In the wake of her mother’s passing, Kitty Morse made a serendipitous discovery. In the attic of her Southern California home, she came across a little suitcase containing the journal of her great-grandfather Prosper Lévy-Neymarck documenting daily life in Occupied France. A recipe book written by her grandmother, Blanche, accompanied the journal. Tragically, Prosper and Blanche would fall victim to the Nazi genocide, but their writings survived and have now found a broader audience through the labors of their great-granddaughter. Both an invaluable primary source and a heartfelt homage to daily life in dark times, “Bitter Sweet: A Wartime Journal and Heirloom Recipes from Occupied France” (2023) reclaims their experiences and culinary acumen for posterity.

Born in Casablanca, Morocco, Kitty Morse is the author of two memoirs with recipes and nine cookbooks and a former food columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

About the Series

The Holocaust Living History Workshop (HLHW) is an education and outreach program co-sponsored by the UC San Diego Library and the Jewish Studies Program. It aims to preserve the memories of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust by offering public events involving witnesses, descendants and scholars and through the use of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive. Past HLHW workshops are now part of the Library’s digital collections and can be accessed online.