Helmi’s Shadow tells the sweeping true story of two Russian Jewish refugees, a mother (Rachel Koskin) and her daughter (Helmi). With determination and courage, they survived decades of hardship in the hidden corners of war-torn Asia and then journeyed across the Pacific at the end of the Second World War to become United States citizens after seeking safe harbor in the unlikely western desert town of Reno, Nevada. This compelling narrative is also a memoir, told lovingly by Helmi’s son, David, of growing up under the wings of these strong women in an unusual American family.
Rachel Koskin was a middle-class Russian Jew born in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1896. Ten years later, her family fled from the murderous pogroms against Jews in the Russian Empire eastward to Harbin, a Russian-controlled city within China’s borders on the harsh plain of Manchuria. Full of lively detail and the struggles of being stateless in a time of war, the narrative follows Rachel through her life in Harbin, which became a center of Russian culture in the Far East; the birth of her daughter, Helmi, in Kobe, Japan; their life together in the slums of Shanghai and back in Japan during World War II, where they endured many more hardships; and their subsequent immigration to the United States.
This remarkable account uncovers a history of refugees living in war-torn China and Japan, a history that to this day remains largely unknown. It is also a story of survival during a long period of upheaval and war—from the Russian Revolution to the Holocaust—and an intimate portrait of an American immigrant family. David reveals both the joys and tragedies he experienced growing up in a multicultural household in post\-Second World War America with a Jewish mother, a live-in Russian grandmother, and a devout Irish Catholic American father.
As David develops a clearer awareness of the mysterious past lives of his mother and grandmother—and the impact of these events on his own understanding of the long-term effects of fear, trauma, and loss—he shows us that, even in times of peace and security, we are all shadows of our past, marked by our experiences, whether we choose to reveal them to others or not.
Contents
Preface
Map: Rachel and Helmi's Journey 1905-1947
Prologue: Kobe, Japan / August 1945
PART ONE: THE FAR EAST
I Exile / Odessa to Harbin
1 Pogrom, Odessa 1905
2 The Paris of the Orient, Harbin 1920
3 Telegram, Harbin 1926
II Refugee / Harbin to Shanghai
4 Soothing the Barbarian, Shanghai 1927
5 The Garden Bridge, Shanghai 1931
6 Reno, Nevada, 1955
7 Shanghai, 2008
8 The Public & Thomas Hanbury School for Girls, Shanghai 1932
9 The French Concession, Shanghai 1935
10 The War At the End of the Street, Shanghai 1937
11 Mrs. Blacksill's School, Kobe 1937
12 The Fourth Floor, Shanghai 1938
13 The Next World, Shanghai 1939
14 Reno, Nevada 1956
III Stateless / Shanghai to Kobe
15 The Thomas Cooke & Son Travel Agency, Kobe 1939
16 Stateless, Kobe 1941-1943
17 Fire From the Sky, Kobe 1943-1945
IV Immigrant / Kobe to America
18 Sentimental Journey, Philippines 1945
19 The Counter-Intelligence Corps, Kobe 1945
20 The Quota System, Kobe 1946
21 Passage On A Freighter, Kobe 1946
PART TWO: AMERICA
V Family / San Francisco, Reno
22 The Evangeline Hotel For Women, San Francisco 1946
23 An Invitation, San Francisco 1947
24 Over the Mountains, San Francisco & Reno 1947
25 Outside The Rail, Reno 1947
26 The Loud-Mouthed Bishop, Reno 1948
27 Mother-In-Law, Reno 1949
28 The Little Theater, Reno 1949
29 The Second Son, Reno 1951
VI Reno I
30 The Eternal Fires of Hell
31 The Chesterfield Girl
32 Howling In The Night
33 Black Sunday
34 The Empty Chapel
35 The Old Man At The Window
36 The Kitchen Table
37 Mazel Tov
VII Reno II
39 Freedom
40 The Rest Home
41 The Next Life
42 Helmi's Shadow
Epilogue: November 1946
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
