A Little Annihilation

Children in war and second-generation trauma Eastern Poland, June 1, 1943. It took just a few hours for the village of Sochy to cease to exist. Buildings were burned. Residents shot. Among the ruins, there remained one house, a few survivors-one of whom was nine-year-old Teresa Ferenc, mother of Anna Janko. Young Teresa saw how German soldiers murdered her family, an image which accompanied her throughout her orphanage years. An image she was never able to forget. Anna Janko tells her mother's story in this strong, contemporary testimony on second-generation trauma, told from a multi-generational, all-female perspective. The brutal yet beautifully described history of the pacification of the Polish countryside becomes the starting point for a deeply personal study of ethical and existential helplessness, and the lingering effects of war. "A Little Annihilation explores war and the relentless grind of history on a human scale-and as such, it is a haunting word of warning for the present and the future." European Literature Network "As with Svetlana Alexievich's reportage, in this book war is shown not only as a tragic episode in history, but as a living memory, which even after many years puts us on our guard as a danger which could recur." Lithub