Words that burn within me

Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Jewish Studies. Memoir. Translated from the German by Elborg Foster. Though Hilda Stern wrote about her experiences for a few years after the war, first in a DP camp and then in New York, she hid her notebooks after her marriage to Werner Cohen. A mother and Jewish teacher, she also spoke to school groups of her experiences during the war--two years before she died, Hilda did extensive recorded interviews with storyteller Gail Rosen. However, only after her death did her husband discover the seven faded German notebooks of a half century before and their 150 poems and prose texts. The interviews with Rosen and translations of her Hilda's German poetry by Elborg Forster were brought together by the editors--Werner V. Cohen, Gail Rosen, and William Gilcher--to produce WORDS THAT BURN WITHIN ME: FAITH, VALUES, SURVIVAL.