To accommodate these concerns, Powell chose a somewhat eccentric structure. In the intervening chapters, Powell drops readers into the abyss of the Holocaust, putting them elbow to elbow with the Skoreckis as they at first are imprisoned in a ghetto carved out of their hometown of Lodz and then relocated to the larger Warsaw ghetto. As the war ends the Skoreckis eventually reach an American-operated displaced persons center. Finally, in 1949, they arrive in New Orleans, a port of embarkation for Jewish refugees. If you can show how history affects the lives of ordinary persons, then, I think, it becomes more memorable.
Memories inform as well as haunt the project.
Although Anne was no more than 7 when the bottom fell out of her life, we learn in detail about the people and events that surrounded her because her mother, Ruth, had dictated a memoir during the mid-'50s. Ruth died in 1973, but it is her memories that serve as a blueprint for much of the book. What the memoir meant to Powell was that he would be able to bring readers to ground zero of the Holocaust. I saw a terrible face looking at me. He raised his hand with the gun.