By the close of World War II, six million Jews had been erased from the face of the earth. Those who escaped death lost their entire way of life. From a people with a long history of self-narration, survivors gathered in groups and wrote books—Yizkor books—documenting all that had been destroyed. Published to commemorate World Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jane Ziegelman’s new book ONCE THERE WAS A TOWN: The Memory Books of a Lost Jewish World (St. Martin’s Press, January 20, 2026) takes readers through the largely uncharted body of writing and the vanished world it depicts. The first trade reviews are in:
“For Jewish communities after the Holocaust, so-called Yizkor books were put together to recall the particulars of towns, the names of families, and the material culture of a vanished world. Ziegelman, author of 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement, brings together stories of her family to recreate the everyday experience of that world… “There is a poetry to this life,” and the author points out the possibilities of beauty in a time of want. …A moving collection of reminiscences of European Jewish life before the Holocaust.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Decades after immigrating to the U.S., Jane Ziegelman’s family’s hometown of Luboml—now in Ukraine, near the Polish border—still sat at the center of her family. Using Yizkor books, stories of lost towns put together by ordinary people, Ziegelman gives readers a true sense of Jewish life in the shtetl. While the focus is on where her family lived, she draws upon Yizkor books from other villages to paint a vivid picture of a world completely destroyed by the Holocaust… These Yizkor books demonstrate the importance of remembrance and storytelling in Jewish culture. Memories of love and family show the beauty that existed even under the most difficult circumstances.” —Booklist
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MARCIE MAXFIELD is the author of Em’s Awful Good Fortune, which received the NYC Big Book Award for Contemporary Novel, the Independent Author Network (IAN) Book of the Year Award in Women’s Fiction, and the Foreword INDIES Silver Award in Humor. Her play Girls Together Always received an ENCORE! Producers’ Award at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Originally from Detroit, Maxfield now calls Southern California her home.
