Something beautiful happened : a story of survival and courage in the face of evil
(2017)

Nonfiction

Book

Call Numbers:
MEMOIR/CORPORON,Y

Availability

Locations Call Number Status
Biography & Memoir MEMOIR/CORPORON,Y Available

Details

PUBLISHED
New York, NY : Howard Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2017
©2017
EDITION
First Howard Books hardcover edition
DESCRIPTION

xiv, 305 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), portraits ; 24 cm

ISBN/ISSN
9781501161117, 1501161113
LANGUAGE
English
NOTES

Introduction. They weren't really gone after all -- We loved them like sisters -- The Jews of Corfu -- You are orphans now -- Pass the lamb. We saved the Jews. -- Papa Savvas, the Jewish tailor of Corfu -- The nightly knock at the door -- Yia-yia never told -- -- Searching for Savvas -- Righteous among the nations -- Whatever you do, don't challenge him to a game of chess -- I think our grandmothers were friends -- Reat and Bill -- When words don't make sense -- Tragic irony -- He picked the wrong family and the wrong community -- He was watching over them -- The ones who stood up -- Heaven is all around us -- It was nothing. It was everything. -- Piecing together the story of Savvas -- Rosa's family -- Modern miracles -- Reunion -- Erikousa's Icarus -- Finding Savvas -- Full circle -- Epilogue -- Afterword. Lessons from new and cherished friends

"Seventy years after her grandmother helped hide a Jewish family on a Greek island during World War II, a woman sets out to track down their descendants--and discovers a new way to understand tragedy, forgiveness, and the power of kindness. Yvette Manessis Corporon grew up listening to her grandmother's stories about how the people of the small Greek island Erikousa hid a Jewish family--a tailor named Savvas and his daughters--from the Nazis during World War II. Nearly 2,000 Jews from that area died in the concentration camps, but even though everyone on Erikousa knew Savvas and his family were hiding on the island, no one ever gave them up, and the family survived the war. Years later, Yvette couldn't get the story of the Jewish tailor out of her head. She decided to track down the man's descendants--and eventually found them in Israel. Their tearful reunion was proof to her that evil doesn't always win. But just days after she made the connection, her cousin's child was gunned down in a parking lot in Kansas, a victim of a Neo-Nazi out to inflict as much harm as he could. Despite her best hopes, she was forced to confront the fact that seventy years after the Nazis were defeated, it was still happening today. As Yvette and her family wrestled with the tragedy in their own lives, the lessons she learned from the survivors of the Holocaust helped her confront and make sense of the present. In beautifully told interweaving storylines, the past and present come together in a nuanced, heartfelt story about the power of faith, the importance of kindness, and the courage to stand up for what's right in the face of great evil." -- Publisher's description