Stumbling Blocks, a second-generation Holocaust memoir, tells Jennifer's and Paul's stories. Paul, Jennifer’s father, was born in Germany in 1928. At the age of ten, just after Kristallnacht, his parents sent him and his older sisters to Belgium. There, they lived for two years with relatives they barely knew. In 1941, Paul’s parents reunited with the children and fled Germany. When Jennifer was born in the 1950s, she was called a lucky girl. She was born at a time of relative peace and safety. But she felt the presence of the people left behind, whose incomplete histories were told in fragments. Was this because no one knew what happened? Or was someone trying to protect her? Stumbling Blocks is Jennifer’s journey to find truth and meaning from the legacy of the Holocaust.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jennifer Krebs’ work has appeared in The Tribe of Dina, Unholy Alliances, and Readings for Diversity of Social Justice. She has recorded "A Perspective" for KQED. Jennifer was an environmental planner for local governments in the San Francisco Bay Area. When not writing or planning, she goes for long rambles in parks with her spouse Amy and her dog Alfie.

The title Stumbling Blocks is a loose translation of Stolpersteine. Stolpersteine are memorials to those persecuted by the Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s. Small brass plaques have been placed in the sidewalk in front of the last residence of someone persecuted. To date over 100,000 have been laid throughout Europe, including one for Paul in front of his family home in Germany.