By all accounts, Regina Anuszewicz was a woman ahead of her time. She defied the female norms and stereotypes of the early 1900s and fled the violence unfolding in Warsaw on her own, with an infant. And because she left Poland before the wars, she survived. And because she survived, her granddaughter, Geri Spieler, can share Regina’s unforgettable story in the new book, Regina of Warsaw: Love, Loss and Liberation.
“Readers will appreciate the premise of the story because, in some ways, it mirrors what is happening in the world today,” Spieler said. “It’s a story of bravery and survival.”
From the first page, readers are transported to 1906 Bialystok, Poland, where Regina Anuszewicz was visiting her sister and looking forward to a late June stroll along the Bialy River. It should have been an exciting time to stay overnight in the women’s boarding house, but a violent pogrom blasted those plans as a rage of violence shook the town and Regina’s hopes. Russian soldiers and police swarmed the streets and homes, and once they reached her sister’s boarding house, all Regina could do was hide inside a closet, barely able to breathe as she heard screams and people begging for their lives.
The trauma of that day shaped Regina’s life and ignited her passion to take a more active role in fighting antisemitism. The atrocities that her family endured impacted every decision she made in life as she moved through the days and years, coloring her approach to every event that took her from Poland to the United States, and how she cared for the four children she sought to protect.
Geri Spieler is a journalist, investigative reporter and award-winning speaker. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, and as a research director for Gartner, a global technology advising company. She regularly contributed to Huffington Post and Truthdig.com, an award-winning investigative reporting website. She is also the author of San Francisco Values: Common Ground for Getting America Back on Track, and the multiple award-winning Housewife Assassin: The Woman Who Tried To Kill President Ford, which has been optioned for a movie. She lives in the San Francisco Bay with her husband, nine chickens and 10 fruit trees.
To learn more, please visit https://gerispieler.com/, or follow her on Instagram (gspieler124), Facebook (Geri Spieler) and Substack (Geri Spieler).
