Alicia Appleman-Jurman

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Alicia Ada Appleman
BornAlicia Jurman[1]
(1930-05-09)May 9, 1930
Rosulna, Poland
DiedApril 8, 2017(2017-04-08) (aged 86)
San Jose, California, U.S.
Resting placeOak Hill Memorial Park, San Jose, California
Occupation
  • Holocaust spokesperson
  • writer
  • activist
NationalityPolish, American
CitizenshipPoland, United States, Israel
SubjectsThe Holocaust
SpouseGabriel Appleman
ChildrenDan Appleman, Roan Bear, Zachary Appleman

Alicia Appleman-Jurman (May 9, 1930 – April 4, 2017),

Holocaust
in her autobiography, Alicia: My Story.

Early life

The sole female and the second-youngest child of Sigmund and Frieda Jurman in a family of five children, Alicia Jurman was raised from the age of five in

Holocaust
.

She escaped the Germans by being thrown through the window of a train taking members of her community to an extermination camp, hiding in bunkers, living in fields, barns, and pretending to be Polish or Ukrainian. After losing her entire family at a young age, Alicia continued to have a strong will to survive. After Germany's defeat, she joined the underground group

Britain's Royal Navy. The ship's crew and passengers were sent to Cyprus
and interned for eight months there. In December 1947, Jurman made it to the Palestine Mandate.

She was part of the Palyam, later serving in the “Chayl HaYam” naval forces that fought at Jaffa. There she met Gabriel Appleman, a volunteer from the United States. They wed in 1950 and came to the United States two years later. They returned to Israel in 1969 and were there during the Yom Kippur War (1973), and returned to the U.S. in 1975. The couple had two sons, and a daughter.[1]

Death

On April 4, 2017, Appleman-Jurman went into hospice after a failed surgery to repair a leaking mitral valve. She was surrounded by family and friends as she passed on in the early morning of April 8, 2017.

Alicia: My Story

Her autobiography, Alicia: My Story, was published in Toronto and New York by Bantam in 1988. A reviewer for the

New York Times said that the book "is so profoundly observed, and the life it records so remarkably lived, that no amount of prior immersion in the sad community of witnesses to the Holocaust can dull the reader to its heroine."[3] She was described as a person of "ferocious bravery".[3] According to WorldCat, the book is held in 1176 libraries.[4]
It has been translated into French (Alicia: l'histoire de ma vie); into German (Alicia: Überleben, um Zeugnis zu geben); into Danish (Alicia: min historie); into Swedish (Alicia: min historia), into Dutch (Vergeten kan ik niet), and into Spanish (Alicia, la historia de mi vida).

Other writing

Filmography

Alicia Live: A Presentation by Alicia Appleman-Jurman (April 10, 2012).[6]

Additional reading

References

  1. ^ a b Profile of Alicia Appleman-Jurman Archived 2014-08-26 at the Wayback Machine, annefrankwall.org; accessed September 8, 2014.
  2. ^ Alicia Appleman-Jurman official webpage, aliciamystory.com; accessed April 20, 2017.
  3. ^
    New York Times
    . Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  4. ^ WorldCat book entry; accessed September 8, 2014.
  5. OCLC 876621396
    .
  6. ^ "Alicia Live – A Presentation by Alicia Appleman-Jurman « Alicia: My Story". aliciamystory.com. Retrieved 2017-04-20.