Hobart signs memoirs of Holocaust activist Skotnicka-Zajdman

Hobart Books has signed the memoirs of Holocaust activist and educator Renata Skotnicka-Zajdman, compiled by her daughter, Canadian author S Nadja Zajdman. 

I Want You To Be Free is the true story of one woman’s escape from hell in the Warsaw Ghetto in the Second World War to her eventual migration to a new life in Montreal. 

The publisher signed world rights including translation, TV and film, directly from the author It will be published in January 2022. 

Its synopsis explains: “The story follows the author’s mother, a 15-year-old Jewish girl from a privileged background, as she navigates her survival in occupied Poland and later in Germany, where she was a slave labourer. Not just a Holocaust survival story, the book documents her emigration to Canada and eventual settlement, marriage and family life, before she embarked on a career as a Holocaust activist and educator.” 

“I am thrilled to have my mother’s memoirs published by Hobart Books,” said Zajdman. “Her greatest fear was not death but oblivion, and publication will ensure her story – and that of her family and friends – will survive forever.”

Adam Gardner, director of Hobart Books, remarked: “This is a challenging and complex book, and a diversion from our typical output, but the gripping, often terrifying, and always extraordinary story is one that Hobart is proud to bring to a wider readership. This is a story that must be told and we are delighted that we have been able to make that happen.”