I Am Because Of You
By Miriam Dobin
Miriam Dobin has taken a piece of her heart and shared it with us in her book, I Am Because of You. The purpose of her story is two-fold: to share with people the real-life stories of the Holocaust as witnessed by her immediate family, and to honor her family for the efforts it took to raise a child in a new country, after a time of such devastation.
In her book, Dobin gives a detailed history about both her mother’s and father’s family lives prior to the Holocaust, their struggles of survival during their captivity in the concentration camps and how their lives reconnected after the end of the war. It also explains how they managed, by nothing less than a miracle, to have a baby girl at an advanced age – in a time when this was extremely unusual. Dobin was raised mainly by her aunt and uncle due to the failing health of her mother, and she recounts how her life was so different from most other children growing up around her due to her responsibilities to her family. Dobin’s devotion to her family forced her to grow up fast, and with a sense of love and commitment to her religion that she not only has passed along to several generations in her own family, but to all of the students whom she has taught.
Dobin writes this book not only for her family, but for all victims and survivors who have similar stories but have no one else to tell them. There are many Holocaust books to choose from, but this story is unique in that it is written by a writer who has not actually lived through the devastation, but learned of it second hand, yet with an insider’s view. She highlights the four very special people in her life as her heroes, and within all of her description of them, she makes the reader feel like they really know them on a personal level.
The real life events that Dobin describes in her book brings joy to your face an.d tears to your eyes in all of the right places. You can feel the love that she had for her family and the bonds that these catastrophic events built that kept this family together. She has brought a very unique and honest story to life for the reader to enjoy.
I Am Because of You is filled with authentic documents, maps, pictures and handwritten postcards from Dobin’s family dating back to the early 1900s through 1943. Scattered within the book, they all help to bring her story together and make the reader realize how close this was to all of us. Her book ends with a trip to Slovakia and Western Ukraine where she meets old neighbors who remember her family all these years later. The reality and coincidence of this occurrence is sure to bring chills to your spine and leave you feeling like she has given meaning back to all of her family that was lost, but never forgotten.
The book can be purchased at several New York area bookstores, on Amazon.com. More info on www.iambecauseofyou.net.