Few people have so consistently and accurately tended to the teaching and understanding of the Holocaust as Elaine Culbertson, daughter of two remarkable Holocaust survivors. In Mamaleh, Culbertson wisely reflects upon the many stories her parents related about their experiences and upon her mother's personal writings. With compassion, insight, and tenderness, she also makes astute observations upon what it was like to grow up in a household filled with the trauma and determination of two concentration camp survivors...

Stephen Feinberg

Former educator, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Teachers Program of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors

... (In) Mamaleh...Culbertson succeeds in blending a child's hidden vantage with an adult's fierce clarity, rendering scenes of Holocaust aftermath not only from survivor perspectives inside the camps, but from a little girl's perspective beneath a Brooklyn dinner table...(T)he memoir's dual authorship, woven from Elaine's narrative and the haunting, eloquent writings of her mother, Dora Freilich, imbues the book with a rare combination of emotional resonance and historical authenticity, where the voices of survivor and daughter echo and deepen each other. Third, Culbertson's prose is at once intimate and unflinching, building a portrait of memory, humor, affection, and a longing for connection over the generations... Mamaleh... catapults readers into the immediacy of a past that refuses to go away. Highly recommended.

Joshua M. Greene

author, Unstoppable

...This book is not just for Jewish readers or those who are interested in the Holocaust. It's for anyone who has grappled with family legacies and how the past shapes the present...

Alexandra Zapruder

Author of Salvaged Pages