Zhanna Arshanskaya: a biography in verse : a true story of outwitting the Nazis
By Susan Hood with Greg Dawson
Reviewed by Mia Macrossan
This is the sometimes harrowing, always inspiring story of how a talented young Ukrainian Jewish pianist survived World War 2.
Zhanna is living in Berdyansk, on the sea of Azov, a poor but idyllic existence when war breaks out. ‘Music was the higher power in the Arshansky home’ p11. Her life changed when Stalin took power. The family tries to make a new home in Kharkov when Zhanna was 8 and her sister 6. They continue their involvement with music, learning and performing but it all comes to an end when Hitler invades Russia in 1941, ending the accord between the two powers. What follows is a desperate struggle to stay alive, to escape the relentless anti Semitism that took the lives of thousands of people. Zhanna takes an alias, Anna, and survives by playing the piano and eventually joining a troupe who perform for the Nazis, having taken to heart her father’s final plea: ‘I don’t care what you do. Just live.’ When the war ends, instead of going back to the Soviet Union she and her sister make a new home in America.
Susan Hood has done an amazing amount of research helped by Zhanna’s grandson, Greg Dawson. The detail in this story gives the reader a close-up view of one person’s experience of living during the war. Most of the time it is told in free verse, but Hood has used a variety of poetic forms (all explained in detail in the back) scattered here and there to add variety and emphasis where needed. Forms used include a list poem, couplets, cinquain, an ABC poem, an elegy, a haiku and more.
The detailed back matter which includes notes, photographs, letters, and an afterword by Greg Dawson make this a rich book for study in schools. It is an emotional and engaging account with Zhanna emerging as a brave and resourceful protagonist whose strength and determination help her survive when many thousands didn’t.
This is the sometimes harrowing, always inspiring story of how a talented young Ukrainian Jewish pianist survived World War 2.
