Rachel Gunzig - The Misguided Idealist

Rachel's story was translated and edited by Joseph Strip, based on tapes of conversations between Rachel and her nephew Marcel Braitstein.

From the Foreward

This is the story of Rachel (Rivka) Gunzig, Jessica's great aunt. Rachel was married to Jacques Gunzig, brother of Sabine (Sarah) Gunzig Sochor, Jessica's grandmother. I chose the title because it best describes the person whose idealism was exploited by a cynical radical movement. While it took Rachel over twenty years to recognize the true nature of international Communism and to break with the Party she never gave up the humanist and egalitarian ideals that drove her to it and continued to work for human rights causes to the end. This narrative is an edited transcription of Rachel's conversation with her nephew, Marcel Braitstein, during her last visit to Montreal. The conversation was conducted in French and recorded on four audio tapes.. The contents of the tapes have been edited to remove redundancies and some irrelevant dialog and to rearrange the sequence of some of the material in order to maintain the continuity of the narrative. Otherwise Rachel's words have been retained.

Individual Chapters

Forward and Table of Contents
Section 1: Poland and Palestine
Section 2: Belgium and Spain
Section 3: War and Occupation
Section 4: Return to Brussels, Poland, Epilogue

Complete story in one part

PDF format