The Girl in the Red Coat: A MemoirAs a child in German-occupied Poland, Roma Ligocka was known for the bright strawberry-red coat she wore against a tide of gathering darkness. Fifty years later, Roma, an artist living in Germany, attended a screening of Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, and instantly knew that “the girl in the red coat”—the only splash of color in the film—was her. Thus began a harrowing journey into the past, as Roma Ligocka sought to reclaim her life and put together the pieces of a shattered childhood. The result is this remarkable memoir, a fifty-year chronicle of survival and its aftermath. With brutal honesty, Ligocka recollects a childhood at the heart of evil: the flashing black boots, the sudden executions, her mother weeping, her father vanished…then her own harrowing escape and the strange twists of fate that allowed her to live on into the haunted years after the war. Powerful, lyrical, and unique among Holocaust memoirs, The Girl in the Red Coat eloquently explores the power of evil to twist our lives long after we have survived it. It is a story for anyone who has ever known the darkness of an unbearable past—and searched for the courage to move forward into the light. |
Contents
Section 1 | 1 |
Section 2 | 9 |
Section 3 | 17 |
Section 4 | 30 |
Section 5 | 47 |
Section 6 | 73 |
Section 7 | 91 |
Section 8 | 103 |
Section 13 | 201 |
Section 14 | 218 |
Section 15 | 231 |
Section 16 | 247 |
Section 17 | 255 |
Section 18 | 268 |
Section 19 | 269 |
Section 20 | 282 |
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Common terms and phrases
afraid Amon Göth anymore apartment Auschwitz beautiful blond boots child coat cold colorful comes dark David door dress everything eyes face father feel film floor friends front garden German Ghetto grandmother grown-ups hair hand head hear hiding Jakob Jewish Jews Kiernikowa Kierniks kitchen Kraków Kraków Ghetto laughs leave Ligocka little girl live look Mama Manuela Marika Rökk Marynia Mazel tov mother says never nice night nods pills Płaszów play Poland Polish Poziomka pulls ring Roma Roman Ryszard Rzeszów Sabine Secret Garden shtetl sighs Sławo sleep smells smiles someone stairs Stalin stand stare stay street Suddenly suitcase talk tell Teofila theater there's things Tosia turn Vienna vodka voice walk Warsaw wearing whispers Wierzynek Wiesław window woman young Zakopane Zbigniew Herbert