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Mosaic: A Chronicle of Five Generations
Starting in Krakow, Poland in 1890, and spanning more than one hundred years, five generations, and four continents, Mosaic is Diane Armstrong's moving account of her remarkable, resilient family. This story begins when Daniel Baldinger divorces the wife he loves because she cannot bear children. Believing that "a man must have sons to say Kaddish for him when he dies," he marries a much younger woman, and by 1913, Daniel and his second wife Lieba have eleven children, including six sons. In this richly textured portrait, Armstrong follows the Baldinger children's lives over decades, through the terrifying years of the Holocaust, to the present. Based on oral histories and the diaries of more than a dozen men and women, Mosaic is an extraordinary story of a family and one woman's journey to reclaim her heritage.
608 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
180 people are currently reading
2228 people want to read
About the author
Diane Armstrong
17 books207 followersDiane was born in Poland and arrived in Australia in 1948.
At the age of seven she decided to become a writer. Her first article, about teaching at a Blackboard Jungle school in London, was published in The Australian Women's Weekly in 1965. Diane subsequently became a freelance journalist, and over three thousand of her investigative articles, personal experience stories, profiles and travel stories have been published in newspapers and magazines such as Readers Digest, Vogue, The Bulletin, Harper's Bazaar, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend, and The Age. Her articles have also appeared in major publications in the UK, Canada, Poland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Holland and South Africa.
Over the years she has received numerous awards for journalism, including the Pluma de Plata awarded by the Government of Mexico for the best article written about that country, and the Gold Award given by the Pacific Asia Tourist Association. In 1993 she received an award for an investigative article about Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease. In 1998, she received the George Munster Award for Independent Journalism.
At the age of seven she decided to become a writer. Her first article, about teaching at a Blackboard Jungle school in London, was published in The Australian Women's Weekly in 1965. Diane subsequently became a freelance journalist, and over three thousand of her investigative articles, personal experience stories, profiles and travel stories have been published in newspapers and magazines such as Readers Digest, Vogue, The Bulletin, Harper's Bazaar, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend, and The Age. Her articles have also appeared in major publications in the UK, Canada, Poland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Holland and South Africa.
Over the years she has received numerous awards for journalism, including the Pluma de Plata awarded by the Government of Mexico for the best article written about that country, and the Gold Award given by the Pacific Asia Tourist Association. In 1993 she received an award for an investigative article about Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease. In 1998, she received the George Munster Award for Independent Journalism.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
June 10, 2016
Having just finished Mosaic: A Chronicle of Five Generations by Diane Armstrong I would love to tell you that this is all fiction and did not happen. But that would be a lie. I would love to tell you that Diane Armstrong fabricated the entire story and exaggerated the horrible and despicable happenings in this book but I would be lying. This story is recounts the lives of five generations of an ordinary Jewish family and what they suffered at the hands of their fellow neighbours and countrymen during a time in our history that can never be forgotten or one can never read enough about.
I have read many Holocaust memoirs & oral histories, but none have moved me as Diane Armstrong's book Mosaic has. Having visited many of the places mentioned in this book like Krakow and Auschwitz I really felt I was walking there with Diane when she travelled back to research her family history.
Although readers looking for strictly documented history may find Mosaic wanting, Diane Armstrong's story is likely to exceed your expectations and inform readers of a more personal story that will give you an honest account what an entire family can endure and how many years later the effects such happenings and losses still have on their lives. I love to lean facts and prefer documented history but with this book I feel I learned so much.
What makes a book a 5 star reading experience? For me its has to have three elements.
1) I need to learn something new or be entertained by the story.
2) I need to laugh out loud or exclaim or feel emotion.
3) The writing needs to be of a good standard that I feel the story flows.
This books has all of these qualities and I would highly recommend it.
I was lucky enough to be given a hardback copy of this book as a gift and also to have it as and audio book. I enjoyed so much the audible as the pronunciation of family names and cites were just pure music to my ears! The narrator was excellent and for the second time only in my audible listening experience have I have been truly happy with listening to a book on audible. I also loved reading from the book and both were an experience.
I have read many Holocaust memoirs & oral histories, but none have moved me as Diane Armstrong's book Mosaic has. Having visited many of the places mentioned in this book like Krakow and Auschwitz I really felt I was walking there with Diane when she travelled back to research her family history.
Although readers looking for strictly documented history may find Mosaic wanting, Diane Armstrong's story is likely to exceed your expectations and inform readers of a more personal story that will give you an honest account what an entire family can endure and how many years later the effects such happenings and losses still have on their lives. I love to lean facts and prefer documented history but with this book I feel I learned so much.
What makes a book a 5 star reading experience? For me its has to have three elements.
1) I need to learn something new or be entertained by the story.
2) I need to laugh out loud or exclaim or feel emotion.
3) The writing needs to be of a good standard that I feel the story flows.
This books has all of these qualities and I would highly recommend it.
I was lucky enough to be given a hardback copy of this book as a gift and also to have it as and audio book. I enjoyed so much the audible as the pronunciation of family names and cites were just pure music to my ears! The narrator was excellent and for the second time only in my audible listening experience have I have been truly happy with listening to a book on audible. I also loved reading from the book and both were an experience.
May 31, 2022
No Spoilers!!!!!
On completion: This is an amazing book. I must give it 5 stars. Below I have written my thoughts as I traversed the book from cover to cover for I believe a very good book will keep the reader enthralled all the way through. This book does exactly that. I have given excerpts so you can see if YOU like this author’s way with words. I find her prose excellent.
I want an author, even in books that cover difficult issues such as the holocaust, to show me some hope, some wry humor. This reflects my own attitude toward life so I want to see this in books too. Here again the book succeeds. One finds the following lines at the very end of the book:
Now that there are so few Jews left, everyone is bewitched by Jewish culture. As Justine puts it, it’s like our fascination with the dinosaur. (90%)
This statement is made by the author’s daughter when they revisit Krakow when the book was being compiled. Before the war, in the Krakow of 1939 there were 225.000 Jews. 15.000 were left after the war.
Each section of the book fulfills its purpose. The first part makes each family member a person you recognize by their faults and their redeeming qualities. In Part 2, history enters and shows you how each one was carried away by horrible events and how each one responded in their unique fashion. How did children, young adults, their parents and the elderly, each with their own baggage, crawl through or succumb. The depiction is emotionally heart-wrenching but never melodramatically overdone. Many of us have read of concentration camps, life in the sewers, the Polski Hotel, escape to the forests of Poland and more. In that this family is so large these historical events are all part of the family’s experiences. All of these named historical events, and many more too, are shown through the experiences of family members.
And then finally, in Part 3, we are shown the aftermath of the war and its impact on the individuals we have come to know. Each one has been changed in surprising ways. The survivors are spread all over the world, only one remains in Poland. Their lives after the war are just as interesting as before and during the war because the reader has come to care for these people. Some turn toward Judaism, some turn away. Some grew closer to their spouse, others split and some children rejected their parents. The multitude of chosen paths is amazing to see and feel and learn about. The reader never feels detached from each one’s story. How has the author drawn me to so many different people and made each one important to me? I applaud her success.
The author goes one step further and looks at Judaism and what it means to be Jewish. It is to be part of a continuum, part of a family, part of a tradition that is even more than just religious beliefs. By looking at this one family, by looking at each small mosaic piece and assembling them into a whole, we get a fuller view of what it is to be Jewish.
This book is not depressing. The author shows us there are people who did wonderful things to help the Jews. There is a huge present, happy surprise at the end of the book. You mustn't miss this.
The book provides a family trees, a map, wonderful photos, and a explanation of Polish names. It is difficult to read the family tree and the map on the Kindle version.
**************************************
After 37%: I am still in love with this book. I JUST want to read. The book never drags. I am amazed that I have all these characters in my head. You are dealing with five different generations comprised of the author's, her children's, her parent's, her grandparent and great-grandparent's. I believe the author succeeds with this because the central focus in the first part of the book is the generation consisting of the author's parents and grandparents. With that as a foundation, and writing that draws you to the experiences of these people, everyone else falls into place.
The main reason why this book works is the author's expressive writing. Her choice of words and choice of examples to illustrate the events and emotions of her relatives. So if you like the style of writing, you will enjoy this book. I will give one more excerpt, then that is it. I do it so you can determine if the book will please you. I believe it is the writing is what will draw you to the book. The characters are interesting. The history is riveting, but it is the author's words that make the book:
On the sultry September day, her sister Mania Schwartz standing on her balcony when she witnessed a scene she would never forget. Turning to her husband, she called, 'Misko, quick, come and look at this!' Spilling along the entire width of Aleja Focha Avenue and down Grodecka Street came a ragged throng like debris floating on the current.
There were Russians, Kalmuks, Mongols and Turkomans, Uzbeks, Circassians, Georgians and Kirghiz, some with cheekbones and flattened noses, others with slanting eyes. Some of this motley army wore conical fur hats with flaps and long dun-coloured coats that reached their ankles as if they'd just left their yurts in the steppes. In clothes powdered with dust, they straggled all over the road without any apparent formation. Their footwear was as their outfits, and few wore boots.
With her keen eye for detail Mania noted that many coats were fraying and unhemmed, with threads training from them. They looked as if they'd grabbed their clothes before the tailor had time to finish them, and rushed off to distant lands. And they just kept coming, a bobbing sea of men in ragged clothes streaming down the street.
These shabby soldiers were the advance guard of the million-strong Russian army coming to occupy Lwow. (37%)
In Part One you learn about the family. In Part Two you see how history enters the lives of this family.
**********************************
After 23%: I am still thoroughly enjoying myself. If I were to make any complaint it would be that I want to know more about the historical events at the time. History is there, but I want more.
And then it was served up for me! :0) Lola is German, and she is madly in love with Izio. Head over heels! But how is this going to go when although her father is Jewish, her mother isn't. She is by Jewish definition, not Jewish! Hmmm, how do we solve this? To understand the dangers of the different "solutions" one has to understand history too. Anyhow, I am now being served some history:
Lola was shocked by what was happening in Krakow. Poland seemed to be a nation of two distinct groups, Poles and Jews. She found it strange that only Catholics were regarded as Poles, as if being Jewish precluded citizens from being Polish. The street assaults horrified her because they indicated that anti-Semitism was a grass-roots movement. Distressed, she said to Izio: 'In Berlin, the anti-Jewish propaganda comes from the top, from Hitler and his Nazis, but here the hatred seems to come from the people.'
It was at this time that Hitler escalated his persecution of the Jews. On 15 September 1935, the Nuremberg Decrees put into action Nazi policies formulated in 1920. The first lethal step towards turning the Jews into outcasts in their own country had begun. (23%)
You have to read the book to see if this problem could be resolved. This "grass-root" hatred of Jews in Poland is well depicted in:A Day of Small Beginnings: A Novel
which I recommend.
*******************************
After 13%:
I started this book with a bit of trepidation. When I heard of it, I was immediately fascinated, drawn in by the topic of following one Jewish Polish family family over five generations. It is basically a grandson's search to understand his revered grandfather, his father and 10 uncles and aunts over the tumultuous 1900s. That is a large family to come to grips with. Will I be able to keep track of everybody? Will these people remain flat character on the page or will I come to understand their loves, worries, fears and each ones's specific character? Will they come alive for me? Someone had further suggested that flipping between different time periods could be confusing. Although I have only read 13% of this lengthy book. I have run into several instances when the reader is transported 80 year ahead in time to hear what the author's now elderly living relatives often jokingly recall of their earlier memories. These memories have been brief, consisting of only one or two paragraphs. The commentaries had me chuckling, and I was relieved to see that I was in no way confused or "jolted" as I was worried I might be!
More importantly I have already shed tears for the author's father, Hesiu, born in 1901. Daniel, the author's grandfather was uneducated but very well respected in the Jewish community of Krakow, Kazimierz. He was devout, but still rather modern. He trimmed his beard! :0) What he most wished for was a rabbi for a son. He in fact divorced his first wonderful wife Reizel because after 10 years they still had no children. His second wife Lieba Spira was so very hard working. She too, a wonderful person, She too had not a child by Daniel until after four years, after a meeting with the holy Sanzer Rebbe, Aron Halberstamm, the babies came. Not one, but a total of 12 along with miscarriages. You should hear what she has to say about this........
Oh how Daniel wanted a son to say the Kaddish prayer for him someday. That was not enough. He needed a rabbi for a son. His first son, Avner, was raised, dressed, pushed to become a Chassid. At three he was enrolled in cheder. Avner, Daniel's favorite son, would never become a rabbi.
You learn of each child, some more than others. This is good because you come to feels a special affection for a few. This is what a wanted. I wanted the family members to lift of the page and become real.
So far, I am very pleased. WW1 has begun and you see how history is drawn into the lives of these people you have come to care for.
The writing is excellent. People and landscapes and Jewish customs are delightfully recounted. Here you see a sparkle of humor:
While Avner was playing hide and seek with the Austrian army, Daniel and Lieba were far more worried about their second son Jerzy who was interned as an enemy alien in France. Like Avner, Jerzy had refused to become a rabbi. Since he hadn't matriculated, his option had been limited, and Daniel had decided to apprentice him to a furrier. Jerzy, who had a quiet sense of humour, was amused at the way his father introduced him to his employer. 'My son doesn't want to be a mensch, so let him be a furrier!' he said. (13%)
I am pleased. I have been sick after my flu vaccination, and being curled up reading this book has been just wonderful. So I am sick - who cares! Heaven is reading and reading and reading a book like this with no interruption. Ant there is lots left. :0)
On completion: This is an amazing book. I must give it 5 stars. Below I have written my thoughts as I traversed the book from cover to cover for I believe a very good book will keep the reader enthralled all the way through. This book does exactly that. I have given excerpts so you can see if YOU like this author’s way with words. I find her prose excellent.
I want an author, even in books that cover difficult issues such as the holocaust, to show me some hope, some wry humor. This reflects my own attitude toward life so I want to see this in books too. Here again the book succeeds. One finds the following lines at the very end of the book:
Now that there are so few Jews left, everyone is bewitched by Jewish culture. As Justine puts it, it’s like our fascination with the dinosaur. (90%)
This statement is made by the author’s daughter when they revisit Krakow when the book was being compiled. Before the war, in the Krakow of 1939 there were 225.000 Jews. 15.000 were left after the war.
Each section of the book fulfills its purpose. The first part makes each family member a person you recognize by their faults and their redeeming qualities. In Part 2, history enters and shows you how each one was carried away by horrible events and how each one responded in their unique fashion. How did children, young adults, their parents and the elderly, each with their own baggage, crawl through or succumb. The depiction is emotionally heart-wrenching but never melodramatically overdone. Many of us have read of concentration camps, life in the sewers, the Polski Hotel, escape to the forests of Poland and more. In that this family is so large these historical events are all part of the family’s experiences. All of these named historical events, and many more too, are shown through the experiences of family members.
And then finally, in Part 3, we are shown the aftermath of the war and its impact on the individuals we have come to know. Each one has been changed in surprising ways. The survivors are spread all over the world, only one remains in Poland. Their lives after the war are just as interesting as before and during the war because the reader has come to care for these people. Some turn toward Judaism, some turn away. Some grew closer to their spouse, others split and some children rejected their parents. The multitude of chosen paths is amazing to see and feel and learn about. The reader never feels detached from each one’s story. How has the author drawn me to so many different people and made each one important to me? I applaud her success.
The author goes one step further and looks at Judaism and what it means to be Jewish. It is to be part of a continuum, part of a family, part of a tradition that is even more than just religious beliefs. By looking at this one family, by looking at each small mosaic piece and assembling them into a whole, we get a fuller view of what it is to be Jewish.
This book is not depressing. The author shows us there are people who did wonderful things to help the Jews. There is a huge present, happy surprise at the end of the book. You mustn't miss this.
The book provides a family trees, a map, wonderful photos, and a explanation of Polish names. It is difficult to read the family tree and the map on the Kindle version.
**************************************
After 37%: I am still in love with this book. I JUST want to read. The book never drags. I am amazed that I have all these characters in my head. You are dealing with five different generations comprised of the author's, her children's, her parent's, her grandparent and great-grandparent's. I believe the author succeeds with this because the central focus in the first part of the book is the generation consisting of the author's parents and grandparents. With that as a foundation, and writing that draws you to the experiences of these people, everyone else falls into place.
The main reason why this book works is the author's expressive writing. Her choice of words and choice of examples to illustrate the events and emotions of her relatives. So if you like the style of writing, you will enjoy this book. I will give one more excerpt, then that is it. I do it so you can determine if the book will please you. I believe it is the writing is what will draw you to the book. The characters are interesting. The history is riveting, but it is the author's words that make the book:
On the sultry September day, her sister Mania Schwartz standing on her balcony when she witnessed a scene she would never forget. Turning to her husband, she called, 'Misko, quick, come and look at this!' Spilling along the entire width of Aleja Focha Avenue and down Grodecka Street came a ragged throng like debris floating on the current.
There were Russians, Kalmuks, Mongols and Turkomans, Uzbeks, Circassians, Georgians and Kirghiz, some with cheekbones and flattened noses, others with slanting eyes. Some of this motley army wore conical fur hats with flaps and long dun-coloured coats that reached their ankles as if they'd just left their yurts in the steppes. In clothes powdered with dust, they straggled all over the road without any apparent formation. Their footwear was as their outfits, and few wore boots.
With her keen eye for detail Mania noted that many coats were fraying and unhemmed, with threads training from them. They looked as if they'd grabbed their clothes before the tailor had time to finish them, and rushed off to distant lands. And they just kept coming, a bobbing sea of men in ragged clothes streaming down the street.
These shabby soldiers were the advance guard of the million-strong Russian army coming to occupy Lwow. (37%)
In Part One you learn about the family. In Part Two you see how history enters the lives of this family.
**********************************
After 23%: I am still thoroughly enjoying myself. If I were to make any complaint it would be that I want to know more about the historical events at the time. History is there, but I want more.
And then it was served up for me! :0) Lola is German, and she is madly in love with Izio. Head over heels! But how is this going to go when although her father is Jewish, her mother isn't. She is by Jewish definition, not Jewish! Hmmm, how do we solve this? To understand the dangers of the different "solutions" one has to understand history too. Anyhow, I am now being served some history:
Lola was shocked by what was happening in Krakow. Poland seemed to be a nation of two distinct groups, Poles and Jews. She found it strange that only Catholics were regarded as Poles, as if being Jewish precluded citizens from being Polish. The street assaults horrified her because they indicated that anti-Semitism was a grass-roots movement. Distressed, she said to Izio: 'In Berlin, the anti-Jewish propaganda comes from the top, from Hitler and his Nazis, but here the hatred seems to come from the people.'
It was at this time that Hitler escalated his persecution of the Jews. On 15 September 1935, the Nuremberg Decrees put into action Nazi policies formulated in 1920. The first lethal step towards turning the Jews into outcasts in their own country had begun. (23%)
You have to read the book to see if this problem could be resolved. This "grass-root" hatred of Jews in Poland is well depicted in:A Day of Small Beginnings: A Novel
which I recommend.
*******************************
After 13%:
I started this book with a bit of trepidation. When I heard of it, I was immediately fascinated, drawn in by the topic of following one Jewish Polish family family over five generations. It is basically a grandson's search to understand his revered grandfather, his father and 10 uncles and aunts over the tumultuous 1900s. That is a large family to come to grips with. Will I be able to keep track of everybody? Will these people remain flat character on the page or will I come to understand their loves, worries, fears and each ones's specific character? Will they come alive for me? Someone had further suggested that flipping between different time periods could be confusing. Although I have only read 13% of this lengthy book. I have run into several instances when the reader is transported 80 year ahead in time to hear what the author's now elderly living relatives often jokingly recall of their earlier memories. These memories have been brief, consisting of only one or two paragraphs. The commentaries had me chuckling, and I was relieved to see that I was in no way confused or "jolted" as I was worried I might be!
More importantly I have already shed tears for the author's father, Hesiu, born in 1901. Daniel, the author's grandfather was uneducated but very well respected in the Jewish community of Krakow, Kazimierz. He was devout, but still rather modern. He trimmed his beard! :0) What he most wished for was a rabbi for a son. He in fact divorced his first wonderful wife Reizel because after 10 years they still had no children. His second wife Lieba Spira was so very hard working. She too, a wonderful person, She too had not a child by Daniel until after four years, after a meeting with the holy Sanzer Rebbe, Aron Halberstamm, the babies came. Not one, but a total of 12 along with miscarriages. You should hear what she has to say about this........
Oh how Daniel wanted a son to say the Kaddish prayer for him someday. That was not enough. He needed a rabbi for a son. His first son, Avner, was raised, dressed, pushed to become a Chassid. At three he was enrolled in cheder. Avner, Daniel's favorite son, would never become a rabbi.
You learn of each child, some more than others. This is good because you come to feels a special affection for a few. This is what a wanted. I wanted the family members to lift of the page and become real.
So far, I am very pleased. WW1 has begun and you see how history is drawn into the lives of these people you have come to care for.
The writing is excellent. People and landscapes and Jewish customs are delightfully recounted. Here you see a sparkle of humor:
While Avner was playing hide and seek with the Austrian army, Daniel and Lieba were far more worried about their second son Jerzy who was interned as an enemy alien in France. Like Avner, Jerzy had refused to become a rabbi. Since he hadn't matriculated, his option had been limited, and Daniel had decided to apprentice him to a furrier. Jerzy, who had a quiet sense of humour, was amused at the way his father introduced him to his employer. 'My son doesn't want to be a mensch, so let him be a furrier!' he said. (13%)
I am pleased. I have been sick after my flu vaccination, and being curled up reading this book has been just wonderful. So I am sick - who cares! Heaven is reading and reading and reading a book like this with no interruption. Ant there is lots left. :0)
October 19, 2011
Read pre-Gr. Recent discussions on GR reminded me that I read this book several years ago. I re-read parts of the book to be able to review it briefly and to give it a rating.
Mosaic starts with the story of the author's grandfather who divorces his wife of ten years because they are unable to bear children together. He then remarries and his second wife bears him eleven children. These children marry and, over time, we learn about their spouses, in-laws and their children. The grandfather also has brothers who have children. All of these people and their life stories come to life and make up the "mosaic" of the title. The author writes very well and the stories about the various relatives are very compelling and engaging. The many narratives show various aspects of Jewish and secular life in Poland, pre-WW1. They also show the drama of surviving (or not) during WW11 and briefly describe stories of immigration after the war.
One of the things I appreciate most is the beginning of the book in which the author depicts life in Gallicia in the early 1900s. My paternal grandfather grew up in Galicia with his parents and 10 siblings, so it is particularly meaningful and interesting to me to learn about life in those times and in that particular place.
My only issue with this book is that the author interrupts the narrative too often in order to interject her own memories or those of survivors. I find this to be distracting and unnecessary. One moment you are transported to life in the early 1900s in Galicia. The next moment you are in an old age home in Australia in the 1990s, for instance, listening, very briefly, to reminiscences of one of the survivors or of the author. It might have been better to have compiled these memories at the end of the book in an addendum, for instance.
Overall, this book is a very worthwhile read. This would have received 5 stars if not for my one objection noted above.
Mosaic starts with the story of the author's grandfather who divorces his wife of ten years because they are unable to bear children together. He then remarries and his second wife bears him eleven children. These children marry and, over time, we learn about their spouses, in-laws and their children. The grandfather also has brothers who have children. All of these people and their life stories come to life and make up the "mosaic" of the title. The author writes very well and the stories about the various relatives are very compelling and engaging. The many narratives show various aspects of Jewish and secular life in Poland, pre-WW1. They also show the drama of surviving (or not) during WW11 and briefly describe stories of immigration after the war.
One of the things I appreciate most is the beginning of the book in which the author depicts life in Gallicia in the early 1900s. My paternal grandfather grew up in Galicia with his parents and 10 siblings, so it is particularly meaningful and interesting to me to learn about life in those times and in that particular place.
My only issue with this book is that the author interrupts the narrative too often in order to interject her own memories or those of survivors. I find this to be distracting and unnecessary. One moment you are transported to life in the early 1900s in Galicia. The next moment you are in an old age home in Australia in the 1990s, for instance, listening, very briefly, to reminiscences of one of the survivors or of the author. It might have been better to have compiled these memories at the end of the book in an addendum, for instance.
Overall, this book is a very worthwhile read. This would have received 5 stars if not for my one objection noted above.
November 23, 2017
ane Armstrong traces the history of her family over a hundred years in what is far more more than merely a family a saga but is indeed a pivotal epic of suffering, survival and renewal in Jewish history.
It explores the grand range of human emotions from hope, humour, friendship , love and tenderness to anger, fear, hate, pain and loss.
The real life epic begins in in Krakow, Poland, 1890 when the author's grandfather, when the author's grandfather ,Daniel Baldinger, divorces Reizel, his wife of ten years, because of their inability to produce children, and marries Leiba Spira, the pretty and industrious young daughter of a shopkeeper in his community.
Daniel and Leiba are blessed with a comfortable home and 11 fine children, and this well rounded and beautifully written account takes us through the generations of Dian Armstrong's family, imbibing the reader with the richness of Polish Jewish life, the hopes and trials of the family through the horrors and destruction of the Holocaust and the tenuous survival in hiding of the author as a three year old girl and her parents, posing as Polish Catholics, at the time when the discovery of their being Jewish would have meant certain death.
Through the courage of a young Catholic priest, Father Soszynski and a community that does not betray them, the author's family survive tenuously, against overwhelming odds.
The Nazis and their willing helpers had succeeded in destroying the Jews of Europe, only 250 000 Jews remained alive, of the 3 million that had lived in Poland. In the words of Diane Armstrong "In concentration camps, death camps, ghettos, forest groves, hillsides. villages and cities, six million innocent people had been gassed, beaten, tortured, mutilated, set on fire, buried alive and starved".
And after the war, those Jews that survived in Poland still lived in terror and insecurity. 1500 Jews were murdered by fellow Poles- tiny children were thrown through third floor windows, the wombs of pregnant women ripped open and old people and teenagers battered to death.
3 years after the war, the author, at nine years old, and her family, travelled by ship to Australia where they settled. The author recalls how they could not embark at Port Said, as five Arab armies had attacked the fledgling state of Israel, and in Egypt, as in the rest of the Arab world, all Jews were regarded as enemies.
Many of the author's family made their homes in Israel, as did the majority of Holocaust survivors, and Israel is the where the majority of the descendants of Holocaust survivors live today.
Diane Armstrong's cousin Krysia and her husband Marcel Ginzig describe the importance of making their home in Israel in the pioneering days of the 1950's at a time when ideals meant everything in Israel ,and regardless of material positions and professional status, everyone understood each other and shared a similar past and common goals.
As Marcel recounts "No power on earth can make me leave Israel. Maybe this sounds funny but I was afraid of being a Jew again. Here among Jews, I was an Israeli, I wasn't going to become a Canadian Jew. Maybe I would have been better off in Canada. Certainly I would have led a quieter safer life without wars, hostile Arabs and intifadas, and my granddaughters wouldn't be going into the army.
After the passing of Diane's mother, the author revisited Poland, to retrace her families past, and help fill in the gaps. Here she met Father Soszynski who had saved her and her family. she retraced most of her family's past there, and met with both hostility and friendliness from the people there.
Today there is much openness in Poland towards revisiting the past, and a ken interest among young Poles in Jewish history and culture, as well a strong alliance between the democracies of Israel and Poland. Also, as the author points out, 'Jewish blood runs silently and secretly through millions of Polish veins'.
It explores the grand range of human emotions from hope, humour, friendship , love and tenderness to anger, fear, hate, pain and loss.
The real life epic begins in in Krakow, Poland, 1890 when the author's grandfather, when the author's grandfather ,Daniel Baldinger, divorces Reizel, his wife of ten years, because of their inability to produce children, and marries Leiba Spira, the pretty and industrious young daughter of a shopkeeper in his community.
Daniel and Leiba are blessed with a comfortable home and 11 fine children, and this well rounded and beautifully written account takes us through the generations of Dian Armstrong's family, imbibing the reader with the richness of Polish Jewish life, the hopes and trials of the family through the horrors and destruction of the Holocaust and the tenuous survival in hiding of the author as a three year old girl and her parents, posing as Polish Catholics, at the time when the discovery of their being Jewish would have meant certain death.
Through the courage of a young Catholic priest, Father Soszynski and a community that does not betray them, the author's family survive tenuously, against overwhelming odds.
The Nazis and their willing helpers had succeeded in destroying the Jews of Europe, only 250 000 Jews remained alive, of the 3 million that had lived in Poland. In the words of Diane Armstrong "In concentration camps, death camps, ghettos, forest groves, hillsides. villages and cities, six million innocent people had been gassed, beaten, tortured, mutilated, set on fire, buried alive and starved".
And after the war, those Jews that survived in Poland still lived in terror and insecurity. 1500 Jews were murdered by fellow Poles- tiny children were thrown through third floor windows, the wombs of pregnant women ripped open and old people and teenagers battered to death.
3 years after the war, the author, at nine years old, and her family, travelled by ship to Australia where they settled. The author recalls how they could not embark at Port Said, as five Arab armies had attacked the fledgling state of Israel, and in Egypt, as in the rest of the Arab world, all Jews were regarded as enemies.
Many of the author's family made their homes in Israel, as did the majority of Holocaust survivors, and Israel is the where the majority of the descendants of Holocaust survivors live today.
Diane Armstrong's cousin Krysia and her husband Marcel Ginzig describe the importance of making their home in Israel in the pioneering days of the 1950's at a time when ideals meant everything in Israel ,and regardless of material positions and professional status, everyone understood each other and shared a similar past and common goals.
As Marcel recounts "No power on earth can make me leave Israel. Maybe this sounds funny but I was afraid of being a Jew again. Here among Jews, I was an Israeli, I wasn't going to become a Canadian Jew. Maybe I would have been better off in Canada. Certainly I would have led a quieter safer life without wars, hostile Arabs and intifadas, and my granddaughters wouldn't be going into the army.
After the passing of Diane's mother, the author revisited Poland, to retrace her families past, and help fill in the gaps. Here she met Father Soszynski who had saved her and her family. she retraced most of her family's past there, and met with both hostility and friendliness from the people there.
Today there is much openness in Poland towards revisiting the past, and a ken interest among young Poles in Jewish history and culture, as well a strong alliance between the democracies of Israel and Poland. Also, as the author points out, 'Jewish blood runs silently and secretly through millions of Polish veins'.
September 28, 2011
Ms. Armstrong, with her thoughtful words tells a complex multi-generational tale of a large Jewish family and its slow decent into the horrifying years that the madman Hitler ruled part of Europe.
To tell the story of so many characters is difficult but Ms. Armstrong seems to do it with ease and congruency. She does an excellent job of narrating this journey of a family rich in character, the sad fate of some and the brave journey of those who kept moving forward and lived to tell about it.
I found this to be a beautifully and interesting told story of an important and very scary time we should never forget, if nothing else, so it does not happen again. It seems to not understand this history only allows the door to open for history to repeat itself, perhaps with a different culture and a slightly different bent. The time is captured magnificently.
To tell the story of so many characters is difficult but Ms. Armstrong seems to do it with ease and congruency. She does an excellent job of narrating this journey of a family rich in character, the sad fate of some and the brave journey of those who kept moving forward and lived to tell about it.
I found this to be a beautifully and interesting told story of an important and very scary time we should never forget, if nothing else, so it does not happen again. It seems to not understand this history only allows the door to open for history to repeat itself, perhaps with a different culture and a slightly different bent. The time is captured magnificently.
October 4, 2018
This was a very readable work centred around the Holocaust. It is divided into three parts. Part one covers pre-war life in Poland; part two the years of the Holocaust during World War Two; and part three emigration to Australia and the author’s search for her family history. Part three is perhaps the most involving, as the author works out her past, re-visits her surviving family members scattered around the world and hears their stories.
May 31, 2022
‘I would create a mosaic out of their memories.’
Ms Armstrong’s family memoir, spanning five generations of her Jewish family, begins with a divorce. In 1890, in Krakow, her grandfather Daniel Baldinger sought and received a divorce from his wife of ten years, Reizel, because they had not yet had a child. While Daniel Baldinger loved his wife, he believed that ‘a man must have sons to say Kaddish for him when he dies’. By 1913, Daniel and his second wife Lieba had eleven children, including six sons. Their first son, Avner, was born in 1895.
When her uncle Avner died in 1985, Ms Armstrong decided to interview her five remaining aunts and uncles to piece together a mosaic from their memories. The resulting family history spans more that one hundred years, five generations of family and several continents. The family journey takes us through the horrors of the Holocaust and pain of dislocations.
‘In wartime the smallest decision had enormous repercussions because once you veered off one path and followed another, there was no turning back.’
Many of her relatives were in their seventies and eighties when she interviewed them, and not all wished to remember the past. And there are some difficult family relationships to traverse as well. As Ms Armstrong observes: ‘Family relationships are as fragile as egg-shells and as complex and unfathomable as the universe.’
While Ms Armstrong’s immediate family posed as Catholics to escape the Nazis, others were in very different and difficult circumstances.
The story unfolds in three parts. Part I recounts family history until the death of Daniel, just before World War II. Part II takes the story through World War II until the arrival of Ms Armstrong and her immediate family in Australia, while Part III brings us to the present.
New beginnings have their own costs:
‘At home my parents spoke Polish to each other, but soon I was replying in English. Changing your language in childhood is not just a linguistic loss. Apart from losing a world of subtleties, nuances and connotations of the words themselves, you also lose part of yourself.’
A fellow reader spoke about this book recently. This reminded me that while I had read some of Ms Armstrong’s fiction and was aware of ‘Mosaic’, I had not read it. I located a copy and became swept up in Ms Armstrong’s family history. A beautifully written tribute.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Ms Armstrong’s family memoir, spanning five generations of her Jewish family, begins with a divorce. In 1890, in Krakow, her grandfather Daniel Baldinger sought and received a divorce from his wife of ten years, Reizel, because they had not yet had a child. While Daniel Baldinger loved his wife, he believed that ‘a man must have sons to say Kaddish for him when he dies’. By 1913, Daniel and his second wife Lieba had eleven children, including six sons. Their first son, Avner, was born in 1895.
When her uncle Avner died in 1985, Ms Armstrong decided to interview her five remaining aunts and uncles to piece together a mosaic from their memories. The resulting family history spans more that one hundred years, five generations of family and several continents. The family journey takes us through the horrors of the Holocaust and pain of dislocations.
‘In wartime the smallest decision had enormous repercussions because once you veered off one path and followed another, there was no turning back.’
Many of her relatives were in their seventies and eighties when she interviewed them, and not all wished to remember the past. And there are some difficult family relationships to traverse as well. As Ms Armstrong observes: ‘Family relationships are as fragile as egg-shells and as complex and unfathomable as the universe.’
While Ms Armstrong’s immediate family posed as Catholics to escape the Nazis, others were in very different and difficult circumstances.
The story unfolds in three parts. Part I recounts family history until the death of Daniel, just before World War II. Part II takes the story through World War II until the arrival of Ms Armstrong and her immediate family in Australia, while Part III brings us to the present.
New beginnings have their own costs:
‘At home my parents spoke Polish to each other, but soon I was replying in English. Changing your language in childhood is not just a linguistic loss. Apart from losing a world of subtleties, nuances and connotations of the words themselves, you also lose part of yourself.’
A fellow reader spoke about this book recently. This reminded me that while I had read some of Ms Armstrong’s fiction and was aware of ‘Mosaic’, I had not read it. I located a copy and became swept up in Ms Armstrong’s family history. A beautifully written tribute.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
March 16, 2017
My trip to Poland in 1999 was serendipity and was the result of my son calling to say hello from Israel during the one weekend during his teen mission that kids were permitted to visit relatives. That Shabbat phone call changed my life. And the trip that ensued still haunts me to this day. During the call, an invitation was extended by my mother's 80-year old first cousin and her peer, now an Israeli, (who'd escaped our familial hometowns and survived the Nazis) for my sister and me to join his wife and him, along with his married children on a long-deferred trip to return to the cities of our forefathers, to retrace their steps, to say Kaddish and to remember.
It was my mother's cousin who knew the family lore and who'd hired a van and a guide to take us to all of my mother's relative's hometowns, but in the few days I had to prepare for the trip, I also gathered as much information as I could about my father's hometown, read as much as I could, and even contacted a researcher who helped us when we met up with him to locate my father's childhood apartment and street.
I found Diane Armstrong's account of research into her family and return to the villages and cities of her childhood be eerily similar to my own memories. I shivered when reading of the Jude Raus signs she'd run across in towns where one or no Jews still survived; in my mind, I still see those signs graffitied onto walls and burnished onto trees in cities. I still see the symbolic ironwork, and sometimes exterior house embellishments proving the homes had belonged to Jewish families in several towns now devoid of any Jewish presence, of the strange pull she felt attending services in a synagogue with tourists outnumbering residents, of the inbred anti-Semitism of people she came into contact with, including some of her guides, of the fear that although she just wanted to retrace her family's roots, householders feared she'd come to take back family property. I can't help but remember how the custom's agent in Warsaw asked my blonde sister how she could really be really related to such a 'schwarze', looking at me with my dark hair and brown eyes. Or the day we visited the orphanage led by Janusz Korczak and our van was attacked by thugs with knives yelling anti-Semitic diatribes. I also teared when reading of her visit to Majdanek concentration camp because her descriptions so resembled my memories of our visits there and to Auschwitz--which at the time was covered in hundreds of crosses erected by nuns claiming ownership of a convent on the property. Unlike my cousin who was revisiting his memories, I was following the steps of my family's ancestors and building a picture of my heritage. But reading Armstrong was like re-reading my notes; her grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins could have been mine. With a photo of my mother standing in front of her grandfather's house on a visit to Europe in 1934, we visited my great-grandfather's house--only to be repelled by the current occupant who screamed at us that she's always lived there...retracing our cousin's footsteps, we found the well in front of his still-standing flat (now a Warsa insurance agency), we visited the tennis club where his family had been rounded up, his mother hung, and we cried. We visited cemeteries, we lit candles, we said Kaddish in town after town. And then we visited restaurants with lively "Jewish" music--the Klezmer musicians now gentiles intrigued by the mystery of the community's missing inhabitants. Their music haunts me to this day.
Armstrong's research and diligence left her with a 'mosaic' image of her heritage, and I am under the impression that she found it comforting, unlike my experiences. I have no trouble picturing my father as a ten-year old skipping cheder and playing soccer in the cemetery across the street from his house, or imagining my great grandmother running the family's tobacco store, the trip I took left me rattled and emotionally insecure for months. That trip left a huge hole in my heart. I am glad Armstrong wrote her book. She didn't only just find her family, she's helped me find mine.
It was my mother's cousin who knew the family lore and who'd hired a van and a guide to take us to all of my mother's relative's hometowns, but in the few days I had to prepare for the trip, I also gathered as much information as I could about my father's hometown, read as much as I could, and even contacted a researcher who helped us when we met up with him to locate my father's childhood apartment and street.
I found Diane Armstrong's account of research into her family and return to the villages and cities of her childhood be eerily similar to my own memories. I shivered when reading of the Jude Raus signs she'd run across in towns where one or no Jews still survived; in my mind, I still see those signs graffitied onto walls and burnished onto trees in cities. I still see the symbolic ironwork, and sometimes exterior house embellishments proving the homes had belonged to Jewish families in several towns now devoid of any Jewish presence, of the strange pull she felt attending services in a synagogue with tourists outnumbering residents, of the inbred anti-Semitism of people she came into contact with, including some of her guides, of the fear that although she just wanted to retrace her family's roots, householders feared she'd come to take back family property. I can't help but remember how the custom's agent in Warsaw asked my blonde sister how she could really be really related to such a 'schwarze', looking at me with my dark hair and brown eyes. Or the day we visited the orphanage led by Janusz Korczak and our van was attacked by thugs with knives yelling anti-Semitic diatribes. I also teared when reading of her visit to Majdanek concentration camp because her descriptions so resembled my memories of our visits there and to Auschwitz--which at the time was covered in hundreds of crosses erected by nuns claiming ownership of a convent on the property. Unlike my cousin who was revisiting his memories, I was following the steps of my family's ancestors and building a picture of my heritage. But reading Armstrong was like re-reading my notes; her grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins could have been mine. With a photo of my mother standing in front of her grandfather's house on a visit to Europe in 1934, we visited my great-grandfather's house--only to be repelled by the current occupant who screamed at us that she's always lived there...retracing our cousin's footsteps, we found the well in front of his still-standing flat (now a Warsa insurance agency), we visited the tennis club where his family had been rounded up, his mother hung, and we cried. We visited cemeteries, we lit candles, we said Kaddish in town after town. And then we visited restaurants with lively "Jewish" music--the Klezmer musicians now gentiles intrigued by the mystery of the community's missing inhabitants. Their music haunts me to this day.
Armstrong's research and diligence left her with a 'mosaic' image of her heritage, and I am under the impression that she found it comforting, unlike my experiences. I have no trouble picturing my father as a ten-year old skipping cheder and playing soccer in the cemetery across the street from his house, or imagining my great grandmother running the family's tobacco store, the trip I took left me rattled and emotionally insecure for months. That trip left a huge hole in my heart. I am glad Armstrong wrote her book. She didn't only just find her family, she's helped me find mine.
May 13, 2013
In this book, Diane Armstrong tells the story of her extended family. She starts with her paternal grandparents and includes all their children and her mother's family. The primary focus was on what happened to the family members during during WWII. Her parents "masquaraded" as Christians. Others spent time in concentration camps, where some died. Hearing what they went through was interesting and educational. I listened to the book, which made it somewhat difficult to keep the many people straight. The author also jumps around a bit rather that stricktly chronological, which would probably have been easier to follow if reading the book in print. The author also tells of her trip to visit the places in Poland where her family lived and her search for records. She spends some time telling about the people she meets and laments how the young Polish people seem to have little understanding of what happened to the Jews. There was more personal emoting than I prefer but it was certainly understandable.
February 11, 2014
I learned so much from this book. It's powerful and the true story is one I will never forget.
January 15, 2024
A most remarkable book.
November 27, 2017
A fascinating portrayal of one Polish Jewish, now Australian, family before and after the Holocaust.
I've read several of Diane Armstrong's novels set in Poland during WWII so reading (or rather listening) to her family story was as engrossing as her novels. I got a bit lost with all the Jewish, then Polish, then Anglicised names and family members but it didn't really detract from the story too much.
I didn't realise quite how deeply antisemitism ran (still runs?) in Poland and Ukraine so learning more about that was worth the read.
I loved how she interwove historical events with meeting some of her relatives decades after the holocaust for the first time, how some were willing to share and how others couldn't bear the pain and grief of discussing and recounting what happened to them.
Much of the book was obviously fictionalised (e.g. conversations as father or grandfather had during their childhoods) but Armstrong did an incredible amount of painstakingly detailed research that must have taken her years to dig up.
Definitely recommended to anyone interested in the holocaust, Poland or Ukraine during WWII.
The narration by Deidre Rubenstein was superb as always. One of my favourite audiobook narrators.
I've read several of Diane Armstrong's novels set in Poland during WWII so reading (or rather listening) to her family story was as engrossing as her novels. I got a bit lost with all the Jewish, then Polish, then Anglicised names and family members but it didn't really detract from the story too much.
I didn't realise quite how deeply antisemitism ran (still runs?) in Poland and Ukraine so learning more about that was worth the read.
I loved how she interwove historical events with meeting some of her relatives decades after the holocaust for the first time, how some were willing to share and how others couldn't bear the pain and grief of discussing and recounting what happened to them.
Much of the book was obviously fictionalised (e.g. conversations as father or grandfather had during their childhoods) but Armstrong did an incredible amount of painstakingly detailed research that must have taken her years to dig up.
Definitely recommended to anyone interested in the holocaust, Poland or Ukraine during WWII.
The narration by Deidre Rubenstein was superb as always. One of my favourite audiobook narrators.
June 24, 2017
I borrowed this from my local library as an audio book. Listening to this lady's account of what the 5 generations of her family went through made it even more harrowing for me than reading it. I was in tears a few times as it was almost unbelievable what this family endured. The day to day struggles to survive just amazed me and made me ashamed that I complain about what seems mundane things now. It is so well written too. I listened to it daily in and out of work in the car for my 45 minute commute there and back and wanted to just sit in my carpark and listen I was so engrossed in her account of events. This should be included in high schools as it is a difficult topic but one I feel should be known. Amazing family and highly recommended if you are interested in this topic. Sadly it is a true story and will stay with me for a while.
January 30, 2013
This book is 585 pages. At first it seems daunting to be able to read the whole book but the author draws the reader in from the start. The book is divided into three parts, each part better than the last one. For anyone who is into genealogy this is will be an interesting book for you. I liked it so much because the authors family overcame such adversity. It's not necessarily a feel good book in a way that you are rooting for the main character to survive as it is an impressive book about how God had his hand on this family. Take a chance, read this book. You won't be disappointed.
February 14, 2015
This book is an emotional journey for the reader. The story of Ms. Armstrong's family, in Poland between the late 1800s and end of WWII, traces several generations of her Jewish family, in a country that was not friendly to Jews. She was fortunate that her father and mother were survivors and ultimately relocated to Australia. Ms. Armstrong, after suppressing her childhood trauma for 50 years, returns to Poland to revisit the places she lived in, as a child. This trip, and writing her family's history, helps her to put the past to rest, as well as preserve it for future generations.
December 12, 2015
Wonderful
This story is full of family,love,courage,heartbreak,and joy. There were times when I needed a Kleenex and woke up with swollen eyes. I can't imagine going through what this family went through. Not knowing what happened to loved ones never seeing them again. I cannot fathom what some people can do in the worst way and others in the best,least selfish way.
This story is full of family,love,courage,heartbreak,and joy. There were times when I needed a Kleenex and woke up with swollen eyes. I can't imagine going through what this family went through. Not knowing what happened to loved ones never seeing them again. I cannot fathom what some people can do in the worst way and others in the best,least selfish way.
December 17, 2016
Best book I have read in a long time.
This book has advanced my understanding of the Holocaust, and how it could happen, how humans could turn on each other even when they had been friends and neighbors for generations. It doesn't justify action, but describes the daily life and events of descent towards a culture of death for Jews at that time in European history.
This book has advanced my understanding of the Holocaust, and how it could happen, how humans could turn on each other even when they had been friends and neighbors for generations. It doesn't justify action, but describes the daily life and events of descent towards a culture of death for Jews at that time in European history.
March 25, 2014
A very moving chronicle of the writer's family.
October 7, 2016
Multi-layer book about one Jewish family from the turn of the century, and through both world wars. Not an easy read, nor for the faint hearted. Worth every minute.
January 25, 2026
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mosaic: A Chronicle of Five Generations by Diane Armstrong — my first five star book of 2026. This book was published in 1998 in Australia first. Offered in the USA in 2010.
It’s such a remarkable book. Of course it’s a story of the Holocaust but so much more. Diane Armstrong has shared her family with us. Beginning with her grandfather, Daniel Baldinger and her grandmother, Lieba Spira. The story opens with her grandfather’s terrible dilemma. He is a devout Jew in Krakow, (southern) Poland in 1890. He loves his wife but she has been unable to bear him children. Married for ten years, 120 menstrual cycles, he is unhappy that he has no sons, no children. The Gemara said that a man must have sons to say the Kaddish prayer for him after he dies so that his soul can find eternal peace.
He does find someone else to marry. He is already 35, an acquaintance tells him of a shopkeeper with three daughters. Leonora, affectionately known as Lieba, would be a perfect match. The contract is drawn up; she doesn’t want to marry him, but a good Jewish first daughter certainly cannot disobey her parents.
It took them a couple years, but once she started bearing children. She didn’t stop. Twelve in all.
The author herself was born in Poland in 1939, the only daughter of her father, who was one of the younger sons in the Baldinger menagerie. She was a little girl when all the Jews started running for their lives. Her dad was a dentist, and they moved to a really rural area, where they posed as Catholics, went to Mass every Sunday.
This is a most amazing book, a chronicle of her grandparents, all her aunts and uncles, cousins: who survived and who did not, and how they are spread all over the world now. So amazing yet some incredibly sad parts.
An exceptional true story of family, courage and loss. And hope and survival. Great family photos and a great glossary of Yiddish and Polish words.
Highly recommend.
ATY Goodreads Challenge - 2026
Prompt #4 - a book that fits a prompt suggestion for this year that did not make the list (six word title)
Mosaic: A Chronicle of Five Generations by Diane Armstrong — my first five star book of 2026. This book was published in 1998 in Australia first. Offered in the USA in 2010.
It’s such a remarkable book. Of course it’s a story of the Holocaust but so much more. Diane Armstrong has shared her family with us. Beginning with her grandfather, Daniel Baldinger and her grandmother, Lieba Spira. The story opens with her grandfather’s terrible dilemma. He is a devout Jew in Krakow, (southern) Poland in 1890. He loves his wife but she has been unable to bear him children. Married for ten years, 120 menstrual cycles, he is unhappy that he has no sons, no children. The Gemara said that a man must have sons to say the Kaddish prayer for him after he dies so that his soul can find eternal peace.
He does find someone else to marry. He is already 35, an acquaintance tells him of a shopkeeper with three daughters. Leonora, affectionately known as Lieba, would be a perfect match. The contract is drawn up; she doesn’t want to marry him, but a good Jewish first daughter certainly cannot disobey her parents.
It took them a couple years, but once she started bearing children. She didn’t stop. Twelve in all.
The author herself was born in Poland in 1939, the only daughter of her father, who was one of the younger sons in the Baldinger menagerie. She was a little girl when all the Jews started running for their lives. Her dad was a dentist, and they moved to a really rural area, where they posed as Catholics, went to Mass every Sunday.
This is a most amazing book, a chronicle of her grandparents, all her aunts and uncles, cousins: who survived and who did not, and how they are spread all over the world now. So amazing yet some incredibly sad parts.
An exceptional true story of family, courage and loss. And hope and survival. Great family photos and a great glossary of Yiddish and Polish words.
Highly recommend.
ATY Goodreads Challenge - 2026
Prompt #4 - a book that fits a prompt suggestion for this year that did not make the list (six word title)
September 7, 2024
A mosaic is an apt description for a family tree and indeed parts of history.
It takes all kinds of pieces to mesh and assemble in a manner that makes it complete.
Diane shares a slice of her family history and the tumultuous times living through the Holocaust years in Europe.
Her grandfather was so determined to spread his seed as it were and have a large family.
He divorced his first wife after no babies were produced and then married a younger version.
This resulted in eleven children born.
Sadly his religious devotion prevented affection and denied the children of warm memories.
The war saw the family disperse and each one of them experienced the hateful and dangerous Hitler wrath.
Diane herself was a small child at the time and was hidden in an orphanage.
These life experiences shape the future and mould a mindset.
This is a huge read with many people to keep track of.
During her research trips she uncovered so many stories of horror, misfortune and even some of joy.
It’s well known that we saw the worst and best side of humanity and many family mosaics had to be re pieced together after it.
It also highlighted that ingenuity, luck and circumstance ensured that Hitler would never have succeeded in his vitriolic attempts to wipe the Jews out.
It takes all kinds of pieces to mesh and assemble in a manner that makes it complete.
Diane shares a slice of her family history and the tumultuous times living through the Holocaust years in Europe.
Her grandfather was so determined to spread his seed as it were and have a large family.
He divorced his first wife after no babies were produced and then married a younger version.
This resulted in eleven children born.
Sadly his religious devotion prevented affection and denied the children of warm memories.
The war saw the family disperse and each one of them experienced the hateful and dangerous Hitler wrath.
Diane herself was a small child at the time and was hidden in an orphanage.
These life experiences shape the future and mould a mindset.
This is a huge read with many people to keep track of.
During her research trips she uncovered so many stories of horror, misfortune and even some of joy.
It’s well known that we saw the worst and best side of humanity and many family mosaics had to be re pieced together after it.
It also highlighted that ingenuity, luck and circumstance ensured that Hitler would never have succeeded in his vitriolic attempts to wipe the Jews out.
March 5, 2018
review to follow
May 22, 2022
Having listened to the unabridged reading from audible.com, I will first comment on that version: There are so many relatives who make appearances or are referenced at some point in the book that it is hard sometimes to remember all, especially since the story jumps around in time. The printed book has extensive detailed diagrams of the family tree that the author recovered. Audible was remiss in not making this available to download, as they often do. If you want to listen, get a copy of these diagrams first and have a map of Poland handy as another reference. (You can view them if you "Look inside" the hardcover edition on amazon.com or request the sample of the Kindle edition.)
The narrator, Deidre Rubenstein, did a very good job, especially given the first person point of view of the author. She speaks British English (in the style of the BBC,) whereas the author, having emigrated to Australia from her native Poland at the age of 7, speaks Australian English. (I found a brief segment on youtube: Jewishnews TV bulletin: September 4, 2009, starting about 25 seconds in.)
The book is both a tale about various branches of the author's family tree as well as a personal journey to recapture her lost early childhood during the holocaust, having been born in Poland in 1939. Who were the people she met and knew at a young age? How have they contributed to the person that she has become? Given the devastation and destruction of European Jewry, it is amazing how many details of her family tree she was able to uncover. It illustrates her journalistic talent and experience. Through this effort, one obtains a vivid portrait of the lives of Polish Jews from the early 1900's through the 1950's. There are even some allusions to the role of Polish anti-Semitism in contemporary times. At the same time, there are depictions of numerous "righteous gentiles" who risked their own lives to help Jews in need.
Other reviewers have described its content and some of the details, and I will not repeat them. While for the most part enjoyable, the quality of the writing ranges from gripping and moving to deadly boring. It could have benefitted from a strong editor. The story could easily have been told in less than 500 pages instead of 600. Some events and thoughts are repeated verbatim, and some of her introspections are drawn out far too long. For example, her emotional difficulties dealing with the decline of her mother's health and, eventually, her death in Sydney, are not really so different from the experiences of many others who have had to become caregivers to one or more parent. However sad, it is really tangential to the book's thread, yet it drags on and on.
It is remarkable how many of her relatives survived the holocaust, an abnormally large percentage compared to the three million Polish Jews (90%) killed. Ironically, it probably reflected that many of her relatives were not really part of a closely knit family and often children were eager to leave home to seek their fortunes, sometimes elsewhere in Poland, sometimes further. This was especially true of the 11 children of Daniel and Lieba, of which her father was one.
The book reads like an historical novel except when she is relating her own impressions and experiences. Indeed, many of the specific events and conversations are clearly speculative, although having a basis in fact. This enhanced the reading and made for a much more interesting story than a narrative of the results of her research and interviews. She has a good sense of drama, and the ending is really a treat.
On the other hand, I sometimes wondered whether I was reading a composite of some people who may have existed or descriptions of meetings and events that never really occured. Her portraits of her near relatives seem realistic. She attributes to them positive qualities, such as generosity or cleverness, while, at the same time, indicating shortcomings, such as jealousy, selfishness, indifference, or miserliness; in other words, a typical extended family.
The narrator, Deidre Rubenstein, did a very good job, especially given the first person point of view of the author. She speaks British English (in the style of the BBC,) whereas the author, having emigrated to Australia from her native Poland at the age of 7, speaks Australian English. (I found a brief segment on youtube: Jewishnews TV bulletin: September 4, 2009, starting about 25 seconds in.)
The book is both a tale about various branches of the author's family tree as well as a personal journey to recapture her lost early childhood during the holocaust, having been born in Poland in 1939. Who were the people she met and knew at a young age? How have they contributed to the person that she has become? Given the devastation and destruction of European Jewry, it is amazing how many details of her family tree she was able to uncover. It illustrates her journalistic talent and experience. Through this effort, one obtains a vivid portrait of the lives of Polish Jews from the early 1900's through the 1950's. There are even some allusions to the role of Polish anti-Semitism in contemporary times. At the same time, there are depictions of numerous "righteous gentiles" who risked their own lives to help Jews in need.
Other reviewers have described its content and some of the details, and I will not repeat them. While for the most part enjoyable, the quality of the writing ranges from gripping and moving to deadly boring. It could have benefitted from a strong editor. The story could easily have been told in less than 500 pages instead of 600. Some events and thoughts are repeated verbatim, and some of her introspections are drawn out far too long. For example, her emotional difficulties dealing with the decline of her mother's health and, eventually, her death in Sydney, are not really so different from the experiences of many others who have had to become caregivers to one or more parent. However sad, it is really tangential to the book's thread, yet it drags on and on.
It is remarkable how many of her relatives survived the holocaust, an abnormally large percentage compared to the three million Polish Jews (90%) killed. Ironically, it probably reflected that many of her relatives were not really part of a closely knit family and often children were eager to leave home to seek their fortunes, sometimes elsewhere in Poland, sometimes further. This was especially true of the 11 children of Daniel and Lieba, of which her father was one.
The book reads like an historical novel except when she is relating her own impressions and experiences. Indeed, many of the specific events and conversations are clearly speculative, although having a basis in fact. This enhanced the reading and made for a much more interesting story than a narrative of the results of her research and interviews. She has a good sense of drama, and the ending is really a treat.
On the other hand, I sometimes wondered whether I was reading a composite of some people who may have existed or descriptions of meetings and events that never really occured. Her portraits of her near relatives seem realistic. She attributes to them positive qualities, such as generosity or cleverness, while, at the same time, indicating shortcomings, such as jealousy, selfishness, indifference, or miserliness; in other words, a typical extended family.
February 18, 2018
This was a long book, but did a fabulous job of depicting what it was really like to be a jewish family before, during and after the World War II. She wrote this as a history for her family. Sometimes it was hard to keep all the family members straight. I would recommend this as a good book to read if you are interested in this time period historically and if you are able to stick with something that wasn't written as entertainment.
December 29, 2025
Exceptional book that I listened to on Audible (almost 20 hours). The beginning of the book is a little slow as we learn about the history and extended family of the author Diane Armstrong. However, the riveting story of her life as a young girl hiding in Poland during the Holocaust is mesmerizing and a wonder how her parents managed all three of them to survive the constant document checking, searches, and locals turning Jews over to the Nazis. To paraphrase - In a year there are 365 days. In a day there are 24 hours. In an hour there are 60 minutes. In a minute there is an eternity - Imagining what she and her parents went through on an almost daily basis to escape capture is amazing. The family emigrates to Australia where the author grows up. The book skips to her trip back to Poland and Ukraine with her teenage daughter as the author tries to learn about her early childhood. The entire book is uplifting to see the spirit of people to live against all odds. The last hour and forty-five minutes of the book are so spiritually rewarding that I have listened to this section numerous times.
June 26, 2015
This was a second-hand book sale find of several years ago. I had read "In the Garden of Beasts" and "The Lost" (Mendelsohn) and a spate of other books to feed my growing desire for knowledge of the Jewish experience in the 20th century.
Similar to "The Lost," "Mosaic" tells of the author's search for information about her large family's history in Poland, beginning early in the century, through the savage experience of the Nazi occupation, and into the diaspora that followed. The author was born in Poland in 1940 and her family lived as "Catholics" until she was a child, when they escaped to Australia.
She talks to older family survivors and hears harrowing stories about not just Gestapo but neighbors who made the lives of Jews an ever-present, inescapable, life-and-death hell. When she is researching the book in Poland in the late 1990s, she sees anti-Semitic graffiti on her travels there.
I feel it is important to know about how, not that long ago, the human race manifested some ugly, ugly s**t, to help us understand the tribulations of the human condition to this day.
Similar to "The Lost," "Mosaic" tells of the author's search for information about her large family's history in Poland, beginning early in the century, through the savage experience of the Nazi occupation, and into the diaspora that followed. The author was born in Poland in 1940 and her family lived as "Catholics" until she was a child, when they escaped to Australia.
She talks to older family survivors and hears harrowing stories about not just Gestapo but neighbors who made the lives of Jews an ever-present, inescapable, life-and-death hell. When she is researching the book in Poland in the late 1990s, she sees anti-Semitic graffiti on her travels there.
I feel it is important to know about how, not that long ago, the human race manifested some ugly, ugly s**t, to help us understand the tribulations of the human condition to this day.
December 31, 2012
It took me a long time to get through Mosaic. I have to admit to almost giving up a few times especially in Part 1. It's more of a memoir, albeit an important one, since it follows a family through generations before WW1 to present. Much of it revolves around the Holocaust and how it affected the lives of the central family, the Baldinger's & their 11 children, cousins, aunts uncles. Lots of Polish names, which made it hard to keep the characters straight. Armstrong must be commended on her research of each of these family members from birth to adulthood and the challenges they lived through. She did a good job, but there was no real pace to the book to keep me going. It was like reading a diary – factual and chronological. Armstrong does a good job at showing the effects of the Holocaust on individual lives long after the war is over. I'm glad I finished it. Although it wasn't one of the more interesting books I've read on this topic, it is very still very important.
Read
August 2, 2009Mosaic: a Chronicle of Five Generations, by Diane Armstrong, narrated by Deidre Rubinstein, produced by Bolinda Audio, downloaded from audible.com. A.
Diane Armstrong, a well-known author in Australia, decided to undertake the project of tracing down her family’s history and Jewish heritage, beginning in Poland in Krakow in the 1890’s, going through the holocaust, and tracing surviving family members to the present time. Included are the stories told by all the family members Armstrong finds, letters and diaries from those gone, and includes Armstrong’s own life changing events at the time, including the death first of her father and later her mother. Also includes the developing dynamics with her own children and how being a holocaust survivor herself might relate to those dynamics. A very long book that I didn’t want to end. I wanted to continue to follow this family.
Diane Armstrong, a well-known author in Australia, decided to undertake the project of tracing down her family’s history and Jewish heritage, beginning in Poland in Krakow in the 1890’s, going through the holocaust, and tracing surviving family members to the present time. Included are the stories told by all the family members Armstrong finds, letters and diaries from those gone, and includes Armstrong’s own life changing events at the time, including the death first of her father and later her mother. Also includes the developing dynamics with her own children and how being a holocaust survivor herself might relate to those dynamics. A very long book that I didn’t want to end. I wanted to continue to follow this family.
October 25, 2010
Through meticulous research and interviews with surviving relatives, Armstrong chronicles her family’s history. Spanning five generations, Armstrong lovingly collects each story to piece together the life of her large Jewish family.
Surviving the holocaust, Armstrong’s parents and family members witnessed unimaginable horrors and lived daily with the fear of Hitler’s ‘final solution’. Despite the heart ache of losing friends and family, the survivors reveal their stories, peeling away the memories they kept hidden for decades.
Thought provoking, Mosaic is an important body of work, holding a mirror to cruelties individuals are capable of inflicting and the unflinching resilience of the human spirit. 4.5 stars
Surviving the holocaust, Armstrong’s parents and family members witnessed unimaginable horrors and lived daily with the fear of Hitler’s ‘final solution’. Despite the heart ache of losing friends and family, the survivors reveal their stories, peeling away the memories they kept hidden for decades.
Thought provoking, Mosaic is an important body of work, holding a mirror to cruelties individuals are capable of inflicting and the unflinching resilience of the human spirit. 4.5 stars
June 19, 2015
Mosaic by Diane Armstrong
The family memoir begins in Krakow Poland in 1890 and spans five generations of the Baldinger family. Diane Armstrong, the great-granddaughter of the patriarch Daniel Baldinger seamlessly put all the pieces together in a tightly woven account of the worst of possible conditions experienced at the hands of the Third Reich on the Jewish people. An amazing book about the legacy of the past and the impact it has on the future generations. Well written but like any multi-generational book it is sometimes hard to keep all the players straight. There is a family tree but on the kindle it is basically useless. Hard to put down. 5 stars
The family memoir begins in Krakow Poland in 1890 and spans five generations of the Baldinger family. Diane Armstrong, the great-granddaughter of the patriarch Daniel Baldinger seamlessly put all the pieces together in a tightly woven account of the worst of possible conditions experienced at the hands of the Third Reich on the Jewish people. An amazing book about the legacy of the past and the impact it has on the future generations. Well written but like any multi-generational book it is sometimes hard to keep all the players straight. There is a family tree but on the kindle it is basically useless. Hard to put down. 5 stars
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