We Share the Same Sky: A Memoir of Memory and Migration

Written by Rachel Cerotti (2021)

By E.Kingsbury (FSWC Director of Holocaust Curriculum and Learning)

Rachael Cerotti’s We Share the Same Sky is a moving, thoughtful and sometimes heartbreaking work of nonfiction that chronicles the author’s decade-long journey to understand her grandmother’s unique experience of exile and survival during the Holocaust. Winner of the Maine Literary Award and shortlisted for the 2022 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, this important work illuminates the way the past travels with us across borders, generations and time.

At the heart of the memoir is Cerotti’s relationship with her grandmother, Hana Dubova, a Holocaust survivor born in Prague whose bittersweet memories about her early life shaped her family in subtle but enduring ways. In 2009, Cerrotti, a college student pursuing a career in photojournalism, asked her grandmother if she could record her story. Cerotti knew that her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor and the only one in her family alive at the end of the war.

Cerotti also knew that she survived because of the kindness of strangers. It wasn't a secret. But, Cerotti wanted to document it as only a granddaughter could. So, that's what they did. Hana talked and Cerotti wrote. Upon Hana's passing in 2010, Cerotti discovered an incredible archive of her life, including preserved albums and hundreds of photographs dating back to the 1920s. There were also letters, diaries, and dozens of other documents waiting to be translated. She digitized and organized it all, plucking it from the past and placing it into her present.

As an act of both commemoration and curiosity, she began physically retracing her grandmother's steps from her time as a young refugee, following her from Prague, to Denmark, Sweden, and finally the United States. As Cerotti travels, she reflects on what it means to inherit a legacy shaped by the joy of survival and guilt over what - and who - was lost. Rather than presenting history as something fixed and complete, her narrative reminds readers that our stories are alive and ever-changing, shaped by both grief and love that surprise us along the way.

One of the memoir’s greatest strengths is its emotional intelligence. Cerotti’s writing style is clear and precise, balancing historical research with personal reflection in a way that draws the reader in. Interwoven throughout the text are quotations drawn from Hana’s diaries and letters, sitting alongside intimate scenes of Jewish family life. The text thus encourages readers toward empathetic understanding of the intergenerational impact of the trauma as well as triumphs shared between survivors and their descendants.

The theme of memory and belonging for Jewish descendants in Europe today is a recurring focal point. Cerotti examines not only the physical act of moving across countries, but the emotional dislocation that follows — how migrants carry their losses, fears and hopes into new landscapes, as well as the trauma of exclusion. As Cerotti makes her way across Europe, destinations on her list become spaces where history collides with the present, at times conjuring up ghosts of the past that stir feelings of anger and alienation for the people around her. Through this lens, We Share the Same Sky speaks not only to Jewish experiences during the Holocaust, but to lingering questions of collective memory in post-war Europe.

Cerotti is open about her own position as a descendant trying to recapture history. She questions her right to tell this story, the gaps she cannot fill and the ethical responsibility of representing trauma she did not directly experience. Her self-awareness adds depth and emotional complexity to the narrative, inviting readers to reflect on their own relationships to family history and the stories we inherit. These themes feel particularly relevant today, more than 80 years after the Holocaust, when direct eyewitnesses like Hana are an ever-dwindling resource.

We Share the Same Sky is a powerful meditation on the forces of grief and love and their transformative power across generations. Cerotti’s reflections on Hana’s experiences and open discussion of her own journey of love, loss and discovery remind readers that we are all shaped by what is passed down intentionally, as well as what is absorbed unconsciously. Appropriate for readers of all ages, the author has also created an accompanying curriculum and education materials for teachers planning to use the text in their classroom. Compassionate, insightful and beautifully written, it’s a memoir that honours the past while speaking urgently to the present, reminding us that even under the ever-changing sky, human experiences remain profoundly interconnected.

Link to book site and accompanying education resources:

https://www.rachaelcerrotti.com/book