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Ben G. Frank

Origins of A Love Story in a New, Timely Novel on Ukraine

April 14, 2022 by Ben G. Frank

A novel by Ben Frank

By Ben G. Frank

Many love affairs begin with a first glance.

Before the jet age, many romances began on a train or in a railroad station. 

Who does not recall the great Russian novel, Anna Karenina, or the classic film, Waterloo Bridge.

Rail stations were always a part of my family’s story. 

One hundred years ago, my mother, Sonya, of blessed memory, left Odessa, Ukraine, by train to Romania with her mother and sisters.  They were refugees. They wanted no part of the Russian Bolshevik Red Army, just as today’s Ukrainian refugees don’t want to live under a conquering Russian army. 

As a child growing up, I often heard the story of their escape, especially when the grownups got together. In whispers, my mother and her sisters talked about their brother, Mischa, who had disappeared. They believe he ran away to the army. He was never heard of again.

I dug deeper into the family story and after years of talking to relatives, I began to tell their story in what became my Klara Trilogy.

Klara’s Journey was the first of three historical fiction books, each independent of each other. This first novel is a gripping saga of Russia’s civil war–much of which takes place in today’s Ukraine, and involves the journey of the oldest sister, Klara who, leaves the family, and traves across Siberia to get to the U.S. to find her father.

Klara’s War, the second of the trilogy, finds Klara’s niece fleeing Ukraine when the Nazis invade Russia.  Her story ends during the turbulent post-war era of Israel’s Independence  in 1948.

And then I wrote the just-released, Klara’s Brother & The Woman He Loved,  the last of the Klara Trilogy. But I never believed that my new work of historical fiction, including much material about Ukraine which has been invaded by Russia, would be so timely. 

Indeed as I write this article, I watch on television Ukrainians fleeing their homeland. The newscaster reports that Odessa, this beautiful Black Sea port.  

In order to write this family story, I had to go to Odessa. I walked the city streets and admiring its buildings, designed in neo-classical architectural style, including the attractive, yellow-and-white, local mansions, many of which display a Mediterranean theme.

I visited Proharovskaya street where my family lived. I wonder if the building will still stand if the Russians reach it in this 2022 invasion.

I move along Primorsky Blvd. to Nikolaevsky Blvd. to inhale the “spicy aroma of the acacias” hanging over the city’s busy harbor and the famous 240 Odessa Steps

At the top of the steps stands the statue of the Duc de Richelieu clad in a Roman toga; he is known as Armand Emmanuel du Plessis, 5th Duke of Richelieu, a French émigré, who served as governor of Odessa from 1803 to 1814. Now the “stone duke” points at all those arriving to his beloved city, Putin’s Russians, excluded.

And here’s where railway stations come in, especially in Klara’s Brother & the Woman He Loved.” I head to the Odessa-Holovna railway station. It was built in the second half of the 19th century, damaged in 1944, and rebuilt in 1952. I decide to begin the novel’s love story here. The year is 1919. The Czar has been dethroned. The democratic government which succeeded it, has been deposed by the Revolutionary Russian Bolsheviks, commonly known as Reds.  Opposing them are the Whites, former Czarist army officers and Cossacks, Mischa, a Bolshevik starts out as member of the Communist Red Guard, becomes a Chekist secret police and is promoted to Commissar.

In the rail station, Mischa , trying to board a train is pushed to the ground by an unruly crowd trying to escape the city. He can’t get up. So, he sits up and raises his hands, hoping someone will take hold of them and lift him up. In seconds, his arms are grabbed and his body pulled upward by the strong, but soft hands of a young beautiful woman facing him. Both are pleased at what they see in each other.

Thus begins this tumultuous story.  From the moment Commissar Mischa Rasputnis embraces Basya Abramskaya, a Soviet spy, the couples’ fate is pitted against the Kremlin’s secret police who warn the couple never to communicate with each other again. Wrenched from the arms of his loved one, Mischa often dreams he sees Basya in the sunflower fields of Ukraine. Will their love endure years of separation?  

Finishing this article, I turn on the news. “It’s calm in Odessa now. But we’re waiting for the worst,” a Ukrainian official tells the BBC. Sounds like Mischa who in Klara’s Brother & The Woman He Loved, asked: “What’s end game.”

Ben G. Frank, a former resident of Chappaqua, is a journalist, lecturer and author of books on Russia and Ukraine, including the just published historical novel, Klara’s Brother & The Woman He Loved. He now resides in Palm Beach County, FL. Ben Frank’s books are available wherever books are sold.

 

Filed Under: Gotta Have Arts Tagged With: author, Ben Frank, Klara Trilogy, Love Story

My Travels Started In The Chappaqua Library

October 24, 2018 by Ben G. Frank

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEN G. FRANK

“I travel the world.”

It’s now the summer of 2018, and I hold the copy of my fourth edition of A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe (Pelican Publishing), 752 pages, with photos, maps, a bibliography and index and say to myself:

“And to think it all began in the Chappaqua Library.”

I picture driving down Quaker Road on Saturday mornings to the library. That’s the day many fellow residents did their chores, such as ferry their kids to soccer, basketball, and other sport games; while others play tennis, golf, enjoy the pool clubs or sleigh riding in Gedney Park, depending on the season.

I spent my Saturdays in the library: First, doing research to prepare myself for forthcoming trips to exotic lands such as Tahiti, India, Morocco, Cuba, Monaco, and Peru. And then, once I landed in Europe, for instance, I people-watched on the Champs-Elysees and the Via Veneto; I stared at stately statues in London; I danced at a bar mitzvah party in Marseille; I prayed in the oldest functioning synagogue in the world, the Atlneuschul in Prague; and I spent hours at the Shoah Memorial and Holocaust Center in Paris.

In Tudela, Spain, I wrote in the new edition of my travel guide: “There are no Jews in Tudela. But I went anyway. You see, Tudela is the birthplace of my namesake, Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela. In the 12th century, he became the first Jewish travel writer, pioneering an entire branch of writing.

Like that travel writer: I chronicle the Jewish world of Europe; I record the Jewish population and describe the people; relate their history; comment on their rulers and define the Jewish Community.”

I also made sure that my travel book would be a practical, anecdotal, and adventurous journey through Jewish Europe, including in the text: kosher restaurants, cafes, synagogues, and museums, plus cultural and heritage sites.

Years after the first edition of A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe came out in 1992, a Florida woman reminded me of a phrase I used in my first travel guide. Like most authors, I felt good when a reader of one’s work, recalls a specific quote. The saying in question dates back to early 1930s-Poland, a decade later the site of the Nazi death camps. Then, Alfred Doblin, writer and novelist, wrote: “I realized I didn’t know any Jews, So, I asked myself and I asked others: ‘Where do Jews exist?’ I was told: ‘Poland.’ And so I went to Poland.”

This writer also went to Poland. Only my comment after the Holocaust was: ‘Someplace along the Polish road, you will shed a tear.’ It’s true, said the woman who remembered my quote.

After sojourning to those far off lands–24 countries in Europe alone, I would return to Chappaqua and, yes, spend Saturdays in the library, checking observations against fact. And so it went for the better part of the wonderful 37 years that my wife, Riva, resided in the hamlet including the years our two sons, Marty and Monte, were at home, until they left the nest.

What, therefore, is the essence of  A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe? My publisher put it succinctly: “This newly updated handbook from travel historian, Ben G. Frank, guides travelers through Jewish customs, neighborhoods, and historical sites in Europe. From kosher dining in France to memorials in Scandinavia, Frank combines practical information, intriguing stories, and an enlightening investigation into the Jewish contributions to European history.”

Not only did I include travel information for the tourist, I always wanted to update the political and social conditions, as well as historical information on Jewish life in Europe. Country by country, I discussed the rise of anti-Semitism, hate speech and hate crimes, especially in East Europe, as well as the rising nationalism in nations such as, Hungary, Poland and Austria.

I uncovered an interesting phenomenon:  European Jews are not only immigrating to Israel but many are relocating within Europe. In fact, Jews are moving from France to the UK, from the UK to Germany, and from Turkey to Spain and Portugal.

Thinking about my new work, I believe this new edition of A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe will help the reader understand the past history of Jews in Europe, as well as the present and the future.

So, let’s travel. As the Chinese say: “the journey of a 1,000 miles begins with the first step.”

Filed Under: Cover Stories Tagged With: Ben Frank, book, Europe, Jewish, Jewish community, Jewish Europe, Poland, Travel, travel book, travel guide

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