“Painful Joy” is a book published in April 2022 and available on Amazon, represents five years of intensive research in the U.S., Poland, Sweden, Israel and Germany, by author Max Friedman, as he seeks to unearth and understand the real life stories of his parents, Sam and Frieda, two poor Polish Jews. In the process he discovers their roots, recreates their lives and times and uncovers both their remarkable journeys and painful secrets. Part memoir, part genealogical mystery and part history, the book is an absorbing, heartwarming and, at times, heartbreaking saga as readers accompany the author on his extraordinary exploration of the complicated relationship between two Holocaust survivors who meet in Sweden after their liberation from Bergen-Belsen, and experience the “painful joy” of a love too often touched by death. It explores questions of survival, the ability to reimagine memories in order to deal with the truth, and what it was like growing up in a world that was never to be “normal.”
For more, go to https://maxfriedman.net/