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They escaped the Nazi genocide, but these 'Wanderers' still went through hell

JL;DR SUMMARY Daniela Gerson's memoir "The Wanderers" delves into the often-overlooked narrative of Polish Jews during the Holocaust who found themselves in the Soviet Union instead of Nazi concentration camps. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

IdentityHolocaustWorld War IiSoviet UnionImmigrationMigrationFamily HistorySurvivalPolish JewsDaniela Gerson

Places mentioned

Poland
"On the eve of World War II, about 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland."
Russian Federation
"instead to the Soviet Union."
Lviv, Lvivshchyna, Ukraine
"In Lviv, now in Ukraine but then in the USSR, Gersons grandparents experienced their first devastation."
United Arab Emirates
"Many wanted to enter Iran and proceed to Palestine."
Uzbekistan
"They backtracked to Uzbekistan."
Kazakhstan
"Inlenders grandfather landed in Kazakhstan."
Turkmenistan
"Waves of them headed south to the USSRs five Central Asian republics: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan."
Tajikistan
"Waves of them headed south to the USSRs five Central Asian republics: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan."
Kyrgyzstan
"Waves of them headed south to the USSRs five Central Asian republics: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan."
Los Angeles, California, United States
"The story defines her family and that of Talia Inlender, a Los Angeles immigration attorney."
Texas, United States
"teenagers in those camps steal away from their mothers and fathers and cross into Texas by claiming they were orphans."
New York, United States
"they sailed into New York Harbor under that surname."
Mexico
"Ones I talked with a man who was sifting through Google to study, he told me, how gay men act. He confessed that he wasn’t gay but was learning to walk, dress and behave as though he was, because the U.S. was letting people in who might be attacked in Mexico by homophobes."

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Cairo Item ID 81070
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Retrieved 2026-04-29 05:30:41 UTC
Curated 2026-04-29 08:31:24 UTC