Nazi Germany and Soviet Union

Zeltserman voices: Born Jewish in the Soviet Union, a nation that crushed Nazi Germany but also persecuted Jews, Zeltserman voices complex feelings toward the U.S.S.R. Her lyrics speak to the joys of liberation by emigration but also sorrowful remembrance of things past, according to The Chronicle Herald. Her elegiac elements gain pathos by being plain: I was born after Stalin death. / I grew up during Brezhnev vegetarian times. / I was so lucky. So check out Ella Zeltserman debut book, Small Things Left Behind . These are autobiographical poems about tyranny, escape, immigration and nostalgia. Thus, I missed being shot / in blood-stained prison basements, / having my remains dumped / into an unmarked grave. Zeltserman catalogues what could be carried into Freedom: soap, precious lengths of home-cut silk, a hundred useless rubles, then notes the wondrous discovery of watermelon — The pink sugary heaven, sparkling like stars — in Italy and also of emerald green grass in the middle of a scorching Roman August. A last photo session with parents ends, All of a sudden … my mother gets pale / — You are never coming home again — / She drops into a chair like a wounded bird. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.