Adena Bernstein Astrowsky

Adena Bernstein Astrowsky works as a lawyer and educator while preserving her grandmother's Holocaust testimony in narrative form. Living among the Dead recounts Mania Lichtenstein's survival through German occupation under National Socialism, forced labor, escape, and hiding in the forests near Wlodzimierz, then her effort to rebuild a life in America after losing her family. Astrowsky narrates as Mania's granddaughter, weaving remembered experience with poetry and personal reflection. Amsterdam Publishers released the memoir as the third volume in its Holocaust Survivor True Stories series. An educator's guide, coauthored with Hilary Levine, later expanded the book for classroom discussion and historical study. Astrowsky's legal career has included prosecuting crimes against children and domestic-violence cases, appellate work, and foreign extradition matters. Her book brings those commitments to vulnerable lives into family history, emphasizing both the Jewish community destroyed around Mania and the individual acts of endurance that carried her beyond the war.