Remember My Story: A Girl, a Holocaust Survivor, and a Friendship That Made History

By Claire Sarnowski with Sarah Durand. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2024. 256 pages. $17.99/hardcover; $9.99/eBook. Recommended for ages 10 and up.

Prior to 2019, Oregon was one among many states that did not require teaching of the Holocaust in its public schools. In a shining illustration of speaking truth to power, two people—a Holocaust survivor and a teenage schoolgirl—changed that.

At nine years old, Claire Sarnowski of suburban Portland, Ore., heard Alter Wiener’s talk about his wartime experiences. Wiener had survived five concentration camps, the only one of his family to survive at all, although he suffered mightily. And yet, he was not on a revenge tour. “Better, not bitter” was his mantra, a life-affirming outlook he conveyed in his frequent speeches to school and civic audiences.

Wiener’s talk changed Sarnowski’s life. Deeply moved and aware that Oregon did not mandate Holocaust education, she pledged to do something about that. Teaming up with Wiener, she accomplished more than she expected. Sarnowski and Wiener organized a campaign to persuade the Oregon legislature to require that the Holocaust be incorporated into the state’s K–12 curriculum. And they campaigned to include not just the Holocaust but also genocide and ethnic cleansing in general, whether in Armenia during World War I, Serbia, Rwanda, or Myanmar today. And no sugarcoating allowed!

In the fall of 2018, this extremely energetic and determined teenager, just coming into her own, and a 92-year-old Wiener, growing ever frailer, testified before a state senate hearing in a room packed with other survivors, supporters, educators, and Holocaust deniers. Six months later, the enabling bill passed the senate unanimously.

This book is intended for those in middle and early high school. It conveys history, through Wiener’s vivid accounts of his ordeal. It explains how government works, by showing how a bill makes its way from conception to implementation. It portrays intergenerational bonding. In Wiener, it personifies the strength and the beauty of forgiveness and of unwavering hope.

Other than a passing reference to “anti-government types” at the hearing, the book does not address the appropriateness of legislators telling teachers what to teach. While perhaps not as pressing a concern for the time in which the book is set, it has grown into a worrisome trend as state governments have begun telling teachers what not to teach, what books may be read, and more.

Sarnowski cowrote the book with Sarah Durand, a New York Times bestselling collaborator specializing in memoir. Despite some repetition at times, especially concerning how much Sarnowski and Wiener are drawn to each other, and dialogue that feels a bit stiff and contrived, Remember My Story accomplishes its goal: for those who read it, the account of this partnership will be unforgettable.

This is a compelling true story of an unlikely friendship that blossomed into a meadow of hope, not just for two people but for all people. Let’s allow Wiener’s stepmother, Rachel Wurtzel Wiener, the final word: “There are two ways to deal with the cold—put on a coat to be warm or light a fire so that others can be warm, too.”

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Neal Burdick is a retired college administrator and journalism teacher who continues as a freelance writer and editor. He is a member of Ottawa (Ont.) Meeting who participates at Burlington (Vt.) Meeting.