Bipolar Refugee

Bipolar Refugee is the frank account of a German-Jewish Holocaust survivor from Berlin whose desperate parents put their teenage daughter on the Kindertransport in 1939 after she was beaten by the Gestapo. She would never see them again. Based on an extensive collection of Mary's documents, correspondence, and autobiographical writings, Bipolar Refugee traces her tumultuous but colorful life as a Holocaust refugee in England and her return to Berlin to marry a German POW that diverged from expectations of her parents for their daughter to live a fulfilled Jewish life Mary Krotoczynski was fiercely independent, a feminist ahead of her time, a determined survivor who eventually marshalled the exodus of her family to America where her opportunities were limited by her circumstances as a single mother in topsy-turvy Southern California. She proved her resiliency during recovery after hospitalization for bipolar disorder with help from relatives and the support of the Jewish community. Mary mingled her ties to the Judaism of her father, a devout cantor, with her pantheistic outlook and cosmopolitan politics opposed to prejudice and bigotry. Bipolar Refugee is built around Mary’s writings recounting loves, trials, and her own brand of feminism. Written by her son who included the stories of those who loved and knew her well, this frank and unusual memoir presented in the context of her times, contributes to our understanding the diversity and complexity of the Holocaust’s impact on survivors and their descendants.