Threshold of Pain [English]

Author: Vera Meisels
Published by: Speaking Words (2017)

This book by Vera Meisels describes her past as seen from the current perspective. With outstanding and stirring sensitivity she transforms her stories into an intricate and subtle work of art; a tapestry of her experiences as a woman, mother, sculptor, and poet. Her stories show a longing for the pre-war period, but surprisingly, also for experiences that occurred during the war; her time at the children’s dorms in the ghetto, where she was allowed to draw and act in a production of the play “The Fireflies”, or the memory of a fatherly German soldier who gave her a glass of milk and held her on his lap. These tiny sparks of benevolence within the grim reality that surrounded her shine through her stories; they are also those that spin the story of her life.