Don't Ask My Name

Born Jewish in Hungary in the 1930s, little Erika became a “Hidden Child,” one of many Jewish children who were provided with false identities and survived the Second World War as Christians. The lies she had to tell and the secrets she was forced to keep sent her on a lifelong search for identity, until she is finally ready to tell her gripping true story. Erika is only three when her divorced mother officially converts to Catholicism in hopes of protecting the family from the rising tide of antisemitism, but this is not enough to shield them from persecution, especially after the Germans occupy Hungary in the 1940s. Obtaining false identities and papers, they retreat to a small farming village where no one knows their true background, only to find themselves caught between the clashing German and Russian armies, both of which pose a constant threat to their lives and freedom. Now refugees in a fierce war zone, Erika and her family endure a harrowing struggle for survival that will forever leave its mark on her and her loved ones. And even after the War ends, a “normal” life eludes Erika. When the German occupation gives way to a communist takeover, the family is forced to flee again, this time to Occupied Vienna in post-war Austria, where Erika must cope with the traumas of her past, while trying to make sense of her own identity as a Catholic or a Jew. DON'T ASK MY NAME is a compelling memoir of a woman's journey through one of the darkest chapters of the twentieth century – and the lies and truths we rely on