The Love and Loss of Two Fathers: Looking Back

This book revolves around the story of two brothers who, for relatively short periods in my life, bestowed on me the love of a father.

They were part of a Polish Jewish family that had successfully settled in Paris during the inter-war years.

The consequence of the war, when it came in 1939, was the dispersion of the family, causing hardship and painful losses. When the survivors came back together in 1945, they were finally able to mourn their loved ones, and carry on, as best they could, the development of the family.

In the process of looking back, I have attempted to portray the experiences of individual members of the family before, during and after the war years.

To this end I have added, to the recollections of my mother and French cousins, my own childhood memories of a happy life in Paris.

The narrative ends with a full account of the trail I followed, in much later life, to determine the circumstances of my father's death on the battle-field of Picardy in 1940.

Alan Swarc, August 2020.