Hidden in Plain Sight: A Family Memoir and the Untold Story of the Holocaust in Serbia
or from your local bookstore
Now available as an audiobook read by the author!
In Hidden in Plain Sight: A Family Memoir and the Untold Story of the Holocaust in Serbia, the reader will discover a powerful, untold chapter of Holocaust history and a daughter's enduring quest to know the story that began a generation before her birth.
From childhood, Julie Brill struggled to understand how her father survived as a young Jewish boy in Belgrade, where Nazis murdered 90 percent of the Jewish population without gas chambers or cattle cars. Through exacting research, a bit of luck, and three emotional trips to Serbia, she pieces together her family's lost past, unearths secrets, and returns to her father a small part of what the Nazis stole: his own family history.
Praise for Hidden in Plain Sight:
In quiet, lovely prose, Julie Brill has delivered a powerful reminder of why our stories-personal, familial, historical-are so crucial. A moving excavation of a family story.
- Menachem Kaiser
Author of Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure
A standout among Holocaust memoirs. [...] It provides an object lesson in how to carry out research, what it takes to recover lost family secrets. [...] an extraordinary book.
- Jonathan D. Sarna
University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University
A remarkable account of one woman's quest for her family's past. In moving, concise prose, Julie Brill recounts years of meticulous research filled with twists and turns, taking her to her father's homeland of Serbia, discovering long-forgotten relatives, uncovering stories and secrets about the family's complex origins, and confronting the improbabilities of death and survival in the Holocaust. A powerful, highly readable book taking the reader into the depths of the largely unknown, fascinating and tragic tale of Jewish-Serbian history.
- Omer Bartov
Samuel Pisar Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Brown University and author of The Butterfly and the Axe
One of the rare books that speaks on behalf of, and in the name of, the fragmented family histories of many of us descendants of Holocaust survivors in Serbia. [...] This book should become mandatory reading in both primary and secondary schools.
- Sonja Viličić
Executive Director of Haver Srbija
Julie Brill brings us along as she searches for her family’s fate in Serbia during the Holocaust. The result is a compassionate, meticulously researched and powerful testament to the need to uncover our histories and tell our stories.
- Tova Mirvis
Author of We Would Never and The Book of Separation: A Memoir
A heartfelt journey that beautifully intertwines personal anecdotes with the poignant history of a lesser-known chapter of the Holocaust. Julie dives right in with caring and thoughtful storytelling, reclaiming her family’s memories and showing us how important it is to share our own stories to uphold the promise to "never forget." Her vulnerability and creativity make the past come alive, bridging generations and drawing readers into a world that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. Julie’s memoir is not just a book—it’s an empathetic bridge to history that speaks directly to the heart.
- Dave Reckess
Executive Director, 3GNY-Descendants of Holocaust Survivors
Julie Brill’s quest is a deeply moving account of reconstructing a history that was never fully spoken, highlighting the powerful tension between what was lost and what endures. In this rare work of postmemory literature connected to Serbia, the gaps left in family narratives come to light as she uncovers how silence has shaped her family’s legacy.
- Dr. Katarina Melić
Director of the Center for Memory Studies, University of Kragujevac, Serbia
In Hidden in Plain Sight, Julie Brill does a fascinating deep dive into her family’s past, unraveling the secrets of the Holocaust in Serbia. A poignant, heartfelt, haunting story of loss and legacy.
- Susan Shapiro
NYT bestselling author/coauthor of Unhooked, Bosnia List & The Forgiveness Tour
Part Holocaust family memoir and part exploration into the absence of Holocaust memorialization in Serbia, Hidden in Plain Sight is a captivating and emotional book. Julie Brill embarks on a multigenerational quest to find out what happened to her grandfather, murdered in the Holocaust. She finds previously unknown family members, documents about her grandparents’ prewar life, but also grapples with the general indifference and lack of knowledge about the Holocaust in Serbia today. It is a powerful and important book.
- Jelena Subotic
Author of Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance after Communism