Friddie Stoleru was born in 1919 in Bucharest, Romania. 
At 18, Friddie married a charming, charismatic scientist named Freddy; but their union was tragically short. 
Just two weeks after the wedding, Freddy disappeared, and Friddie was unjustly accused of a crime she had never committed.
She spent nine years in a Romanian prison, followed by four years in a communist labor camp.

This is her story 

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Despite the harsh and inhumane conditions, Friddie found solace in writing poetry.
Friddie’s poems reflect her journey through life, imprisonment, and hope. They speak of joy, loss, fear, resilience, and the indomitable human spirit.
After her death, her family discovered hundreds of letters and postcards where Friddie shared her poems with her cousin, Aaurica. The family since restored, translated and brought her voice back to life in this wonderful collection. 

 

 

 

 

Friddie’s story of incredible hardship is interwoven with the stories of her family. We follow her Aunt Rosa’s life as the glue of her household, even though she loses her husband in mysterious circumstances; her Uncle David, who dreams of becoming a schoolteacher and starting a family in Iași, and her cousins, who uproot their lives in Bucharest to start again in Israel.
In this tragic-heroic novel, the true stories, the victims, and the small moments of happiness are revealed in the Danube’s labor camps, under the fascist-dictatorial and communist rule that has been a part of Romania for so many years.
Based on the true experiences of a Jewish Romanian family, Where the Lilacs Bloom Once Again unearths stories that could so easily be lost to the passage of time. This family’s tale has emerged at a critical time, to show the need for compassion and kindness, even in the hardest moments.