BURIED RIVERS
A Spiritual Journey into the Holocaust

A Second Generation Holocaust Memoir
by
Ellen Korman Mains

“A moving and original contribution to an inexhaustible
body of literature.“−Kirkus Reviews

About the Book

To the chagrin of her parents, Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust, Ellen Korman Mains became a Buddhist at 19, nearly tearing her family apart. Decades later, on a German train, she felt the presence of spirits who died in the Holocaust. It was January 2005, exactly 60 years after the liberation of Auschwitz and the question, “How can you still believe in basic goodness?” sent her on a series of life-changing journeys to Poland to find the answer.

Beyond recovering a lost family history, Buried Rivers reveals powerful connections between spirituality and trauma, and intimately explores family loyalties, religious boundaries, and the invisible blessings of ancestors. Interwoven with this 2nd generation memoir is a survivor account dictated by the author’s uncle before his death.

About the Author

The daughter of Polish-born Jews who survived the Holocaust, Ellen Korman Mains has led meditation retreats in North America and Europe. A citizen of three countries, including Canada, the USA, and Poland, she lives in Boulder, Colorado, but continues spending extensive periods of time in Poland, teaching, promoting dialog, and connecting with her heritage.

In the Survivors‘ Park there are two trees granting to the Ellen’s family – her mother Masza Goldblum and her uncle Idel George Goldblum.