We Were the Lucky Ones

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Part 1, Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “Addy, Paris, France - Early March 1939”

Addy Kurc is living in Toulouse, France, just outside of Paris. He is an engineer and classical composer who came to France six years before from his hometown of Radom, Poland. He has just come from a night of carousing with his friends in Montmartre. Some people have fled to the countryside, worried about the possible outbreak of war, but Addy’s musician and artist friends are unconcerned.

Addy rereads a letter from his mother, who warns him that conditions in Radom are worsening for Jews. His parents feel that Addy should not return home for Passover since travel across German borders seems too dangerous. Addy is not surprised to hear that conditions are worsening in Radom, but he is concerned that his fearless mother now seems afraid. Nothing is more important to his mother than family, so for her to ask him to not return home for Passover troubles Addy.

Addy thinks about the news from Germany and about the persecution of Jews. Even in Paris there are swastikas painted on walls. Addy had downplayed these signs in his mind: “Now, though, with his mother’s letter in hand, he sees with alarming clarity the warnings he’d chosen to ignore” (7). Addy resolves to return home immediately to be with his family.

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Genek, Radom, Poland - March 18, 1939”

Genek Kurc is playing cards with friends in Radom. That evening, he and his friends discuss the threat of war and how easily Austria and Czechoslovakia fell to the Germans. Genek is angry that he was demoted from his job as an attorney to an assistant at his law firm, simply because he is Jewish. He says that he may move to France since there he could use his degree, but his friends remark that France could be next for the Nazis to conquer. One says, “What if this is just the beginning? What if Poland is next?” (12). His friends dismiss this idea.

He returns home to his wife Herta, whom he met and fell in love with on a ski trip. Genek crawls into bed and pulls his wife to him, but she says that they must be careful. Herta is worried about having a child with war breaking out everywhere. Genek charms Herta into intimacy, playfully saying that it would be a tragedy if they deprived themselves and there was no war.

Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Nechuma, Radom, Poland - April 4, 1939, Passover”

Nechuma and Sol’s family gathers for Passover. Sol reads from his worn Haggadah as Nechuma lights the candles and recites the blessings. Nechuma has left a chair empty for Addy, and her heart aches over his absence.

Addy wrote to say that he was trying to gather his travel documents to return home. Nechuma worries that she should have been blunter in her letter, telling Addy of the neighbors who fled and the Polish customers they lost at their fabric shop. She was happy to hear that he was returning home, but now she is fearful because he has not arrived.

Nechuma thinks back to the Great War when she and Sol were forced to live in a crowded basement for three years. She resolves never to experience that suffering again. Nechuma remembers how her own mother told her about pogroms and abuse that Jews in Radom had gone through. However, her mother reassured her that bad times always pass, and life goes on. Nechuma feels that the German threat will also pass, and that she and Sol have insulated themselves and their family. They live among Poles in an affluent part of town, only speak Polish at home, and have a successful business. Their children even attended private Catholic schools.

Nechuma chides herself not to worry. Looking at her son Jakob makes her smile, as he has always been a quiet and calming influence. Jakob sits next to his girlfriend Bella, whom he has been with for eight years, or since he was 15. Other attendees of the Passover meal include Adam Eichenwald, the family’s boarder as well as boyfriend to the youngest Kurc daughter, Halina.

Felicia, Nechuma’s 5-month-old granddaughter, begins to cry, so Nechuma’s daughter Mila picks her up and carries her from the room. Parenting baby Felicia overwhelms Mila. They return to the Passover Seder.

The chapter ends with Nechuma, months later, wishing that she could go back to this evening, when all her family was safely together: “She will replay it all, over and over again, every beautiful moment of it” (22).

Part 1, Chapters 1-3 Analysis

The first chapters of this novel introduce the Kurc family in 1939, just before German forces invaded Poland. The Kurcs are a well-to-do Jewish family in Radom. Sol and Nechuma, the parents, own a successful fabric shop, and through hard work and determination, they have built a solid upper-middle class life for their five adult children. Mindful of the historical anti-Semitism and repeated persecution of Jews in Poland, the Kurcs sent their children to Catholic private schools and moved into the center of town, away from the traditional Jewish quarter. In this way, Sol and Nechuma had hoped to insulate their children and assimilate into Polish culture.

In these opening chapters, war looms over the characters. Addy, living in France and away from his family, realizes that he has been willfully overlooking signs of impending trouble, in his world of Parisian music and art: “What if the clues were there but he hadn’t been paying enough attention? Or worse, what if he’d missed them simply because he didn’t want to see them?” (7). Addy is determined to return to Radom and his family to help protect them, but he has waited too long and cannot pass through Germany or German-held territories to reach Poland.

Genek also thinks about the possibility of war coming to Radom, but he and his friends largely dismiss the idea of true danger. His wife Herta is hesitant to risk becoming pregnant, worried about the future. Genek agrees in principle: “To bring a child into a world that has begun to feel disturbingly close to the brink of collapse would be imprudent and irresponsible” (13). For Genek, the idea of war seems unreal, and he does not believe it will truly touch their lives. Genek and Herta’s intimacy foreshadows their struggles to come, as Herta becomes pregnant and must later give birth under dire circumstances. Their playful banter prior to intimacy also foreshadows how the war will abruptly shatter the Kurcs’ naivety.

Nechuma, the matriarch of the family, has experienced the deprivations of war before, when she and Sol had to live in a crowded basement for three years. Even for her, that experience feels unreal, like it happened to another person. She finds it hard to believe that it could happen again, to her children and their families. She mentally refuses the notion: “No, she will not go back underground like some kind of feral creature; she will not live like that ever again. It couldn’t possibly come to that” (16). The members of the Kurc family are in denial about what is happening in their town and the countries around them.

The other major theme of these chapters is family and the extreme closeness of the Kurcs, noted in their love and devotion for each other. As they come together for Passover, this sense of how tight knit they are is evident. Throughout the book, Passover Seder is a prominent symbol of Jewish tradition and heritage. In this narrative, it functions as a motif to highlight the power of family. Nechuma is despondent that Addy is missing from the gathering because she cannot imagine a Passover when the whole family is not together: “At the sound of Addy’s name, the ache creeps back into Nechuma’s chest, bringing with it an orchestra of worries” (21). Chapter 3 ends with Nechuma looking back, months later, to that Passover dinner with longing. It was the last happy gathering before the war pulled the family apart.