
The Baker of Lost Memories
Shirley Russak Wachtel
June 1, 2025 Little A
317 pages
In the days leading up to Yom Hashoa, Holocaust Remembrance Day, I saw many reminders that living survivors of the Holocaust are dwindling. I don’t dispute the importance of documenting these first hand accounts while we still can, but I would like to contend that we have generations of survivors yet to come. Because in some way, a lot of us are still surviving what happened to our parents and grandparents, still living in the long shadow the Holocaust casts over us. In The Baker of Lost Memories by Shirley Rusaak Wachtel we see this second hand trauma play out.
Lena is growing up in Brooklyn, the second daughter of parents who have survived both the camps and the loss of their previous child. The first section of the book takes us back to the Łódź ghetto where we experience the unthinkable cruelty they endured. It’s the kind of thing I don’t often read due to personal trauma, but I wasn’t expecting it in here and I had already committed so I shouldered my way through. After that, the book changes tone as we learn what it is like for Lena to spend her formative years carrying the weight of that past.On the outside, Lena has what most people would consider a charmed existence. She certainly doesn’t face the persecution her parents did. Yet still, something is not quite right. Her parents can’t love another child in the same way after their experiences in the ghetto and camps. They can’t move on, and Lena can’t help but trip over their memories. Even the simple act of Lena baking a cake inadvertently reminds her mother of the past, triggering a spiral of sadness that threatens to consume them all. Lena feels she is never enough, and really how could she be? Nobody could fill the void in her parents hearts. Which might explain why such a bright young lady makes such awful choices. The second half of the book follows Lena as she gets married, drops out of college, and opens a bakery. While she is afraid of failing in her parents eyes, they are equally afraid of being rejected by her. Indeed, she goes ballistic on them for even daring to ask that she check in once a week to let them know she’s still alive. Meanwhile they worry the way only Holocaust survivor parents can. They are generous, they are caring, but their communication is seriously lacking. They all talk both too much and too little without truly discussing what actually matters. It’s a pattern that many survivor children will recognize. The main issue I had with this book was the disconnect between the cover copy and what was found in the pages. We are told Lena has everything she ever wanted – a wonderful man and a thriving business – meanwhile Lena never wanted a bakery and the reader never sees her fall in love with her husband, probably because she never did. We see this relationship for the abusive codependency it is right from the start and are exasperated by Lena’s inability to do so. The “surprise” the cover copy promises is evident to the reader several chapters in. Plus, nothing gives you the hint that you will be experiencing many chapters in the ghetto and even the camps. I would have entered this book with a different mind set had I known what I was actually getting into. I suggest avoiding the cover copy altogether. It’ll make for a better reading experience. Lena ends up being a survivor in many ways, including carrying a lot of her parents pain. For anyone wondering if there will still be survivors left in a decade, the answer can be found in The Baker of Lost Memories. We are all surviving in our own imperfect ways. Sometimes it’s the only thing we can do.Note: BookishlyJewish received an ARC of this book from the publisher