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Forever Torn by Jason Greenfield: book review



Forever Torn (2013) is the biography of two young orphaned Lithuanian Jewish boys arriving in England in 1930.

Orcik Gilevic is about nine years old, give or take a year or two. His brother Solomon is five. Their grandfather, Smeras Atlas, married Frade and had six children. Smeras was from Linkuva in Lithuania, and fought in the Russian army, after which he moved to Ufa in the Urals region near the Siberian border.

Smeras has a daughter, Golde (24), who married Dovid Gilevic (34) in 1919. In 1922 the Gilevic family returned to Linkuva, but grandfather Smeras and grandmother Frade moved to England in 1928. When Golde and Dovid died – both young – their aunt paid for their two sons, Orcik and Solomon, to migrate to England to live with their grandparents.

The first half of the book is about the life of the boys’ parents and grandparents. The second half of the book is about the two boys growing up in England.

Orcik Gilevic became Harry Gilvicious and then Harry Gilmore. Solomon Gilevic became Solly. But when grandfather Smeras could not look after the boys, they were separated. Solly lived with the Watermans, who changed Solly’s name to Cyril. They were to forget that they were brothers – now they were merely ‘friends’: it was for their own good, everyone said. Harry visited his younger ‘friend’ once or twice a week, and maintained the secret out of respect for grandfather Smeras, who was now called Samuel.

As they grew up, Harry ‘through his own labours and determination earned enough to enjoy a simple life’ whereas Cyril was now in the ‘high end of the wealthy middle classes.’ One had ‘gone out into the world early. One was sheltered from the world.’

Harry’s visits became less frequent, and by 1946 they stopped completely – when Harry married Sylvia and Cyril married Rita.

Harry and Sylvia had two girls – Gloria and Elaine. Gloria had two boys – Jason and Lee. The author of this biography is Jason, attempting to write the story of his own grandfather, forever torn from his young brother Cyril.

This is a simple story told simply: raw and unsophisticated, heartfelt and questioning. What if the boys had not made it to England; what if the boys had remained together. It is a family separated, a family whose history is almost changed forever. In trying to lead a normal life in England, their Jewish and Lithuanian roots are virtually forgotten – and the bond of brotherhood is severed.


MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


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