Ella is born in the 1960s, in Leopoldstadt, once a ghetto in Vienna, but she has no knowledge of her Jewish heritage. Her mother is unwilling to discuss the past and her father, a concentration camp survivor, dies shortly after her birth.
Ella and her neighbour, Luke, are childhood friends with different backgrounds who develop a life - long, loving relationship. When Luke leaves Vienna to complete his studies, a heartbroken Ella marries Richard. Though the marriage is unsatisfying, when Richard is offered a promotion in Australia, she reluctantly joins him with their youngest son. In the outer suburbs of Melbourne, she struggles to find her footing in the dissimilar culture. In her turmoil, she tries to focus on her scattered memories and attempts to weave them together. When she decides to sell the family home in Leopoldstadt, demolishers discover paintings hidden in her father’s study. This discovery will shape her future.
After Luke’s mother’s death, he is horrified to find documents revealing his grandparents’ roles as guards in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp – the same camp where Ella’s father was imprisoned. During a visit to an Australian university, Ella and Luke meet and he reveals his feelings of guilt and shame. A devastated Ella wonders if their relationship can continue. Luke falls into period of despair, but eventually, he finds solace in the study of Judaism.
As Ella learns about her background her self-assurance grows. She breaks her ties with Richard and then Luke and resolves longstanding difficulties with her sons. She moves on to pass on to her children the heritage that is rightfully theirs.
About the Author:
Joan Zawatzky has spent a great deal of her working life as a counselling psychologist and now devotes her time to writing and painting. She writes non-fiction, self-improvement books as well as novels. “The Third Generation,” a novel, focusses on one of her particular interests, the survivors of the Holocaust and their families.
