We Were the Lucky Ones Summary: Kurc Family’s WWII Story
TL;DR: Quick Snapshot
In March 1939, the Kurc family gathers in Radom, Poland, for a Passover Seder.
They do not know that within months, Nazi Germany will invade their country and scatter them across continents.
Georgia Hunter’s We Were the Lucky Ones follows this Polish-Jewish family through ghettos, Siberian labor camps, refugee ships, and battlefields.
The novel traces how each member fights to survive while holding onto the hope of reuniting.
What sets this book apart is that every core family member survives. The narrative moves chronologically from 1939 to 1947, ending with a Passover Seder in Rio de Janeiro.
Dive Into the Full Chapter-by-Chapter Summary of We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
Who Is We Were the Lucky Ones For?
This book may appeal to readers interested in World War II and Holocaust narratives. It suits those who prefer multi-perspective family sagas over single-protagonist stories.
The chronological structure and global scope make it accessible for readers who want a broad view of wartime displacement.
The novel’s focus on survival rather than graphic atrocity may appeal to readers seeking Holocaust stories centered on resilience. Those who enjoy biographical fiction based on family history may find this particularly engaging.
We Were the Lucky Ones Summary: The Full Story
Spoilers Ahead
The Kurc family lives comfortably in Radom, Poland. Sol and Nechuma run a successful fabric shop. Their five adult children pursue law, medicine, music, and photography. In March 1939, they celebrate Passover together for the last time in their ancestral home.
Addy, the middle son, lives in Toulouse, France, working as an engineer and composing music. His mother writes urging him to stay abroad due to rising anti-Semitism. When Germany invades Poland in September 1939, the family is torn apart.
Sol and his sons Genek and Jakob, along with sons-in-law Selim and Adam, flee east toward Lvov. Poland is partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union. Radom falls under Nazi control. Lvov falls under Soviet rule.
In Radom, the family is evicted from their home and forced into a small flat in the Jewish quarter. Mila’s husband Selim goes missing during the Soviet takeover of Lvov. She is left alone with her infant daughter Felicia.
Jakob reunites with his sweetheart Bella in Lvov. They marry in a secret ceremony. Genek refuses to declare Soviet citizenship. In June 1940, Soviet secret police arrest him and his pregnant wife Herta. They endure a forty-two-day train journey to a Siberian timber camp.
Genek and Herta survive sub-zero temperatures and grueling labor. Herta gives birth to their son Józef on a dirt floor in March 1941. She uses warm breast milk to unseal his frozen eyelids each morning.
Addy is conscripted into the French Army. After France falls in 1940, he obtains forged papers and escapes Nazi roundups. A Brazilian ambassador illegally grants him a visa. He boards a refugee ship in Marseille in January 1941.
The ship is stranded for months in Senegal and Morocco. Addy eventually reaches Rio de Janeiro. He is briefly detained before being allowed to stay in Brazil.
In June 1941, Germany invades Soviet territory. The NKVD massacres prisoners before retreating from Lvov. Nazi forces and local militias launch pogroms. Bella’s sister Anna is murdered. Halina’s boyfriend Adam is captured and sent to a work camp.
Halina confronts the camp guard and bribes him with her grandmother’s silver spoon. She secures Adam’s release. They later marry.
By 1942, Nazis establish ghettos in Radom. Mila hides three-year-old Felicia in a sack of fabric scraps during an SS raid. When Jews are lured onto trains with false promises of emigration, Mila realizes it is an execution trap.
She runs to a stranger and claims Felicia as her own. She bribes an SS officer with her gold wedding ring to save their lives.
Mila later removes her Star of David armband and walks backward through the ghetto gate disguised among German wives. She places Felicia in a Catholic convent.
Halina works under a forged Aryan ID. She rescues her parents from the Pionki arms factory using her mother’s amethyst necklace as a bribe. She hides them in a rural cottage behind a trick bookcase.
Jakob escapes the AVL factory with Bella by clipping through a chain-link fence. They hide in a wheat field until dark and flee to Warsaw.
In 1943, Polish captives in Siberia receive amnesty. Genek, Herta, and baby Józef travel to Uzbekistan. To join General Anders’s Polish II Corps, Genek falsely registers as Roman Catholic. Selim, who survived as a labor camp medic, also joins the army.
The army evacuates through Persia to Palestine and Egypt. It eventually deploys to Italy. Genek fights in the Battle of Monte Cassino in May 1944.
In August 1944, the Warsaw Uprising begins. Jakob, Bella, Halina, Adam, and Mila hide in basements while Nazis flatten the city. Halina travels to Kraków to secure funds but is arrested by the Gestapo.
She is imprisoned at Montelupich Prison and subjected to beatings. She recites Catholic prayers and denies being Jewish. Her former employer eventually confirms her employment, securing her release in January 1945.
Mila returns to the bombed convent outside Warsaw. She digs through rubble with her bare hands. She rescues six-year-old Felicia alive from an underground bunker.
After Germany surrenders in May 1945, the family gathers in Łódź, Poland. Halina visits the Red Cross and receives a telegram from Genek:
“WITH SELIM IN ITALY. FIND US THR POLISH II CORPS. GENEK KURC”
Sol and Nechuma decide the family must leave Europe.
Post-war Poland offers destroyed homes and persistent anti-Semitic violence.
Jakob, Bella, and their newborn son Victor relocate to a Displaced Persons camp in Germany. They eventually emigrate to the United States in 1946.
In Rio de Janeiro, Addy marries an American woman named Caroline. She cashes her war bonds to fund steamship passage for Addy’s entire surviving family. In 1946, Addy meets his parents, siblings, and relatives at the Rio port.
The novel ends in April 1947 with a Passover Seder in Rio de Janeiro.
Every core member of the Kurc family has survived. Fewer than three hundred of Radom’s thirty thousand Jews lived through the Holocaust.
Georgia Hunter recounts this miraculous reunion around the Seder table.
Continue Reading: The Italian Ballerina Summary: A Disjointed Dance Through History | Kristy Cambron
Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Sol Kurc | Family patriarch and fabric shop owner in Radom |
| Nechuma Kurc | Family matriarch who maintains hope throughout displacement |
| Genek Kurc | Eldest son, lawyer, Siberian exile, soldier at Monte Cassino |
| Herta Kurc | Genek’s wife who gives birth in a Siberian labor camp |
| Józef Kurc | Son of Genek and Herta, born in Siberian gulag |
| Mila Kurc | Eldest daughter, pianist, protects daughter Felicia in ghetto |
| Selim | Mila’s husband, physician, survives as labor camp medic |
| Felicia | Daughter of Mila and Selim, hidden in convent |
| Addy Kurc | Middle son, engineer and composer, escapes to Brazil |
| Jakob Kurc | Younger son, photographer, escapes labor factory |
| Bella Kurc | Jakob’s wife, loses sister Anna to pogroms |
| Victor Kurc | Son of Jakob and Bella, born post-war |
| Halina Kurc | Youngest daughter, underground worker, rescues parents |
| Adam Eichenwald | Halina’s husband, architect and counterfeiter |
| Caroline | American woman in Rio who marries Addy and funds family passage |
| Ambassador Luis Martins de Souza Dantas | Brazilian ambassador who issues visas to Jewish refugees |
What the Kurc Family’s Story Reveals
| Theme | How the Book Presents It |
|---|---|
| Family Unity and Devotion | Every family member works to protect others and reunite. They use Red Cross letters, telegrams, and personal networks to find each other across continents. |
| Resourcefulness and Courage | Survival requires forged Aryan IDs, bribes with jewelry and silver, hiding children in fabric sacks, and posing as Catholics to join the army. |
| Persecution and Exile | The narrative depicts ghetto liquidations, Siberian gulags, execution fields, refugee ships, and the murder of ninety percent of Polish Jewry. |
| Identity and Cultural Preservation | Characters balance assimilation with Jewish tradition. They preserve music, family heirlooms, and gather for Passover Seders during and after the war. |
Books Like We Were the Lucky Ones
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris — Based on a true WWII survival story, focusing on love and endurance in a concentration camp.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr — Intertwining lives navigate occupied Europe during World War II.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah — Female courage and underground resistance under Nazi occupation in France.
Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally — Biographical account of Polish Jews saved during the Holocaust.
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay — Parallel narratives about a Jewish girl in wartime France and a modern journalist uncovering her story.
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn — Female spies in World War I and II, emphasizing courage and survival.
Book Snapshot
- Genre & Subgenre: Historical Fiction / Biographical Fiction / World War II & Holocaust Narrative
- Core Narrative Tropes: Family saga, miraculous survival, escape odyssey, forged identities, underground resistance, refugee displacement
- Tone & Atmosphere: Intimate, visceral, resilient, emotionally charged, poignant
- Primary Conflict: External struggle against Nazi annihilation, Soviet repression, disease, and starvation across multiple war zones; internal anguish of separation and uncertainty
- Pacing Style: Multi-perspective ensemble narrative, fast-paced, chronological
- ISBN: 978-0399563089
- Pages: 416
- Book Structure: 63 chapters in 3 parts, plus Author’s Note, Since Then, and Acknowledgements
Quotes from We Were the Lucky Ones
“By the end of the Holocaust, ninety per cent of Poland’s three million Jews were annihilated; of the more than thirty thousand Jews who lived in Radom, fewer than three hundred survived.”
“Home is home – we’ll be here.”
“Together from now on, all right? No matter what.”
“Relationships begin with honesty, Nechuma once told him. This is the foundation, for to be in love means to be able to share everything – your dreams, your faults, your deepest fears.”
“Blessed art thou, Lord our God, Master of the universe, Who has kept us alive and sustained us, And has brought us to this special time.”
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Georgia Hunter: From Family History to Fiction
Georgia Hunter grew up in Massachusetts and New York. She learned at fifteen that she was part of a family of Holocaust survivors.
Her grandfather, Addy Kurc, was one of them. Hunter spent nearly a decade traveling to Poland, France, Brazil, and other countries to research her family’s history.
We Were the Lucky Ones is her first novel, published in 2017. She has since become a prominent voice in Holocaust literature.
