Rachael Cerrotti - We Share the Same Sky - A Memoir of Memory and Migration

Praise for

We Share
the Same Sky

First in her mesmerizing podcast and now with this stunning book, Rachael Cerrotti has redefined the art of bearing witness. Balancing meticulous devotion to the inherited past with luminous attention to the unfolding present, We Share the Same Sky maps an astonishing journey of tenacity and transformation. Among myriad narratives in the post-Holocaust landscape, this work is a dazzling beacon.

Elizabeth Rosner, author of Survivor Caf:
The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory

The Holocaust is soon to be two generations removed from direct experience, which makes it imperative for a new generation to pick up the burden of moral memory and carry it forward. Rachael Cerrottis powerfully feltand deeply researchedaccount is a moving and compelling instance of this urgent effort. Historys paincrushinglybecomes her own. But time, as she says, turns pain into responsibilitya transformation nobly enshrined in this book.

James Carroll, author of
The Truth at the Heart of t he Lie

Wow. Wow. Wow. Obviously Wow. Wow. Wow does not make for a good book cover quote, but its just hard to find the words to express all of the emotion that I feel after reading this. In this incredible journey, we walk in step with Rachael and Hana. This story is a precious gift that teaches us how we all share a common thread.

Nancy Spielberg, producer

This is so much more than a book about the Holocaust. We Share the Same Sky takes us on an inspiring and heart-wrenching journey through time. Cerrotti is a magician. She masterfully interweaves threads of remembrance, sorrow, loss, and resilience, creating a beautiful tapestry of love and light.

Ariana Neumann, author of When Time S topped

Rachael Cerrottis We Share the Same Sky is a testament that the best stories are true stories and that not only is the personal political, but that history is personal.

Roberta Grossman, documentary filmmaker

A story in which the individual seizes her right to history and her faith by tirelessly shedding light on them and in the process making her family and the world whole.

Julie Lindahl, author of
The Pendulum: A Granddaughters Search
for Her Familys Forbidden Naz i Past

A heartbreaking journey to retrace ones family history, resulting in a universal story of profound inspirationIt is not only a personal revelation of immense and poetic magnitude, but also a clarion call to each of us to speak of mans humanity to man.

Mona Golabek, author of
The Children of Willesde n Lane

A memoir that is so visual in its writing that it comes as no surprise that the author is also a photographer. With every turn, I could envision where Hana and Rachael each traveled as they journeyed from country to country navigating love and loss.

Michelle McLoughlin, photojournalist

A lyrical, captivating, and essential read. Cerrotti turns her grandmothers remarkable story of escaping the Holocaust into an epic story of love, loss, and redemption that reminds us that the past is never lost, its just waiting for us to reconnect.

Jack Fairweather, author of The Vol unteer

We Share the Same Sky offers an important, heartbreaking, and hopeful bridge between the past and our presentA vivid example who can inspire us to choose life.

Ariel Burger, author of
Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesels Cla ssroom

Readers should be grateful that Cerotti crossed those bridges and takes us along on this journey. She shows us how individuals can make big differences in the lives of others and how important it is to know our histories. Bearing witness has never been more important. Cerotti and her grandmother are powerful guides as to why these Holocaust stories matter.

New York Journal of Books

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Copyright 2021 by Rachael Cerrotti
E-book published in 2021 by Blackstone Publishing
Cover design by Kathryn Galloway English
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Trade e-book ISBN 978-1-0941-5371-1
Library e-book ISBN 978-1-0941-5370-4
Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs
CIP data for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Blackstone Publishing
31 Mistletoe Rd.
Ashland, OR 97520
www.BlackstonePublishing.com

For Sergiusz, for teaching me how to live with love.

For Mutti, for teaching me how to live with loss.

Foreword

There is a part of me that wants to cry when I read this book, but then I find myself laughing. There is a part of me that wants to despair at the pity of it all, but there is just too much hope imbued in every page to give up on humanity, despite its worst excesses. That is because Rachael Cerrottis We Share the Same Sky shows the tangled and messy nature of being human at its very essence.

I do wonder how a woman so young could have traveled so far, loved so deeply, listened so carefully, lived life and confronted death so profoundly that she so deftly guides us through the worlds most terrifying mysteries. Circumstances placed Rachael at the fulcrum of life and death, despair and hope, past and future, allowing her an inescapably complex viewpoint of humanity and more wisdom than most acquire in a lifetime.

This book is all about the Holocaust and yet not about the Holocaust at all. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivor Hana Dubov, Rachael is emblematic of what becomes of those who survive it, how memory travels across generations, how unavoidable its clutches are, and yet how to shine a light on its shadow, two generations on. Rachael tells her grandmothers story through her own wordsdiaries, letters, conversation, testimonybut also through the lives of those who knew her and those who saved her. And that in itself is the point: there is hope in this book, because Hana Dubov was saved by good people who took death-defying risks, because one life mattered enough.

I have observed many descendants of the Holocaust grapple with their familys past. They watch movies, read books, or sit for hours listening to their forebears recount their testimonies for USC Shoah Foundation, the archive founded by Steven Spielberg to ensure their stories would be told in their own words. Many descendants have traveled to the places of their grandparents births or incarcerations, walking arm in arm with the survivors where they suffered as children. But I have never come across a descendant who has so completely lived the life of a forebear as Rachael Cerrotti lived the life of Hana Dubov. She literally retraced every footstep and went to the places of Hanas past, not for a week just to peek, but for months on end, living the life, hearing the language, learning the culture. The people who knew her grandmothers story became among her closest friends. She made her grandmothers former homes and hiding places her homes, her places to hide. Rachaels total commitment to memory was to soak up the meaning of inheritance and identity. She did what few of us rarely do: she made it her life to learn about life.

What Rachael seemed to know is that her jumbled identity was not a godforsaken hand-me -down but a tapestry of individual stitches that needed to be understood to appreciate the whole. As you read this book, you will see each of those colorful stitches painfully embroidered into her life one by one. Its only when you stand back at the end that you will see the mosaic of humanity it represents.