Part memoir, part genealogical mystery and part history, a tale as readers accompany the author on his extraordinary exploration of the complicated relationship between two Holocaust survivors. Award-winning Painful Joy represents five years of intensive research in the US, Poland, Sweden, Israel and Germany, seeking to unearth the real life stories of Sam and Frieda Friedman in order to discover their roots, recreate their lives and times and uncover both their remarkable journeys and painful secrets. Part memoir, part genealogical mystery and part history, the book is an absorbing, heartwarming and, at times, heartbreaking tale as readers accompany the author on his extraordinary exploration of the complicated relationship between two Holocaust survivors who meet in Sweden after their liberation, and experience the painful joy of a love too often touched by death. PrefacePART IQuestioning SurvivalIntroduction PART IIThe Prewar Years: Szlama FrydmanŻarnowiec and BędzinDąbrowa Górnicza PART IIIThe War Years: SzlamaFinally, A Father’s Tale Będzin The Slave Labor Camps BunzlauThe Death March and Bergen-BelsenPART IVThe Prewar Years: Frimet EntenbergSieniawaRefugees from WarSettling in KrakówFrimet’s Kraków Home: Jozefa 12PART VThe War Years: Frimet FriedmannSchindler’s List Opens My EyesDeportationsThe Kraków GhettoPłaszów and AuschwitzBergen-BelsenBefore Leaving PolandPART VIThe Postwar Years: SwedenSearching for Life after DeathA New Kind of CampSzlama: Alone Frieda: Alone Coming Together PART VIIIn the USAThe Coney Island Years Brighton Beach Family MemoriesSam and Frieda: By Themselves AgainPART VIIIA Final Stop: Mobile, AlabamaAlzheimer’s Changes Everything“I Just Don’t Know Why” Our Last Walk PART IXAn Enduring LegacyPsychological Effects of the Holocaust through the GenerationsPART XComing HomeBack to Sweden Love That Death Has Touched Acknowledgments Bibliography About The Author Notes Suggested Further Reading