Ask an Author with Kate Thompson
Occasionally you pick up a book that is so powerful it is impossible not to keep thinking about it long after you put it down.
For me, that book is A Mother’s Promise (also known as Do Not Cry When I Die), the memoir of Holocaust survivor Renee Salt. Here is a look at what I had to say just after finishing that book.
A powerful account of a young girl’s incredible resilience in the face of the unthinkable horror of the Holocaust, Renee Salt’s memoir is needed now more than ever. Interspersed with Kate Thompson’s intricate research, this memoir follows Renee as she is ripped from a happy childhood in Poland and forced into ghettos and concentration camps. However, her story does not end there but follows her liberation and—against all odds—the life she built after the war. A riveting read.
I’m very happy to say that Kate Thompson, the talented author who worked with Salt to bring this incredible story to the reading public, sat down for an Ask an Author interview to talk about the story behind A Mother’s Promise.
1. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to learn about Renee Salt and her incredible story? When did you and Renee begin to work together to write A Mother’s Promise / Do Not Cry When I Die?
Sure. I met Renee Salt on 19 October 2022 at the launch event of an exhibition about Auschwitz–Birkenau in London. Renee, then ninety-three, had come with the Holocaust Educational Trust in order to speak about her experiences. She looked so small in front of the pack of assembled journalists, photographers and camera crews, and something in me folded. Surely this was too much for such an elderly woman I thought? Then she began to speak and I realised how clumsy I had been in my assumptions. Her presence grew in front of my eyes until she filled the space with her light. Far from frail, she was the strongest, most resilient person in that room.
Renee spoke unprompted for thirty minutes and then took questions. I could not believe what I was hearing. Of course, I knew about the Holocaust, but to hear the human lived experience of it from a survivor was incredibly powerful.
Afterwards, I went to thank her for sharing her story and I asked whether she had ever had her own book published. She told me she hadn’t, but she would like to share those experiences, ‘if I felt there was enough to make a book’! After that I went to visit her in her sheltered housing apartment and we began our journey together.
2. How did you approach researching this book alongside your interviews with Renee? I’m curious because there are points where Renee might not remember something happening or you come in to provide context that can help us as readers more fully understand how the events of her life fit into what was happening in the war at large.
Good question. Originally, the intention was to help Renee write a first-person memoir, but it became clear as we began the interview process that that simply was not going to be possible. Naturally, the moments of heightened terror, like her arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, are seared into Renee’s brain and she recalled them verbatim. But the in-between parts, the long, drawn-out ghetto years for example, were a foggy wasteland.
Plenty of conversations happened with Renee, myself and our editor and we decided on both a third and first-person narrative. Renee’s first-person testimony would be italicised, and a third-person factual narrative would tell the wider stories that she could not possibly have known in the moment. The challenge was blending my voice with Renee’s so that it would be seamless for the reader.
When it came to the research, I met with and interviewed experts in their field, including Holocaust educators, historians, faith leaders, tour guides and archivists, from the Holocaust Educational Trust to Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum, Bergen-Belsen Memorial, the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, The Wiener Holocaust Library and many more, all of whom generously agreed to work with me to ensure accuracy and proof read the book. I also devoured every book on the subject I could and visited the archives, but nothing replaced visiting the sites of Renee’s persecution and retracing her footsteps in Poland and Germany.
3. One of the things that struck me when reading this book was that not only did Renee experience true horror and cruelty during the war, but there were also glimpses of extraordinary humanity running through this book. As a co-author, how did you work with her to weave those elements together to best tell her story?
I am glad you picked up on that Julia. Renee saw the worst of humanity, but she also experienced brief flashes of kindness that glimmered in the darkness of the abyss. Like the guard in the slave labour camp in Hamburg who sneaked Renee green apples when no one else was looking. Or the older female prisoners in the ghetto in Poland who applied a little rouge to her face, gave her their shoes and a scarf to make her look older, as a result of which Renee avoided a selection by the SS.
When I returned from my research trips, I would show Renee photos or information I had uncovered, and often that would trigger more memories. I learnt that memory is often unpredictable. Renee’s story never came out in a linear way. It burst out, an unfiltered gush of history that at times threatened to overwhelm her. Every memory Renee recounted, I could see she was experiencing it physically, her fingers splaying out as if to grab at something, her eyes growing wide with fear. Her trauma was a living thing. On many occasions, she would sit and weep, and I would hold her hand in silence, for what words of comfort could I possibly offer?
4. Many readers will be familiar with your novels such as The Little Wartime Library and The Wartime Book Club, but they might not know that you have also had an impressive career as a journalist in the UK! How does your writing process differ when writing nonfiction vs. novels?
I think I write fiction and non-fiction with different parts of my brain and often I needed to remind myself to shift gears and move from novelist to journalist. The question I wrestled most with was: How do you describe the indescribable? I decided that cold, hard facts worked more effectively. Occasionally, the novelist sneaked in. Fortunately, someone whose opinion I trusted, had the sense to warn me, ‘You don’t want the tone or style to be a kind of Mills and Boon version of the Holocaust!’
There were also time constraints with this book. With the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Third Reich camps looming, the book had to be ready for edits by the summer of 2024. Which left approximately six months to research and write a first draft. As a journalist, the deadline wasn’t intimidating, but as the reality of the new book began to sink in, the subject matter was!
I have ghosted multiple memoirs and written a non-fiction on the contribution of working-class women to wartime society for Penguin (Michael Joseph) called The Stepney Doorstep Society. But this book was about the Holocaust, an area I didn’t have any personal connection to or specialist knowledge. ‘Whatever you do, don’t get it wrong,’ a Holocaust educator warned as I began the research process.
I met the deadline in something of a fever dream. I wrote it faster than any other book I have written, the words tumbling out in anger at man’s inhumanity and awe at Renee’s courage. Whenever I felt the weight of the story pressing down, I reminded myself that I may have travelled to the sites of Renee’s persecution, but only she had travelled deep into the abyss of human darkness.
It’s been the most challenging and visceral book I have ever written. The Holocaust defies the limits of language. What I have learnt is that stories are living, breathing things. In trusting me to tell her story, Renee handed me something alive, to be nurtured and cared for. And that is an extraordinary privilege. Telling Renee’s story at the age of 95 gives this book an unvarnished texture that travels to the heart of human existence.
5. I want to make sure to ask about two more things: your podcast From the Library With Love and your new Substack. (Readers, be sure to follow
!) How do those fit into your writing career?Another good question and one I am still figuring out. I have over 50 episodes of From the Library with Love available to download. That had to take a backseat while I worked hell for leather to complete A Mother’s Promise. Now it’s been published, I am really looking forward to getting back to the podcast and finding stories to uncover and people to interview. I’m new to Substack and excited to have another outlet to share stories and connect with readers.
6. And finally, are there any books you’ve recently read that you want to recommend?
Oh, there are so many good books out at the moment. I absolutely loved The Dressmakers of London. Your devotion to history and the craft of storytelling is so evident throughout.
I am currently reading and thoroughly enjoying Brianna Labuskes’ The Boxcar Librarian and it’s wonderful, I am learning so much.
A recent standout read for me was Jodi Picoult’s, By Any Other Name. Jodi challenges us to rethink our understanding of the works of Shakespeare. Her historical sleuthing reaches new heights. It’s also just a rollocking good read.
Thanks Julia for featuring me on your Substack.
Kate Thompson was born in London and worked as a journalist for twenty years on women's magazines and national newspapers. She now lives in Sunbury with her husband, two sons and two rescue dogs. After ghost writing five memoirs, Kate moved into fiction. Kate's first non-fiction social history documenting the forgotten histories of East End matriarchy, The Stepney Doorstep Society, was published in 2018 by Penguin. She is passionate about capturing lost voices and untold social histories. You can learn more about Kate’s books at www.katethompsonmedia.co.uk.