On the Shores of Darkness: The Memoir of Esther Kemeny

On the Shores of Darkness is the personal account of one woman's harrowing journey from her early years in eastern Slovakia to the new life she made for herself in postwar America. Written in spare, near-poetic prose, the author documents a life marked by loss, poverty, separation, tragedy, and violence and reveals a deep reservoir of courage and strength as she confronts the horrors of the Nazi regime. She begins her story quite simply, describing the daily routine of rustic life in the early 20th century in her hometown of Michalovce, Slovakia, and the struggles she faced growing up a poor Jewish girl.

Kemeny was the first woman from Michalovce to earn a law degree, and, as her bittersweet story unfolds, was one of only a small percentage of Slovak Jews to survive the Nazi death camps. Barely stopping to comment on the circumstances she was forced to endure, the author's most horrific journey begins when she, as a pregnant newlywed, is deported to Auschwitz along with her brilliant husband George and her self-sacrificing mother-in-law Jolan. Throughout her ordeals, Kemeny demonstrates again and again her will to survive so that she may one day reunite with her beloved husband, from whom she was immediately separated upon arrival at Auschwitz. In addition to surviving deprivation and cruelty at Auschwitz, the author describes the brutal death march she was forced to make to Ravensbruck and the grueling hard labor at gunpoint she endured at Neustadt-Glewe.

Yet, Kemeny's emotional story does not end with the war: she goes on to recount her dramatic multi-city quest to try to find her husband after liberation and documents the trials and tribulations of living in postwar communist Czechoslovakia and the event that led her to quickly flee to America.

Many readers of this memoir will be most moved by the poignant, deeply romantic letters Kemeny includes in her memoir, letters translated from her husband's private journal that were written for his lost wife after their separation at Auschwitz.

The memoir also includes photographs from the author's personal collection and several small drawings by George Kemeny's brother, Vavro Oravec, himself an Auschwitz survivor and an acclaimed artist, whose paintings include portraits of Kafka, Proust, Modigliani, Chagall, and Klee.