In The Empty Bowl: Poems of the Holocaust and After, Holocaust survivor Judith H. Sherman strives to record trauma through art. Her poems, written largely in the words of a fifteen-year-old survivor, provide historical entry into the Holocaust. Put simply, the poems explore the reality of the events experienced by Sherman in her determination to survive—from first leaving home to illegal border crossings, hiding, capture, imprisonment by the Gestapo, the horrors of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, liberation, and, finally, a full life of joys and challenges that came after, including the unyielding intrusions of the past and hopeful celebration of a compassionate future.
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Born in Kurima, Slovakia, Judith H. Sherman is a Holocaust survivor now living in New Jersey. She is the mother of three, the grandmother of five, and a widow. A retired social worker and psychotherapist, she is the author of the acclaimed memoir Say The Name: A Survivor’s Tale in Prose and Poetry.