIONS.

In addition, Sonia Taitz has written extensively for THE NEW YORK TIMES and THE NEW YORK OBSERVER; she is now a featured columnist at THE HUFFINGTON POST and PSYCHOLOGY TODAY.

www.sonia taitz.com
Twitter follow @soniataitz

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely tribute to the author's parents, reminded very much of my own childhood and of course the passing of my own parents. Definitely recommend, but be prepared for some tears.

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautiful that I cried through most of it and, thankfully, laughed through the rest.

[Talia Carner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, insightful writing of a second-generation Holocaust survivor


In lyrical, strong and evocative prose, Sonia Taitz describes life in a household of two people that had crawled out of the ashes of the Holocaust to build a new life in New York. But a new life could not escape the dark shadows of the hunger, degradation and losses that never lifted from the home and cast a pall over every moment, every action and reaction.

In this detailed memoir, Ms. Taitz draws great pictures of each of her parents, starting with her father the watchmaker and fixer, and her kitchen-busy mother. The author does not shy away from her own shortcomings or from the ways she failed her parents when trying to live a life and make choices that were not dictated by the legacy of the past or what her parents expected of her. Luckily, as she moved in her own tracks, there was little outward conflict, and the relationship between daughter and parents remained intact throughout. It takes away the drama of someone who must rebel and fight against the dictates of the memory of dead people, but as a memoir, the story needs to stay truthful to the events.

There is also some humor in the tales of the author’s attempts to cross the divide from the world of her immigrant Jewish parents to the world of goys in the form of boyfriends--and later into the ivy-climbing institutions of highest learning.

The end of the book though, seeing each of the parents through the last stages of their lives got bogged down, not because it was not beautifully written, but because it was emotionally charged for the author but not for the reader who’ve observed or read these end-of-life journeys.

The only thing that stood out for me at that point was how little Ms. Taitz dwelled on her mother’s betrayal that almost ruined her chances to marry the love of her life, but more so ignore her father’s fits of rage and merciless beatings during her growing up years. Along with her brother, who suffered a lot more of it, the author made an implausible excuse (because he had lost his own father at a young age, her father didn’t know how to be a father.) This is the only place where Ms. Taitz rationale was awkward at best.

That said, I found the book to be an excellent portrayal of a post-Holocaust—and an immigrant—family, whose children make their own lives in the new land.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are numerous Holocaust accounts and memoirs. Much rarer are stories of the children of these survivors. The Watchmaker's Daughter is such an account. Sonia Taitz, the author, describes growing up on NYC. Her parents are both Holocaust survivors who have lost close family during the War. The parents work hard to provide for their family, but, as a result of their experiences, do not always create a happy, warm home. And the author, as she matures, feels responsible for her parents, almost as if they are the children and she the parent. The author relates her family life from early childhood, through two marriages, to her nursing her parents through their final days. Throughout the story, she describes her family with humor, acceptance and love. I found memoir was very well written and very compelling. And as a child of Holocaust survivors, I related to the family interactions the author described, and felt many of the same emotions and frustrations she did.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an interesting memoir about a child with parents who survived the Holocaust. It's fascinating how the daughter (and son) have lived lives of relative ease in comparison to their parents. Reading how the daughter compares herself to her Jewish friends who parents were not in the Holocaust was truly eye opening. How her friends could peel an apple and throw away the skin and no one reminded them that that apple skin could have saved a person's life in the camps. I can't imagine being raised that way. This was a really touching story.

[Pbd138 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A love letter from an American daughter to her immigrant parents who are haunted by their past. Sonia Taitz writes movingly but without an ounce of self-pity. At times, I found myself laughing and crying at the same time. Like Angela's Ashes, this is a book deserves to live on.

[Clay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up THE WATCHMAKER'S DAUGHTER, by the marvelous Sonia Taitz, because I wanted to spend some time in a wholly alien environment: the heart and hearth of a post-war Jewish family whose parents escaped unfathomable horrors to find hope in an America I've only seen in black-and-white photographs. An America that opened its doors to immigrants who would hang shingles on her crowded streets; that afforded second and third and fourth chances to those who could only find redemption or succor in 20-hour work days; that valued skill, repaid frugality, and sent the worthy children of simple craftsmen to Yale and Oxford.

This is a beautifully-written and heartfelt book that suffers only from its brevity, as I could have read three times its length and not had my fill of Ms Taitz's pedigree and prose. As a WASPy only-child from the Deep South whose papers run all the way back to the Virginia Company, I have absolutely no commingled experience with this tale or the tens of thousands like it; thus the allure, and the desire to know more, and the Goy's Lament that nothing could be more restorative than the occasional attentions of a tweedy and fuzzy Bubbe.

Ms Taitz writes about her father - the book's eponymous Watchmaker - with an honesty that must have ground against her love and affection for him like a badly-set bone. She is her father's favorite, but he does not spare the rod; the horrors Simon Taitz suffered and survived in the Dachau concentration camp (which themselves followed earlier atrocities at the hands of murderous Cossacks) hardened him against a world that had tried so often to kill him. He is short-fused and prone to bouts of physical violence that cow the women under his roof even as they praise his name. And though his watchmaker's eye and nimble fingers - the "portable skill" that the Nazis found indispensable enough to preserve even in a Jew - would both save his own life and provide full and flush lives for his children, his most dexterous manipulations are those he works in Sonia's heart. I ached for father and daughter alike when Simon begs her not to leave New York for the ivied halls of Yale; she is his anchor in an unsteady sea, and his history demands - at least for a time - that Sonia chain herself to his prow.

In The Watchmaker's Daughter: A Memoir you will find humor and hubris, redemption, rebellion and regret, and running through it all a deep humanism that reminds us - no matter our color or colony - that nothing wounds us, and then heals us, like family.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sonia Taitz grew up the daughter of immigrant parents, both of whom survived Dachau. Her father, a watchmaker who helped save lives at Dachau, and her mother, a concert pianist whose career was cut short by the rise of the Nazis, keep the memory of the Holocaust alive in her house all her growing up years. As a result, she sees her role as finding ways to expand her parents' world with tales of travel and adventure and even a controversial love interest. Sonia's understanding of her own behavior slowly expands to reveal how the burden of her family's direct experience of the Holocaust impacted her own perceptions and expectations of society.

[Diana Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy memoirs a lot and have read a lot of survivor stories and WWII fiction as well as non fiction but I think this was the first book I have read like this one. The experience of the daughter as a first gen child of survivors is not one you usually get to hear. The stories of her parents in the post war time of their life made an impact on me. Maybe we should hear more about that particular time of history also.

[Emily Little · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered this book at BookMania in Stuart FL. It is the story of a daughter of holocaust-surviving parents and their affect on her outlook on life. It really gave you an insight that it was not just the inmates of concentration camps that were injured but also the kids of holocaust survivors. Their children suffer from a sort of bleak survivor-guilt.

[Alf Goodall · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author calls this a memoir and it is definitely that. Unfortunately, the star rating system has definitions that do not necessarily match how one perceives a book, i.e. 5 stars are for amazing. I found this truly captivating; full of human emotion and give Sonia Taitz credit for sharing her innermost feelings and reactions, good and not so good. Definitely reminded me of my own youth.

[Edward B Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely and Warm like a delicious matzo ball soup

Loved this simple sweet story
Although my parents were not holocaust survivors, I see a lot of my own upbringing and character in this memoir.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written memoir! I am a daughter of holocaust survivors, although my families survivor story differs, there are so many similarities. I identified to many of the narratives in the memoir. To the author, Sonia taitz, thank you so much for sharing your memoir!!

[Catherine Nasers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understand this book, but truthfully I would have liked more about her father and his heroics in WWII. It was just briefly mentioned and in the end left me wishing I had more information about her parents rather than herself. (I’m aware it’s her book so that’s implied.)

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir of a young Jewish woman and her relationship with her parents who survived the Holocaust. I was not immediately hooked on this book but it continued to get more interesting to me the more I read. I felt it gave me a glimpse into the family dynamic of a very traditional Jewish family.

[Gregory Van Den Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was interesting from the standpoint of how do immigrants assimilate to their new country. The refreshing part of the story is her parents survived the Holocaust and were able to create a new life in America.

[Rachel Berger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relatable memoir for 2nd generation and even 3rd generation survivor's children and grandchildren.

[Janette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed it but not as much as other similar books such as the northern lights

[Lorrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are a product of our family history....and significant historical events like the holocaust, the depression, presidential assassinations....Sonia brings this to life in this great memoir...

[Michaela Evanow · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Very well written.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read the wrong book right title!

[Sue Gross · Rating 3 out of 5]

small book (250 pages) of her life, parents who survived the Holocaust. Funny, sad, nice reading.

[Scott County Library System · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Corrie ten Boom, whose heroic efforts saved the lives of hundreds of Jews during World War II – at a tremendous cost to her own family.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

First half is quite dull. Should be more interesting than it is.

[Winona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart woman learns to appreciate her domestic mother.
Family interactions in setting of holocaust survivors.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The children of Holocaust survivors have to bear the weight of their parents' horrible sufferings and loses for which, understandably, they can never be consoled. The Watchmaker's Daughter is Sonia Taitz's memoir of desperately trying to escape that burden and very, very slowly coming to understand her parents' behavior and struggles in the United States.

The watchmaker is the author's Lithuanian father Simon whose skill at his craft allowed him to survive the Nazi concentration camps, though he lost his mother there and his own father had been killed in a pogrom in Russia when he was a child. Her mother Gita, an educated, classically trained pianist also from Lithuanian, had a much more difficult time in the camps, but through her own heroic and quick thinking efforts, she was able to save her own mother and get them both to the U.S. Her father was lost at Dachau. The two parents met at the Lithuanian Jewish Survivor's Ball in New York City. They married shortly after.

Both Simon and Gita worked incredibly hard and saved for their children's education but they did not always show their love in ways Sonia and her brother Manny expected. In fact, Simon could be quite harsh. And there was the endless repetition of stories of relatives who were lost and how awful life had been before.

A Jewish education and preserving Jewish tradition are some of the beautiful parts of the book. And some visits to the new state of Israel show what a lovely haven it was for European Jews after the war.

Every part of this book wasn't interesting to me, but what Sonia and Manny and their parents understand about each other by the end of the book is beautiful indeed.

[Edith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book that is well worth reading! It held my interest to the last page and did not disappoint. I can well imagine that this story echoes many other immigrant experiences post-WWII.

Sonia Taitz is the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Her parents were Lithuanian Jews who were among the few to escape the German concentration camps. As immigrants to America, they lived in New York City where her father was a master watchmaker and her mother was his helper. Sonia grews up in the 60’s with the influence of American television promoting the good life alongside the constant reminder of the Holocaust experience from her parents. This is Sonia’s story of her humble parents, of her relationship with them, of growing up Jewish in NYC, her Ivy League education, her love relationships, and more. Sonia is lively, ambitious, and feisty- she goes after what she wants and there is a tale in all of it.

This book is reader-friendly and easy to read. It was so interesting and well-written that I feel somewhat overwhelmed trying to describe it properly. She took the very complex personalities of her parents and put them in living form on the page. I was not able to put this compelling story down. Five stars of highest recommendation!

[Paula Ludwigson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a memoir of Sonia who is the daughter of two survivors of Nazi concentration camps. Her father is a watchmaker and repairer. As he says, the Germans value punctuality and with it clocks and watches. Her mother survives with her own mother and even risks her own life to save her mother's life. She and her family live in NYC in Washington Heights. Her father has rages in which he beats (what is called punishing) both her and her brother. He is, however, a loving father, intellectual, pushing both children to be successful in uniquely Jewish ways - they both become lawyers. Her mother is a typical Jewish woman in housecoats making endless chicken soup. The book is uniquely Jewish, but Sonia also is a child of the 60s - watching Romper Room and yearning for a Chatty Cathy. Her and her brother's love and appreciation for their parents even in their damaged dealings with the events of WWII is so true and real. Yet she can be cruel as any child towards her parents' backwardness, poverty - haven't we all thought our parents were old fashioned and embarrassing? As Sonia says, this is a world that disappears with the death of this generation. Experience and appreciate it by reading this book.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read an article about this book in the newspaper. A few days later I saw/met the author at Women Read/Women Write. This book is a well-written account of the author's parents, Holocaust survivors. Simon and Gita Taitz are flawed individuals who the author, and I, the reader, came to admire by the end of the story. This is a story of family, love, conflict and how all that makes "a life." It is Sonia Taitz's love letter to her parents. The deaths of each parent are especially poignant and telling.

"Having been there for several weeks, I am growing used to this odd place, this concentration camp of sorts, where the world of the dying literally separates from life and into a spiritual concentrate. There is a holiness here, a priveleged beauty. It is the kind of humble wisdon, in time, to which we all come." (219)

"My mother's eyes are calm with love as I rub her hands, lingering over each finger. She gives her floor-scrubbing, music-making hands to me, and I soothe them. They soothe me." (237)

[Joanne Clarke Gunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good memoir and is very well written. I always enjoy those memoirs telling the story of children whose comfortable lives growing up here in America are juxtaposed with the very different and very uncomfortable lives of their parents before them. Both of Sonia Taitz's Jewish parents survived Nazi concentration camps. Both carry the burden of remembrance of people and places and events that no one should have to remember, and both never let the author and her brother forget the horror of Nazi Germany. Her parents are very old-world people, with old-world skills and ideas and, of course, this makes life difficult for Sonia and her brother Manny, children growing up here in a modern world with modern ideas. But they are loving parents who only want the best for their children and they work hard to provide for them. The story told by this book is often heartwrenching, but also sweet and funny. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good memoir.