Hi, I’m Annette.
I’m an author and online course creator. I specialize in teaching others how to write stories from their family history through my online courses, books, and in-person workshops. My new children’s book Natalie and the Nazi Soldiers is based on my mother-in-law’s experience as a hidden child in France during the Holocaust.
Exploring my family history changed my life. When I visited the Czech Republic in 2002, I felt so at home wandering the streets of my grandparents’ hometown, even though I had never been there before. I sensed so many undercurrents that I began to dig into the family history. While I have always written to understand my life, this trip sent me on the journey to become a writer. It was the seedling for my memoir Jumping Over Shadows and for learning how to write an interesting story based on family history, and eventually, for teaching others how to do the same.
My Books
My children’s book won Bronze in the 2023 Wishing Shelf Book Awards in the category: books for 6-8 year-olds!
Natalie and the Nazi Soldiers is the story of a hidden child in France during the Holocaust.
In 1944 in the German-occupied French countryside, a Jewish girl’s quest to save her favorite piglet takes a dangerous turn when she runs into a Nazi officer. Will she manage to keep her secret?
Based on a true story, this book is appropriate for early readers.
“…a treasure chest of advice for any nonfiction writer.”
“Having read other books on writing memoir, I found this book the best at keeping it simple and clear while giving creative suggestions.”
“I’m gathering info about my family history by doing weekly Skype sessions with my parents, and I am trying not to panic about how I will turn this into a book later. This book gave me a lot of great ideas and a way forward.”
“A book that is hard to put down.”
“In this extraordinary work, Annette Gendler illuminates the borders and meeting points between Judaism and Christianity, Germans and Jews, American Jews and Israeli Jews. Writing with eloquent precision, she reminds us why converts to Judaism are among the most precious gifts to the Jewish people. This book confirms Annette Gendler as an indispensable Jewish voice for our time.”
Substack
Let’s keep in touch via Substack, where I post new content every Friday! Check out what I write about on my Substack home.
Latest Posts
Want to Use a Letter as the Basis for a Story? Here’s an Easy But Really Important Tip for Getting Started
A cache of family letters, or maybe even just one amazing letter written by an ancestor, is a great source for writing a story from family history. Martha McCallum's [...]
How to Solve One of the Biggest Challenges When Writing Family History Based on Letters: Context
This is the carbon copy of my grandfather’s tightly typed letter, on which I based my story The Flying Dutchman, that also became a [...]
How to Transform a Father’s WWII Letters into a Fascinating Story – Begin Writing Family History with these 5 Tips
The pile of letters the father of my reader Donna sent to his sister in Chicago while he was stationed in India during WWII, including the silk [...]