powerpoint assignment

1. Bernice Eisenstein
“I was a child of Holocaust Survivors”
by dennis smith

2. Personal Life
• Bernice Eisenstein was born in 1949,
Toronto Ontario.
• Bernice lives in Toronto with her
husband and two children.
• Her parent’s were peddlers who spoke
Yiddish, they moved to Toronto shortly
before Bernice was born.
• The photo to the right shows Bernice
with her husband.

3. career
• Bernice is a artist whose
illustrations have appeared
in a number of magazines
and periodicals.
• She has worked as a
freelance editor
• She occasionally writes book
reviews for the Globe and
Mail.

4. Works
• “I was a child of Holocaust
Survivors” is perhaps
Bernice Eisenstein’s only
widely known, published
piece of work. It was
published September 2007
by Ellen Seligman of
McClelland and Stewart.

5. Related Works
• Ann Marie Fleming produced an
animated film based on Bernice
Eisenstein’s memoir “I was a child of
Holocaust survivors.” This film blends
together Bernice’s drawings, animation
and her voice.
• The film includes both an animated
storyline, and an interview with Ann
Fleming.

6. Artwork

7. Reviews
• “Canadian Jewish News” reviews: “A uniquely gripping articulation of the heart. . . .
An emotional and aesthetic triumph.”
• “Quill and Quire” reviews: “ Beautifully conceived and constructed, intimate and
engrossing.”
• Molly Peacock from the “Globe and Mail” said: “The most lucid, funny, moving
book I encountered in the year 2006. . . remarkable. . .
• “Publishers Weekly” reviewed: “Eisenstein is a gifted artist as well as a wordsmith.”
• The “Toronto Star” reviewed the book as: “moving, funny, utterly compelling.”

8. Reviews #2
• “AOL books” reviewed: “Through her vivid prose and stunning
illustrations, Eisenstein crafts a tale that is emotionally rich and
visually arresting....this moving, searingly honest testament speaks to
the universality of memory and loss. Anyone who reads this book
will be deeply haunted by its beautiful, highly evocative writing and
its brilliantly original and haunting artwork.”
• The “Globe and Mail” also said: “[Her figures] have a distinctive
look and the cartoonish style allows her people to look
simultaneously funny, poignant and noble....With her words and
pictures working together, Eisenstein captures the insular world her
parents shared with their group of other Holocaust
survivors....Some of her descriptions will haunt me”

9. Awards and
accomplishments
• "I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors"
was shortlisted for the Giller Prize
• Also, her book was nominated for the
20th annual trillium book award.
• She was a finalist for the 2006 Borders
Original Voices for Non-Fiction.
• She was the winner of the Jack Chisvin
Family Award in Holocaust Memoir/
Literature.

10. Analysis

11. What makes this a
memoir?
• “I was a child of Holocaust survivors” is book of non-fiction called a memoir. It is a
personal story told from ones life touching on intimate feelings, memories, and
emotions. A memoir is how one remembers one’s life.
• Unlike an Autobiography a memoir describes scenes in one’s life, not every fact, only
particularly meaningful happenings. A memoir explores certain aspects in depth and
connects with the reader in the sense that the memoir “really happened.”
• A memoir gives the author a chance to look back on their past. They describe
moments in their life to the reader, and then use their present voice to reflect on their
past situations. While reflecting on such things the author could include thoughts
about decisions they’ve made, things they’d change/do differently or any inside
information they wish to share.

12. Historical Context
• This memoir covers the early years of Bernice’s
childhood. She tells her story mainly beginning when
she was eleven years old, this would be the year 1950.
• In the 1950’s tons of historical events occurred, many
that shape life today. In 1950 (June 25) the cold war
began. The war was a result of the division of Korea
and on June 25 North Korean forces invaded South
Korea. It was the first significant conflict of the Cold
war. “According to the data from the US Department
of Defence, the United States had suffered 33,686
battle deaths, along with 2,830 non-battle deaths
during the Korean War and 8,176 missing in action”
• In 1953 (July 27) an armistice was signed agreeing that
both parties would stop fighting. Because this war was
based more on control and financial resources it is
hard to determine who actually won the Cold war.
Some say the United States and some say The Soviet
Union.

13. Historical Content
• In 1950 the first modern credit card was introduced.
• In 1951 the first colour T.V. was introduced.
• In 1952 car seat belts were introduced.
• In 1953 DNA was discovered.
• In 1954 the first Atomic Submarine was launched. Also a report states that cigarettes cause cancer.
• In 1955 Disneyland opens and the Mcdonald’s corporation was founded.
• In 1956 Velcro was introduced.
• In 1957 Dr.Suess’s “Cat In the Hat” was published
• In 1958 NASA was founded.

14. Summary
• Bernice begins her memoir by telling us what she learned over the years about her
father.
• She then shifts to tell us about her mother and her life.
• One major relation between her mother, father and the holocaust can be told by the
story of a golden band ring. When Bernice’s mother worked at a storehouse in
Canada (a place where they confiscated possessions of the jews) she was feeling very
cold one day. She worked up the nerve to ask a guard if she could take a coat from a
heap of so many, the guard said yes. As her mother slipped her hands into the coat
pockets she felt something sewn into the lining, she managed to slip out the pocket a
golden ring. She hid this ring in her shoe and was able to keep it with her until the
end of the war. That was the ring she would give to her husband when they married
shortly after liberation. It was all she gave to him and he wore it forever. Now as
Bernice tells us in the memoir, her mother passes the ring along to her. “It belongs to
my image of him (her father) as he lay dying.”

15. Sumarry
• Bernice leaves her house in Toronto Ontario shortly after her father dies.
• She was forced to move to Braemore Gardens which is a hospital. This room fit seven
people being Bernice, her sister, brother, her mother and 3 cousins.
• A few years later Bernice her mother and brother decided to join an organized trip
back tot he holy land of Auschwitz.
• After a few years Bernice could not take living in Auschwitz any longer. So she moved
to the Suburbs with her grandparents, her aunt and uncle and their to sons. She tells
us that her grandparents house was silent most of the time. Her grandfather barely
spoke and her grandmother had Alzheimer's disease, she was kind of loopy.

16. Summary
• Towards the end of the 1960’s Bernice’s grandparents moved to an apartment in the
sunny state of Florida. Bernice actually lived in her grandparents house alone for a
year or so, and then moved out.
• Bernice then moved to Jerusalem for a short time
• So then Bernice moved back to Toronto on her own. She started to attend university
which is where she met a man, who turned out to become her husband.
• Her and her husband then had a baby boy. They have been living in Toronto ever
since, as a family.

17. Purpose of memoir
• Bernice’s memoir first came about when she began to do portraits of her father. She
sais “I found that while involved in capturing his likeness, his physical semblage, the
process kept me close to my father, as I remembered him, and how I had missed him
since he had died.” The writing came later when Bernice decided to expand upon
what she understood visually.
• As the memoir came together Bernice began to realize much about her father, she
began to make connections to him that she had never thought of before. Bernice
shares insight to her book saying this, “It was comforting, and at the same combined
with a mix of emotions that not only hovered but took me further into trying to put
my father together.”

18. Voice and Tone
• While reading this memoir I noticed that Bernice’s voice can be very dark at times.
The metaphor’s she uses are very grim at points but, they seem to fit the context of
her life very accurately. Bernice relates the drug “heroin” to herself, the Holocaust,
and even to literature and film. “Reels of film, along with printed pages from books,
could all be chopped up into a fine powder, laid down, row upon row, and snorted.”
That is the type of grim language I’m talking about. Here is metaphorical quote from
her memoir as well, “The Holocaust is a drug and I have entered an opium den.”
• Bernice’s tone is often depressing, even at times when she is looking on the bright side
of her misfortunes, you can sense an underlying tension. Like in this quote “There
were minutes, days months, when my addiction subsided, crawled back into my skin,
and I had no need to see The Man for another dose. But the craving is there, it is
always there. I’m tied to it.”

19. Truth or Fiction
• Bernice’s memoir is very truthful. When she talks about her father you get the idea
that he was a stern man, and his opinions and views on life were not to be taken
lightly, especially when raising Bernice. Her father would not hold back about the
truths in life whether they are good or bad. Bernice sais “I never doubted the fierce
love my father had for me, but their were times when I longed for a simpler, less
heroic expression of it.” She wished that he would kind of “loosen up”, She longed
for a conversation to have with him beyond declarations. In saying that Bernice sais
“Perhaps then he might have trusted that I could find my own way in what he knew
to be a difficult world.”

20. Theme
• This Memoir contains a theme involving memory, loss
and a women’s will to recover the past.
• I think that this quote fits the theme of the memoir very well, “I am lost in memory. It is not a place that has been
mapped, fixed by coordinates of longitude and latitude, whereby I can retrace a step and come to the same place
again. Each time is different...”
• I also like the quote “There is no centre to be found in memory, but each place holds its heartbeat.”

21. Defining the Author
• I would define Bernice Eisenstein as a compassionate character. Her love for both her parents and literature is so
strong, its amazing. It seems like she had never taken her parents love for granted, when her parents and her did
not see eye to eye she wouldn’t just get angry or stubborn. It seems as if she would put herself in her parents shoes
and try to figure out what they were thinking, doing that shows a great amount of respect to me.
• The quote “The sense of companionship that I first felt when I held a book in my hands, before even opining it,
has never left me” shows Bernice’s compassion for literature. She said “I read voraciously, anything and
everything, and shortly after one book was closed I’d pick up another.” She can’t get enough.
• I thought this memoir was okay. I am interested in the holocaust so I thought this book would be great,
informative and juicy. It turns out this book did not have much information on the holocaust so that was kind of a
let down. Also Bernice did not talk much about herself, she talked more about her mother and father, and gave
detailed information about them more than herself. I was looking forward to receiving more detail about Bernice
because I wanted to read about a young person and they’re struggles throughout this time period. But overall I
enjoyed this book, I also loved the illustrations, Bernice is a very talented Illustrator. “When I was young my
mother an I used to walk together and she’d hold my hand.” “She always looked straight ahead while I stared at
the ground.” I used those quotes to show that Bernice gives more information about her family than herself.

22. references
• Ulike 2010 referenced from- http://www.ulike.net/Bernice_Eisenstein
• The Cooke Agency (Fri, April 30th 2010) referenced from- http://www.cookeagency.ca/books/Eisenstein-B_I-
Was-a-Child-of-Holocaust-Survivors.htm#rightssold
• http://www.mcclelland.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780771030642&view=print
• National film board of canada (2009-09-28) http://www.nfb.ca/playlist/i-was-child-holocaust-survivors/
• Part 1 of Ann Fleming’s Film (animation) http://www.nfb.ca/playlists/i-was-child-holocaust-survivors/viewing/
i_was_child_holocaust_survivor_clip_1/
• About the Film with Ann Fleming (Interview) http://www.nfb.ca/playlists/i-was-child-holocaust-survivors/
viewing/i_was_a_child_of_holocaust_survivors_about/
• http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1950timeline.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War
• http://www.panmacmillan.com/displayPage.asp?PageID=4247
• http://graphicdetailstheshow.wordpress.com/about-the-artists/

23. Artwork References
• These four links are very long, to long in fact to fit in my previous reference section. So I have made a reference
page devoted to Bernice’s artwork alone.
• http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.kofflerarts.org/site_images/GraphicDetails_BerniceEisenstein_page74_web.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.kofflerarts.org/Whats-On/Event-Detail/%3Frecordid
%3D146&usg=__0x0JR3sAR9iOts1x5uOdgN_bTbU=&h=594&w=457&sz=71&hl=en&start=0&sig2=GGMnKIKnLC7AnGLG0JceHg&zoom=1&tbnid=v3fy1iR5Hal1cM:&tbnh=146&tbnw=113&ei=khWVTc3PEovt4gb6q
amZDA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbernice%2Beisenstein%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1223%26bih%3D608%26tbs%3Disch:
1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=242&vpy=53&dur=126&hovh=256&hovw=197&tx=99&ty=138&oei=aBWVTcOCCdCXtweIxeH_Cw&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0
• http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://cujah.com/static/photologue/photologue/display/fig_3_eisenstein.jpg&imgrefurl=http://cujah.com/publications/volume-vi/visualizing-memory-graphic-novel/
&usg=__XHGNJzPsPjZ2O54ifST6rWglblg=&h=307&w=214&sz=9&hl=en&start=0&sig2=Fddn5wcdCUszZu8qPcnyCA&zoom=1&tbnid=aWQozvsS7yBUmM:&tbnh=155&tbnw=108&ei=khWVTc3PEovt4gb6qamZDA&pr
ev=/images%3Fq%3Dbernice%2Beisenstein%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1223%26bih%3D608%26tbs%3Disch:
1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=141&vpy=220&dur=621&hovh=245&hovw=171&tx=91&ty=123&oei=aBWVTcOCCdCXtweIxeH_Cw&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0
• http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://graphicdetailstheshow.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/childholocaust.jpg&imgrefurl=http://graphicdetailstheshow.wordpress.com/about-the-artists/
&usg=__QJAaWGuZXqhtjNUn2iWbfWe1xio=&h=204&w=170&sz=11&hl=en&start=0&sig2=ZALPzXqSW7_JsM9lI0ydJw&zoom=1&tbnid=49pvdPTAMRFIfM:&tbnh=155&tbnw=129&ei=khWVTc3PEovt4gb6qamZDA&
prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbernice%2Beisenstein%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1223%26bih%3D608%26tbs%3Disch:
1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=254&vpy=261&dur=162&hovh=163&hovw=136&tx=81&ty=82&oei=aBWVTcOCCdCXtweIxeH_Cw&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0
• http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://media1.nfb.ca/medias/nfb_tube/thumbs_small/2010/I-was-a-child_trailer-small.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nfb.ca/playlist/i-was-child-holocaust-survivors/
&usg=__7l5ZBKGqx8KCz64rz726w0DOe5k=&h=115&w=204&sz=5&hl=en&start=19&sig2=J0LS25Kbd3g4ZmQPr5v6_g&zoom=1&tbnid=7COMD7mAcOSoSM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=163&ei=RxiVTcXDEYyz4gbrpu3nDA
&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbernice%2Beisenstein%2Bartwork%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1223%26bih%3D608%26tbs%3Disch:
10%2C384&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=731&vpy=278&dur=191&hovh=92&hovw=163&tx=18&ty=9&oei=PhiVTc-eHMWftgf9q_2KDA&page=2&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:19&biw=1223&bih=608