When creator and showrunner Erica Lipez (The Morning Show, Bates Motel) read about Georgia Hunter’s family history in her book We Were the Lucky Ones, she knew she had to bring it to screen. An incredible story of resilience, survival and familial bond, even in the face of the most unimaginable circumstances, it centers around the Kurc family in Poland who were separated during World War II but determined to one day find each other again. A truly emotional rollercoaster from start to finish, the eight-episode series. We spoke with Lipez about it and the impact it had on her, from the moment she became acquainted with Hunter’s book.

How did you first come across Georgia’s story and become involved with this project?

The person who brought me the book was Tommy Kail. We did a play together ten years ago and really wanted to find something to do in television together. He called me up one day and said, “I’ve got a book to share with you.” And he didn’t say much more than that. He just had a feeling I might relate to it. I am Jewish myself and have family from that part of the world, so I was pretty sure I would like it. But I started to read and I just couldn’t put it down. My heart was in my throat and I fell so madly in love with this family at the center of it.

As someone who felt like I had had a pretty good Holocaust education, I found that the story of this family brought to light chapters of Holocaust history I had never seen before. It follows nine years, twelve characters and four continents. We go to Siberia, France, Brazil, Morocco, Italy and Poland. It’s everywhere. To be able to tell so many different stories within the intimate lens of this one family was the opportunity of a lifetime. I thought it would be very hard to pull off and I remember saying that to Tommy… but I also said I just didn’t want anybody else to try. So we set about to do it and, somehow, we are here today.

As you said, the timeline spans almost a decade and that can be rare in WWII stories – to see the before, during and after, as well as some effects of the war and displacement that you don’t typically hear about. What was it like to delve into that space as a writer and storyteller?

I think the span and scope of the book are both its gift and also its big challenge. You don’t typically follow that many years within eight episodes of television, go to that many places, and follow that many characters. So we had to find the pace and pulse of that kind of storytelling where you float one character’s storyline to the foreground and then bring someone else up to the foreground in another episode.

Erica Lipez. Photo by Ellyn Jameson.

I think what we found really worked for this series was that, in the same way the family is missing each other, the audience can experience some of that feeling of missing someone by not seeing them as much for an episode, of losing track of them for a moment, and then being with them again. That ache and push and pull of this family just missing each other and trying to get back around the dinner table together – I felt like we could really find a way to mirror that in our narrative structure for this series. 

So that’s what we tried to do. We were also just so lucky to have Georgia Hunter’s book, which is the most incredible guide. Anytime I started to feel lost or overwhelmed by it, I would truly just go back to the book and read the chapters that we were trying to bring to life in that episode. All the writers in the room did that, and as long as we stayed very authentic to the book, we found our way. And Georgia was present with us every day in the writers’ room, so that helped a lot as well.

Tell me more about working with Georgia and how involved she was in the process. From what I understand, she had to do an incredible amount of research to piece together her family’s story. What was it like to have her as a source?

It was essential to bringing this story to life. Not only was she the window into whether we were portraying her family authentically or not, she also was just an incredible historian for the project with her ten years of research. She had a physical research drive that she was able to give to us. On top of that, we hired this amazing researcher and historian who is an expert on this time period. Bringing page to screen, you are seeing it… you are feeling it, and you have to make sure you get those details right. So, on top of the decade of research that Georgia had already done, we did a lot more, and I think we found a lot of freedom in storytelling once we knew we were getting all of the facts and history right.

The history is not what leads the story. The family does, but the historical truth is there, holding everything up.

Can you talk about the title and opening scene, which seem to imply a sense of hope, even throughout these horrific experiences?

I think the title obviously promises a lot of hope… but for anyone who really knows this chapter of history, even when you hear that title, you have to wonder.

The Kurcs are such a statistical anomaly for that time, and their story is an absolute miracle. But I think what I always found in that title was a lot of irony, really; because of course they are so lucky to have survived. And I know that they felt that way. But what I really saw in reading about the Kurcs, and a lot of other survivor accounts, is that there’s a real burden to survival too. To go through what they went through, and what they have to carry with them as they move forward through their lives…I find it really hard to call that lucky. So I think there’s irony in that title.

But I think this is why I feel so altered by telling this story. Watching what the Kurcs did with the gift of their survival, the way they loved and grew their families, and the legacy they’ve left behind. Including in Georgia Hunter, who, from the love of her family and a desire to write down this history for her own children, set about to do this research and wrote the most incredible book I’ve ever read. I just love this family and I hope others do too.

Can you talk about the theme of identity in the series?

Identity is definitely one of the themes we explore. What I loved about these siblings is they all have very strong individual identities. They are who they are, and they’re very confident in who they are. What they go through forces them to really evolve as humans, and that identity shifts those dynamics.

Halina (Joey King) Photo by: Vlad Cioplea/ Hulu

I’m fascinated by sibling dynamics and the way in which we order ourselves within a family. You have someone like Halina Kurc, who is the youngest of the family, but who, as the war goes on, becomes the leader of the family in what I think is a really unusual way for a younger sibling. So there are these kinds of identity shifts within that.

But then of course, the nature of some of the family survival was to use false IDs to be part of the resistance and try to operate in plain sight under a different identity. I think there’s a lot of psychological pain to going through that. One of the episodes really tries to dive into what it psychologically does to you to have to do that for survival, and the ways in which they’re able to reclaim some of that identity that they had to keep hidden.

What was it like to bring this story to life, almost 90 years after the events took place?

I grew up in a time where I feel like Holocaust education was really prioritized. It is really disheartening to me to realize how quickly that has changed and how much it is not being taught in the way I feel it was when I was younger. And in the statistics on how many younger people actually even know what the Holocaust is, and in this age of disinformation, and how Holocaust denial can run rampant in the rise of anti-Semitism.

I do really believe in the power of storytelling as a way to connect people to history and to try to educate through realizing, in a very human way, these moments. As a young person myself, that was a way I really connected to history – through seeking out stories that took place during that time. And so I really hope that this series might be a way for people who are not as educated about this period of time to connect and become curious and maybe feel compelled to look into this chapter more. But if this is all that they look at, I am also really proud of the history embedded in this series because we took it really, really seriously.