Meet Debrianna Obara, Author of Blok 42, via Microsoft Teams, a Jewish American Heritage Month Program

Meet Debrianna Obara, who will discuss her award-winning historical fiction book, BLOK 42.

BLOK 42 tells the gripping story of young lovers as they navigate the Nazi occupation of their beloved Poland and face evil foes and sinister challenges in their fight to keep their family safe. Romance, espionage, kidnapping and sexual exploitation all contribute to the gripping narrative in this meticulously researched work of fiction. This is a unique saga which tells the long-ignored story of BLOK 42 to light and the sexual slavery that occurred there.

BLOK 42 is Obara's first novel. It was a finalist for Best New Fiction 2024 by the American Fiction Awards, and a finalist for Best Historical Fiction 2024 by the Storytrade Book Awards.

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Debrianna Obara has been writing fiction and nonfiction for the last twenty years. She is an advertising professional with more than 20 years of agency experience who specializes in media and marketing. Through her work with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, she came across a few brief references to Blok 42 or “The Puff” — the brothel of Auschwitz. An informed student of Polish history and culture, she had never heard of the brothel and soon discovered there was precious little information about the women who were sexually enslaved there.
 
Obara earned a degree in journalism at the University of Florida, with a minor in Slavistics. The middle daughter of Polish immigrants, she has always felt a deep connection to the plight of the Polish people and how WWII permanently altered every aspect of cultural and civic life.