Thursday, March 4, 2010
7.30 pm
BJE Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street
San Francisco

Part memoir, part detective story, part history, Annie’s Ghosts explores the nature of self-deception and self-preservation as it untangles one family’s long-protected silence.

Steve Luxenberg’s mother and aunt grew up together, but from age 21, his aunt Annie lived in a mental institution, and his mother spent the rest of her life hiding her sibling’s existence. Struggling to maintain his empathy as a son, Luxenberg employed his skills as a journalist to piece together the story of his aunt's unknown life, his mother's motivations, and the times in which they lived. His investigation turns into a journey through Imperial Russia and Depression-era Detroit, the Holocaust in the Ukraine and the Philippine war zone, and back to the hospitals where Annie and many others were lost to memory.

Steve Luxenberg is an associate editor at the Washington Post and has worked for more than thirty years as a newspaper editor and reporter. From 1996 to 2006 he was the editor of the Post’s Sunday Outlook section. Luxenberg currently focuses on special projects and in-depth reporting, including the causes and consequences of the financial crisis.

Event is free. No RSVP is necessary.
For more information, contact Allison Green at 415.567.3327 x 703 or visit the BJE website.

Program made possible, in part, by Judy Baston.

Co-sponsored by BJE Jewish Community Library; the Holocaust Center of Northern California; Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties; Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco; and the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society