Finding Home
by: Dean Cycon
June 13, 2023 Koehler books
378 pages
Review by: Marcia Plant Jackson
I grew up on New York’s Lower East Side, and my father served in the US Army during WWII. Dean Cycon’s novel, Finding Home (Hungary 1945) is a story of the holocaust era that is not often discussed. It is poignant to consider what kind of homecoming the death-camp survivors experienced. The reader sympathizes with their suffering, but also admires Jewish resolve and perseverance despite the bewildering obstacles they had to confront.
Finding Home is a soulful narrative about the lives of several holocaust survivors traveling home from a displaced persons’ camp (after being in a Nazi concentration camp during the war). Six survivors are seeking out familiar places and links to a hopeful future, a new phase of their lives. Their destination is their village in Hungary. Eva Fleiss, (a teenager who is a pianist), Yossel Roth (a baker), Oskar Lazar (the butcher), Mendel and Herschel Fischer (farmers), and Naftali, a Hassid who came from a neighboring Shtetl community.
Cycon narrates interwoven stories of four of these six extensively, based on years of research and study of historical post-war conditions. (The Fischer brothers are not followed as much as the other four.) Starting their lives over, traveling by cattle car in a train from defeated Germany, these survivors head home to Laszlo, a Hungarian village. Cycon captures well the feelings of bewildered survivors needing food, shelter and clothing, and rediscovering the place where they used to live.
How does a village reabsorb, and integrate returning inhabitants? How do secular authorities plan and assist returning survivors? Some in Hungary suggested forming reservations, similar to America’s reservations for Native Americans. How does a village reach its previous functioning state, the order of society, with Jewish professionals gone—such as dentist, doctor, accountant, lawyer. Some villagers are faced with awkward situations of survivors demanding the return of buildings and land taken over by non-Jews when the Jewish owners were sent away. Re-opening the old synagogue as a “cultural center” is a shocking idea to some at first, but a real possibility in Laszlo village. It serves a cultural purpose and continues a role of usefulness to the community, even now when the number of Jewish villagers has become so small.
Loss of home, and homecoming, are deep themes in literature, from the hero-traveler Ulysses’ return, to the Epics of other cultures, with stories of families in long-term exiles. Some attempts at starting life over again fail or only partially answer felt needs. Herschel and Mendel Fischer, the farmers, wonder if joining the Zionist movement and setting out for Palestine will help them start over. Yossel wonders if he should go with them when his attempts to re-open his bakery fail.
Cycon researched and re-imagined thoroughly the vital elements of the Hungarian village, and individual villagers’ experiences there. Immersing himself in interviews, written memoirs and telling the stories of exiled Jews, he has written a book with empathy and knowledge of human nature, and a dedicated love of storytelling. This is a project of learning, memory and reflections, celebrating, recounting the experiences of a people, sharing with others and new generations what it meant to be a returning Jew in Hungary after the war.
Being a musician was Eva’s way of attaining relief and achievements, and forgetfulness of life’s disappointments. Whatever her troubles, Eva persisted in making music. Interruptions and losses were passing clouds as she practiced, finding solace and peace of mind in producing heavenly sounds. Learning to turn pain into deep meaning and grace beyond the transient sufferings, Eva came to know success.
The spirit of this novel is encouraging and celebratory, despite the darkness of Nazism during the time being depicted, a darkness that clouded entire nations and took so many good lives. This book honors the past and the souls who played their parts in making meaningful life possible parenting, cooking food, creating culture, farming, cultivating learning and practicing arts and crafts. The story presents a dynamic continuum of lives facing challenges, finding their way in a perilous world. It nurtures meaning and hopeful examples of tradition for Jewish readers and the larger human community as well .
Note: the reviewer received a free copy of the book from the author.
Marcia Plant Jackson is a retired Family Nurse Practitioner. She enjoys life in the beautiful Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts.