Holocaust Memoirs of a Bergen-Belsen Survivor & Classmate of Anne Frank — A Literary Translation by Rafa Lombardino
Last year, when Rafa Lombardino shared on her personal Facebook page that she would present a session at ATA 58 about her experience translating the memoir of a Holocaust survivor, I knew I would attend that session and read that book! That hit too close to home. Both sides of my family come from European ancestry, but my mom’s side includes Holocaust survivors. Many of my childhood friends also come from families of Holocaust survivors.
The Holocaust is becoming part of a distant past, but we must keep dragging it back to the present. — Nanette Blitz Konig
Last year, Rafa Lombardino took on the great literary mission of translating the Holocaust memoirs of a Bergen-Belsen survivor who was also one of Anne Frank’s classmates.
Later, at the 58th annual conference of the American Translators Association (November 2017), she hosted a session about the project and explored the challenges of translating Nanette Blitz Konig’s memoir, Eu Sobrevivi Ao Holocausto (I Survived the Holocaust), into English.
I was there, and it was an excellent (and emotional) session. So much so that I wrote a review for Source, a quarterly publication of the ATA’s Literary Division.
At the time, I was yet to read the translation (it hadn’t been published yet), but if timeless memory, awareness, and recount is what Nanette wanted to achieve with her book, so that we can have one more testimony of the horrors of wars and hope to, one day, learn the lesson and stop making the same mistakes, I knew in my heart that Rafa was on the right path to do her justice.
Now, the book is out, and I invite each and every one of you to read it.
English edition
http://bit.ly/HolocaustMemoirs
Portuguese edition
http://bit.ly/Nanette-Portuguese
With my testimony, I want to give voice to those who have been silenced and can no longer share their stories and sorrows. — Nanette Blitz Konig
Rafaela Lombardino is a fellow Brazilian translator who resides in the United States. She is ATA-certified in both English to Portuguese and Portuguese to English and has worked in the profession since 1997.
She is also certified in Spanish to English translation by the University of California San Diego Extension, where she teaches “Tools and Technology in Translation” and “Introduction to Swordfish.”
She began working with literary translations in 2011 after reaching out to self-published authors. Since then, she has completed over 20 books, with three more currently in the works.
She is the president of Word Awareness, a small network of professional translators, and runs a literary translation effort called BrazilianShortStories.com, in addition to curating content for eWordNews.com.
- Rafa’s Book (Tools and Technology in Translation): http://bit.ly/T3-book
- YouTube Channel: http://bit.ly/T3-YouTube
- Facebook Page: http://bit.ly/T3-FBPage
- Twitter: http://bit.ly/RL-Twitter
