Author to speak in Melbourne and Sydney
Helen Signy's historical fiction novel Maya's Dance is inspired by the true story of Holocaust survivor Lucie Pollak-Langford (1926-2021).
Helen Signy’s historical fiction novel Maya’s Dance is inspired by the true story of Holocaust survivor Lucie Pollak-Langford (1926-2021). Lucie was a survivor from Czechoslovakia, whose life was saved by a Polish engineer, Jan Hensel. She wrote her memoir in 2014 and gave testimony to the USC Shoah Foundation project, and now her story has been turned into a novel by Signy, a former journalist. Signy will be speaking at Sydney’s Jewish Museum on March 24, to discuss the power and complexities of turning memoir into fiction.
In Signy’s novel, Lucie becomes “Maya Schulze”, a 17-year-old struggling to survive in a brutal Nazi labour camp. One day a camp guard watches Maya dance, and he falls in love with her and promises to protect her. Jan plots Maya’s escape and promises to find her when the war is over, but fate intervenes. Fifty years on, Maya tells her story to a journalist and they piece together clues to find Jan before it’s too late.
Speaking to The AJN, Signy said she became “consumed” by Lucie’s story on hearing about it from Sonja, a dance therapist who was Lucie’s client. Signy said she was able to meet Lucie once at a residential facility in Sydney, but that she already had dementia. Lucie passed away in 2021, and Signy said she received permission from her family to tell her story: “Like many Holocaust survivors, she wanted her story to be told.
“Her family has given me permission to do so, with the caveat that I should call her by her favourite name, Maria. I hope that Maya’s Dance does her justice.”
Signy said she hopes readers will “feel hope – that there is always light in the dark”, adding, “At its heart, Maya’s Dance is a love story. It is set against the backdrop of the Holocaust, but its focus is human relationships and how these help us survive even the worst days. It is full of warmth, it will make the reader cry, and it is ultimately uplifting.”
Maya’s Dance, published by Simon & Schuster, is available now.
For tickets to hear Signy speak at the Sydney Jewish Museum visit: sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/shop/events/talk-events/meet-the-author-mayas-dance/
Signy will also be speaking in Melbourne on March 25 at the Caulfield Town Hall: library.gleneira.vic.gov.au/whats-on/events-calendar/mayas-dance-in-conversation-with-helen-signy
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