Author Talk: Up from Ashes

In 1943, a Polish young man and a Dutch girl were forced to dance together for the amusement of their Nazi guards. Together, they rose up against their captors and participated in the infamous uprising of the Sobibor death camp in 1944. They escaped, hiding for nine months until liberation. In 1957, they arrived in Connecticut and made it their home. Together, Chaim and Selma Engel survived what should have been unsurvivable. They found hope where there was no hope, and on the back of trauma, they built a beautiful life. Their story is now told in a new novel, UP FROM THE ASHES.

We invite you to join author Sharon Cameron, Tagan Engel, and other members of the Engel family for a unique and powerful conversation on the life of late Connecticut residents Chaim and Selma Engel, who spent fifteen years speaking in schools along the Connecticut shoreline about their remarkable rebellion and escape. Chaim and Selma’s story is not only an important memory within the devastating history of the Holocaust, but a needed story of our now.

Copies of the book will be available for sale at this event by Possible Futures Bookspace.

About the Speakers

Sharon Cameron is the critically acclaimed, award-winning, #1 NYT best-selling author of nine books, four of them about the Holocaust, including newest novel, UP FROM THE ASHES, and THE LIGHT IN HIDDEN PLACES, which has been published in nineteen countries and was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. Sharon is a passionate reader, a passionate student of history, and firm believer in the power of equity and hope. She lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee. Visit her on socials or at sharoncameronbooks.com.

Tagan Engel is the granddaughter of Selma and Chaim Engel, survivors of the Nazi Death Camp, Sobibor. She works as a consultant and educator in the fields of equity and justice practices; regenerative food systems; community driven change; and radio journalism. She has a three decade long career in community-based work, and is currently Faculty of practice-based work at the Yale School of the Environment and a Resident Fellow at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. Tagan is also the host of the radio show/podcast The Table Underground, and has produced shows on food, culture, and social justice on WNPR and WPKN.