Helen Joyce uses her real-life family histories as the basis of her semi-history, semi-novel that traces the traumatic impact of 20th-century politics on a Jewish family.
German troops entering Warsaw after surrender of city in 1939.(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)ByNEVILLE TELLER
The title of Helen Joyce’s Good for a Single Journey is lifted from the visa her mother obtained from British Passport Control in Prague just a month before the start of World War II. It would be wrong to assume that her book is therefore simply an account of the impact of that war on her family. Its scope is far wider, and its nature more ambitious. In an intriguing mix of fact and fiction, Joyce uses her real-life family histories, going back to her great-grandparents, as the basis of her semi-history, semi-novel that traces the traumatic impact of the politics of the 20th century on a Jewish family. It will resonate with many families whose experiences also encompassed those momentous years.
She begins her family saga at the start of WW I. The Spiegels are living in the Polish territory of Galicia, which lies in the path of the Russians as they invade. Mindful of the pogroms that are an abiding feature of Russian rule, the Spiegels, together with thousands of other Jewish families, decide to flee to Vienna. From this point, Joyce traces the varying fortunes of the Spiegels as they unfold against the backdrop of world events over which ordinary people had no control.
Helpfully, she heads each of her 31 chapters with a résumé of the major world events that occur during the period she covers. This device, a useful aide-memoire for the reader, sets her family saga firmly within its political and historic context. Her story runs from September 1914 to April 1962. Her 48-year panorama incorporates the first war and its aftermath, the rise of the Nazis, the WW II, and the establishment of the State of Israel. Some of these events impact directly on family members, some less so.
The Nazi regime left the Spiegels, as it left so many Jewish families, decimated. Joyce describes movingly and with compassion the effect on the survivors, and their efforts to heal wounds and rebuild lives.
In a four-generation family history covering such an expanse of time and encompassing such traumatic events, the people involved necessarily experience a whole gamut of emotions – love, loyalty, courage, hope, despair, bereavement, and much more. Writing with deep understanding, Joyce produces a book imbued with feeling and empathy about her forebears.
DAVID BEN-GURION reads the Declaration of Independence on Friday, May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv. (credit: HANS PINN/GPO)
The family story that inspired the book
I asked Joyce what had led her to researching and writing about her family.
“My mother suffered from depression,” she explained, “but she used to talk to us at length about her experiences. Her vivid memories lodged in my mind. I had long wanted to make sense of my mother’s life, to document what she went through. The problem was where and when to start.
“When I began my research, I realized that in some way, my family’s journey was a metaphor for Zionist history. My great-grandparents’ flight from Galicia at the start of the First World War was a useful springboard. Later, Europe and the Middle East were completely reshaped. Understanding that period is crucial to understanding the foundations of the State of Israel. I wanted to bring largely forgotten events alive in a readable and engaging way.”
I asked her how she discovered the facts surrounding her family.
“My late uncle collated letters between family members in Europe and Palestine from the 1930s onwards,” she explained. “They yielded not only facts but also the deep sense of the desperation to escape and reach safety. Another valuable source of information was the autobiography written by my mother’s cousin Yitzchak. His description of exile to Siberia, where his father and my great-grandparents met their deaths, and his own flight to Palestine were invaluable links in the chain.”
I asked Joyce if there was any incident or episode that induced her to pick up her pen and start.
“My husband and I made aliyah ten years ago,” she said, “joining our son and the four grandchildren we had at that time. In 2019 we took our youngest granddaughter to Vienna on a special trip to mark her bat mitzvah. While there, I felt my mother’s presence hovering at my shoulder and whispering in my ear. When I returned, I knew I must finally start the book I had long imagined.”
In Good for a Single Journey, Helen Joyce has produced an absorbing history. By writing in depth about the life and times of a particular Jewish family, she has succeeded in encapsulating the experiences of many. This is a book that will mean a great deal to a great many Jewish people. ■
Good for a Single Journey Helen Joyce Amsterdam Publishers, 2023 $19.95, 348 pages
