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'At age 59, I thought I knew everything about myself. But I obviously didn’t,' Albright said. | AP Photo

Send to a friend Madeleine Albright memoir: Her secret past. Please enter your e-mail. Your E-mail; Please enter a valid e-mail. Friends E-mail(s) Separate emails. “Richly detailed. An intimate portrait of a diplomat.” —New Yorker In this revealing, funny, and inspiring memoir, seven-time New York Times bestselling author and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright—among the world’s most admired and tireless public servants—reflects on the challenge of continuing one’s career far beyond the normal age of retirement. Madeleine Albright, with Bill Woodward. Harper, $29.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-280225-5.

“The reasons for such a conclusion, in the Europe of 1941, need little explanation,” she writes. “When viewed through the lens of the Holocaust, the moral connotations of such a choice had been altered irrevocably. Perhaps that is why my parents never found a good time to discuss the decision with me and seemed to avoid doing so with others. Before the slaughter of 6 million Jews, they might have found the words; after it, they could not.”

Even though she has spent years digging up facts about her Jewish heritage since she was first tipped off to the idea in 1997, Albright writes in her memoir, “I am a firm admirer of the Jewish tradition but could not – beginning at the age of 59 – feel myself fully a part of it.”

But she also strongly emphasizes that she never felt any sense of anger towards her parents after finding out that she had been in the dark about her Jewish roots for most of her life — perhaps just a hint of regret that she hadn’t asked more questions about her ancestry when they were alive.

Albright also says that the way she was brought up by her parents, whom she described in the interview as “great humanists who worried about what happens if evil succeeds,” instilled in her instincts that would stay with her throughout her political career, including her tenure as ambassador to the UN.

“I always felt that when I was in office, that if there was any way that I could make a difference to people, that would be a motivating actor,” she said. “I saw people, there were pictures of [Bosnian] people, being carted off to labor camps, or concentration camps and I thought … if I had anything to do with it, we couldn’t let this kind of thing happen again. So that was a part of my DNA intellectually long before I found out about the Jewish DNA.”

Today, Albright celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas with her children and grandchildren. She says the way she describes her identity now strikes her as truly American.

“I am about to be 75. I am an American, I was born in Czechoslovakia, I’m a small ‘d’ and a big ‘D’ Democrat, I have been a Catholic and an Episcopalian and found out I am Jewish, I am a mother and a grandmother and I, like America, am indivisible,” she said.

Madeleine Albright Bookpage Madame Secretary

Madeleine Albright Autobiography