Rachael Cerrotti discussing and signing We Share the Same Sky – A Memoir of Memory & Migration

Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - 7:00pm
2692 Madison Rd
Cincinnati, OH 45208

Rachael Cerrotti discussing and signing We Share the Same Sky – A Memoir of Memory & Migration

Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - 7:00pm - 8:00pm EST

LOCATION: Rookwood Joseph-Beth

Join us for a special discussion and signing with Rachael in collaboration with the Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center.

A granddaughter's decade-long journey to retrace her grandmother's wartime escape and weave together the thin threads of family history.

In 2009, Rachael Cerrotti, a college student pursuing a career in photojournalism, asked her grandmother, Hana, if she could record her story. Rachael knew that her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor and the only one in her family alive at the end of the war. Rachael also knew that she survived because of the kindness of strangers. It wasn't a secret. Hana spoke about her history publicly and regularly. But, Rachael wanted to document it as only a granddaughter could. So, that's what they did: Hana talked and Rachael wrote.

Upon Hana's passing in 2010, Rachael discovered an incredible archive of her life. There were preserved albums and hundreds of photographs dating back to the 1920s. There were letters waiting to be translated, journals, diaries, deportation and immigration papers as well as creative writings from various stages of Hana's life.

Rachael digitized and organized it all, plucking it from the past and placing it into her present. Then, she began retracing her grandmother's story, following her through Central Europe, Scandinavia, and across the United States. She tracked down the descendants of those who helped save her grandmother's life during the war. Rachael went in pursuit of her grandmother's memory to explore how the retelling of family stories becomes the history itself.

We Share the Same Sky weaves together the stories of these two young women -- Hana as a refugee who remains one step ahead of the Nazis at every turn, and Rachael, whose insatiable curiosity to touch the past guides her into the lives of countless strangers, bringing her love and tragic loss. Throughout the course of her twenties, Hana's history becomes a guidebook for Rachael in how to live a life empowered by grief.

 

Rachael Cerrotti is an award-winning photographer, writer, educator, and audio producer. In 2019, she released her critically-acclaimed podcast (also titled We Share the Same Sky) about her grandmother's war story. The show was the first-ever narrative podcast based on a Holocaust survivor's testimony and was listed as one of the best podcasts of the year by Huffington Post. Rachael's work has been featured by outlets around the world including NPR, PRI's The World, WBUR, GBH, and in 2021 she became the Inaugural Storyteller In Residence for USC Shoah Foundation. Rachael's story is taught in classrooms worldwide and is a transmedia resource for educators interested in telling stories of past generations through a contemporary lens. Rachael is originally from Boston and is now based in Portland, Maine.

We Share the Same Sky: A Memoir of Memory & Migration By Rachael Cerrotti Cover Image
$26.99
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9781094153728
Published: Blackstone Publishing - August 17th, 2021

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