The Refugee Family

One Woman's Journey from Russian Pogrom to American Freedom"My life began with tragedy. I was the killer. I killed my mother."So begins the extraordinary memoir of Rose Brodsky, born in Kiev, Russia, in 1878, the child who arrived as her mother departed this world.From the brutal pogroms of Tsarist Russia to the stinking steerage of an immigrant ship, from the crowded refugee camps of Brody to the coal-heated cottages of Pennsylvania, this is the true story of a family's desperate escape from persecution and their hard-won battle for survival in America.Forced to flee the Black Hundreds, savage mobs who murdered and looted with government approval, Rose's family crossed borders in darkness, hid in barns with starving children, and crossed the Atlantic with nothing but hope and each other.What followed is a testament to human endurance: child labor, poverty, arranged marriage, and the slow, painful process of becoming American while never forgetting where they came from."This book is dedicated to all those who are no longer with us to read this."A sweeping family saga. An immigrant's prayer. An American story.