Jews in the Garden: Book Launch… in the Garden!

Sunday, August 20, 2023
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

“Jews in the Garden reads like the best of narrator-guided murder-mysteries. But in this case the who-done-it is real, chilling, and makes clear why today’s Polish government is so determined to keep its bloody Holocaust-era secrets.” ―Larry Tye, New York Times bestselling author

Join us in the magnificent Museum Garden as author Judy Rakowsky discusses her newly-published book, Jews in the Garden: A Holocaust Survivor, an Investigative Reporter, and a Family’s Quest for Answers in Poland, a shocking true story of untold World War II secrets. Part memoir, part detective story, part family history, Jews in the Garden is the lively, heartfelt story of Judy (with a long career as an award-winning investigative reporter) and her older cousin Sam (a Holocaust survivor) and their quest for answers about what happened to family members who were hidden away during the Holocaust. As Judy turns her investigative eyes and ears toward their task, she sees a cover-up. She and Sam knock on doors, petition court documents, get run off properties, seek clandestine meetings, and ultimately find Poles who do want to remember that their relatives hid Jews in an effort to save them. They were the Jews in the garden next door, and Judy and Sam want to tell their story once and for all. Registration is free, but required.

About the Author

Judy Rakowsky is a career journalist who grew up knowing little about her family’s Holocaust story. As a young reporter, she got to know Cousin Sam who had just returned from his first visit to his hometown in Poland since the war. Sam is a survivor of the Krakow ghetto and four Nazi concentration camps.

After spending decades covering crime and legal affairs for newspapers, including The Boston Globe and The Providence Journal, one very personal story riveted her: the fate of relatives in Poland. Again and again, she traveled to Poland with Sam. In interviews in barnyards and around kitchen tables in the Polish countryside and from official documents they learned the truth of what happened to relatives in hiding. That truth was outlawed in 2018 by the Polish government.