‘Izzy’s Fire’: How Reading About The Holocaust Can Help Us Today

Every Sunday, precisely when the clock strikes 4 p.m., I am one of many who fall victim to the Sunday scaries. This past Sunday, my Hail Mary attempt to fend off the scaries was to indulge myself in some premature spring cleaning. One thing led to another, and next thing I knew I was eight chapters deep into one of my favorite books. A wildly out-of-character move on my part, if I do say so myself. But new year, new me. 

The book I desperately found myself lost in is called “Izzy’s Fire: Finding Humanity in the Holocaust.” With so many of us having questioned or even lost faith in humanity over the course of the past year, I was looking for examples of human goodness. “Izzy’s Fire” is the story of how 13 members from five Jewish families struggled to defy the odds of the Holocaust and survive with the help of a small, poor Catholic family. Although not a survivor herself, the author, Nancy Wright Beasley, vividly depicts this heart-wrenching story in an engaging and compassionate light. Beginning with their escape from the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania and ending with their new life in Richmond, Virginia, this book walks you through every step of the unimaginable. It’ll break your heart and renew your faith in humanity all at the same time. 

Izzy’s Fire: Finding Humanity In The Holocaust — $19.99

At the age of about 10, I visited the Holocaust Museum in Richmond, Virginia, with my aunt for the first time. Within minutes of walking into the museum, I went from being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to heavy-hearted and hopeless. I’m not sure what I expected, but I most certainly didn’t expect to meet, let alone talk face-to-face with, a Holocaust survivor himself. It just so happened that the survivor I met that day, and would later visit again, was Jay Ipson, one of the Holocaust Museum’s founders. Jay’s father is Izzy, which makes “Izzy’s Fire” their family’s story. On the day I met Jay, he told me all about his family’s unparalleled struggle to survive the Holocaust, and he suggested I read “Izzy’s Fire,” which I was later able to get a signed copy of. The intensity behind it all is more eye-opening than I can put into words for you. 

After meeting Jay, reading “Izzy’s Fire,” and multiple visits to the museum, what I find so inspiring about Jay’s story is not just that he survived, it’s that he’s taken this trauma and crafted it into a devastatingly beautiful narrative for us all to experience. The book lays it all out on the table for the reader, and the museum brings it to life. Jay’s story is one that will stick with me forever and one that I will always encourage others to learn from. Above all else, Jay’s story reminds us that even in the darkest of times, there’s always a silver lining. Jay’s silver lining was having faith in humanity. Ours can be too. So, as we all try to navigate our way through life’s ups and downs and weather whatever storms come our way, I want to leave you with the same reminder Jay wrote to me: “We must always be good to our friends and neighbors.”