Unearthed by Meryl Frank

My interview with Meryl Frank is one that I will always remember. UNEARTHED is a powerful memoir and a compelling story as Meryl Frank discovered the story of a cousin, Franya Winters, a vibrant young woman who was lost too soon. 

She is the former US Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of women and a former New Jersey Mayor.

More importantly, Meryl Frank is an author who has given life to someone who should be remembered. Franya Winter was an actress who loved life, who loved being on stage, who gave her life in those terrible dark days. Franya deserves to be center stage. My hope is that the story of Franya will become a film so that once more, Franya will hear: Bravo! 

There are many wonderful and well-deserved reviews for Meryl’s book. I just want to add “Bravo, Meryl!” You can see more on Amazon, including: 

Ms. Frank makes effective use of the work of historians of Eastern Europe…. A tale of tears and a story of survival and of the resilience of remembrance…. Meryl Frank has crafted a history based in careful research and hopes that she has raised our moral awareness about the current dangers of persecution. She has also honored the memory of her family, passing the candle of their remembrance to her readers.”―The Wall Street Journal

“Unearthed is a fascinating, exciting, and revealing book. It is a significant work of family history and reminds us of the great importance of remembering those we have lost…rich with the author’s personal reflections, the story of her research, and stories of life in Vilna, the Yiddish theater, and so much more….Unearthed teaches us the importance of remembrance….Unearthed is a well-researched and well-written book, and an important addition to the still-growing library of Holocaust literature.”―Jerusalem Post

About the book:

A thrilling mystery woven into a beautifully constructed family memoir: Meryl Frank’s journey to seek the truth about a beloved and revolutionary cousin, a celebrated actress in Vilna before World War II, and to answer the question of how the next generation should honor the memory of the Holocaust.

As a child, Meryl Frank was the chosen inheritor of family remembrance. Her aunt Mollie, a formidable and cultured woman, insisted that Meryl never forget who they were, where they came from, and the hate that nearly destroyed them. Over long afternoons, Mollie told her about the city, the theater, and, above all else, Meryl’s cousin, the radiant Franya Winter. Franya was the leading light of Vilna’s Yiddish theater, a remarkable and precocious woman who cast off the restrictions of her Hasidic family and community to play roles as prostitutes and bellhops, lovers and nuns. Yet there was one thing her aunt Mollie would never tell Meryl: how Franya died. Before Mollie passed away, she gave Meryl a Yiddish book containing the terrible answer, but forbade her to read it. And for years, Meryl obeyed. 

Unearthed is the story of Meryl’s search for Franya and a timely history of hatred and resistance. Through archives across four continents, by way of chance encounters and miraculous discoveries, and eventually, guided by the shocking truth recorded in the pages of the forbidden book, Meryl conjures the rogue spirit of her cousin—her beauty and her tragedy. Meryl’s search reveals a lost world destroyed by hatred, illuminating the cultural haven of Vilna and its resistance during World War II. As she seeks to find her lost family legacy, Meryl looks for answers to the questions that have defined her life: what is our duty to the past? How do we honor such memories while keeping them from consuming us? And what do we teach our children about tragedy? .

AVAILABLE ONLINE