Best of
Holocaust

2007

Outcry: Holocaust Memoirs


Manny Steinberg - 2007
    This is his story.Born in 1925 in the Jewish ghetto in Radom (Poland), Manny soon realized that people of Jewish faith were increasingly being regarded as outsiders. In September 1939 the Nazis invaded, and the nightmare started. The city’s Jewish population had no chance of escaping and was faced with starvation, torture, sexual abuse and ultimately deportation.Outcry is the candid and moving account of a teenager who survived four Nazi camps: Dachau, Auschwitz, Vaihingen and Neckagerach. While being subjected to torture and degradation, he agonized over two haunting questions: "Why the Jews?" and "How can the world let this happen?" These questions remain hard to answer.Manny’s brother Stanley had jumped off the cattle wagon on the way to the extermination camp where his mother and younger brother were to perish. Desperately lonely and hungry, Stanley stood outside the compound hoping to catch a glimpse of Manny and their father. Once he discovered that they were among the prisoners, he turned himself in. The days were marked by hunger, cold, hard labor, and fear. Knowing that other members of the family were in the same camp kept them alive. Since acknowledging each other would have meant death, they pretended to be complete strangers.Manny relates how he was served human flesh and was forced to shave the heads of female corpses and pull out their teeth. Cherishing a picture of his beloved mother in his wooden shoe, he miraculously survived the terror of the Polish and German concentration camps together with his father and brother.When the Americans arrived in April 1945, Manny was little more than a living skeleton, with several broken ribs and suffering from a serious lung condition, wearing only a dirty, ragged blanket.This autobiography was written to fulfil a promise Manny made to himself during the first days of freedom. By publishing his Holocaust memoirs, he wants to ensure that the world never forgets what happened during WWII. The narrative is personal, unencumbered and direct.Outcry touches the reader with its directness and simplicity. The story is told through the eyes of an old man forcing himself to relive years of intense suffering. It is an account of human cruelty, but also a testimony to the power of love and hope. Memoirs worthy of being adapted for the big screen."I read this book with a very heavy heart and tears running down my face. For Manny's endurance and his brother Stanley to be so tested is truly a testament to life! Bad people can do all the harm you want, but if one never gives up, the enemy will never win. Manny and his brother along with others, won. This is proven in this Holocaust book. A book well worth reading and learning from now and for future generations. It proves 'We will survive' ... Very well written as it goes straight to the reader's heart! The pictures are a treat, past, present and future, with a lovely tribute to his beloved, Mimi. Thank you for sharing 'YOU' with the rest of the world, Mr Steinberg! Bless you always.""Manny Steinberg shares his extraordinary teenage story of surviving four concentration camps in an account noteworthy for its straightforward, unencumbered narrative. His is a story almost everyone can imagine happening to themselves - no less harrowing than more dramatic renditions of Holocaust survival, but somehow more compelling, and universal, for the unembellished simplicity of his style.""You must read Outcry. You will have tears and joy how this young boy survived the six years in concentration camps in Poland and Germany. It is a hand-made story for a motion picture. Hollywood producers and directors, grab it. We must not allow this to happen again to human people."

Inside the Gas Chambers: Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz


Shlomo Venezia - 2007
    Slomo Venezia was born into a poor Jewish-Italian community living in Thessaloniki, Greece. At first, the occupying Italians protected his family; but when the Germans invaded, the Venezias were deported to Auschwitz. His mother and sisters disappeared on arrival, and he learned, at first with disbelief, that they had almost certainly been gassed. Given the chance to earn a little extra bread, he agreed to become a 'Sonderkommando', without realising what this entailed. He soon found himself a member of the 'special unit' responsible for removing the corpses from the gas chambers and burning their bodies.Dispassionately, he details the grim round of daily tasks, evokes the terror inspired by the man in charge of the crematoria, 'Angel of Death' Otto Moll, and recounts the attempts made by some of the prisoners to escape, including the revolt of October 1944.It is usual to imagine that none of those who went into the gas chambers at Auschwitz ever emerged to tell their tale - but, as a member of a 'Sonderkommando', Shlomo Venezia was given this horrific privilege. He knew that, having witnessed the unspeakable, he in turn would probably be eliminated by the SS in case he ever told his tale. He survived: this is his story. Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy


Thomas Buergenthal - 2007
    Separated first from his mother and then his father, Buergenthal managed by his wits and some remarkable strokes of luck to survive on his own. Almost two years after his liberation, Buergenthal was miraculously reunited with his mother and in 1951 arrived in the U.S. to start a new life. Now dedicated to helping those subjected to tyranny throughout the world, Buergenthal writes his story with a simple clarity that highlights the stark details of unimaginable hardship. A Lucky Child is a book that demands to be read by all.

Someone Named Eva


Joan M. Wolf - 2007
    There she is trained to be a "proper German" for adoption by a German family, and all the while she struggles to remember her true identity.

Abandoned and Forgotten: An Orphan Girl's Tale of Survival During World War II


Evelyne Tannehill - 2007
    Abandoned and Forgotten is the memoir of a young girl growing up in the then-German province of East Prussia by the Baltic Sea. Orphaned at the age of nine and left to fend for herself in a hostile world, Evelyne Tannehill witnessed firsthand what happens when law and order break down and self-preservation becomes the only thing that matters. Her journey is a poignant example of how resilient the human spirit can be, even in the face of war's greatest horrors.

Gertruda's Oath: A Child, a Promise, and a Heroic Escape During World War II


Ram Oren - 2007
    His father, desperate to settle his business affairs, travels to France, leaving Michael in the care of his mother and Gertruda Bablinska, a Catholic nanny devoted to the family. When Michael's mother has a stroke, Gertruda promises the dying woman that she will make her way to Palestine and raise him as her own son. Written with the invaluable assistance of Michael, now seventy-two and living in New York City, GERTRUDA'S OATH re-creates Michael and Gertruda's amazing journey. Gripping vignettes bring to life the people who helped ensure their survival, including SS officer Karl Rink, who made it his mission to save Jews after his own Jewish wife was murdered; Rink's daughter, Helga, who escaped to a kibbutz, where she lived until her recent death; and the Jewish physician Dr. Berman, who aided Michael and Gertruda through the worst of times. GERTRUDA'S OATH is a story of extraordinary courage and moral strength in the face of horrific events. Like "Schindler's List," it transcends history and religion to reveal the compassion and hope that miraculously thrives in a world immersed in war without end.

Holocaust


Angela Gluck Wood - 2007
    Includes a 40-minute DVD with video testimony from survivors. Photos.

Who Will Write Our History?: Rediscovering a Hidden Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto


Samuel D. Kassow - 2007
    For three years, members of the Oyneb Shabes worked in secret to chronicle the lives of hundereds of thousands as they suffered starvation, disease, and deportation by the Nazis. Shortly before the Warsaw ghetto was emptied and razed in 1943, the Oyneg Shabes buried thousands of documents from this massive archive in milk cans and tin boxes, ensuring that the voice and culture of a doomed people would outlast the efforts of their enemies to silence them. Impeccably researched and thoroughly compelling, Samuel D. Kassow's Who Will Write Our History? tells the tragic story of Ringelblum and his heroic determination to use historical scholarship to preserve the memory of a threatened people.

A Garden of Eden in Hell: The Life of Alice Herz-Sommer


Melissa Müller - 2007
    Musically very gifted, by her mid-teens Alice was one of the best-known pianists in Prague. But as the Nazis swept across Europe her comfortable, bourgeois world began to crumble around her, as anti-Jewish feeling was legitimised. This book tells her story.

Destined to Live: A True Story of a Child in the Holocaust


Ruth Gruener - 2007
    Hiding out with a gentile family, her very life at risk every day, Ruth struggled to remain strong and sane. And though she was destined to live, her struggle continued after the war, when she began a new life in America, as a teenager who had been through horrors. This memoir will inspire countless readers and bestow important lessons about life, hope, and memory.

The Mozart Question


Michael Morpurgo - 2007
    Paolo has finally realised he must reveal the truth.

The German Boy


Wolfgang Samuel - 2007
    Wrenching story with a happy ending.

William & Rosalie: A Holocaust Testimony


William Schiff - 2007
    In 1941, newlyweds William and Rosalie Schiff are forcibly separated and sent on their individual odysseys through a surreal maze of hate. Terror in the Krakow ghetto, sadistic SS death games, an experimental rabbit job, eyewitness accounts of cannibalism, and the menace of rape in occupied Poland make William & Rosalie an unusually candid view of the chaos that World War II unleashed on the Jewish people. the Germans occupy western Poland. A year later they marry in the ghetto; by 1942 deportations have wasted both families. After Rosalie is saved by Oskar Schindler, the husband and wife end up at the Plaszow work camp under Amon Goeth, the bestial commandant played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List. ...

The Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust


Mordecai Paldiel - 2007
    Within these occupied lands, Jews were being rounded up and sent off to extermination camps for execution. Helping them escape was punishable by death.In this dark and seemingly hopeless situation, hundreds of ordinary people risked all to shelter and smuggle Jews to safety. These were generally not organized efforts, simply moral people who reacted in horror to the fate of innocent neighbors and took action. Thousands of Jews were rescued in this way.In 1953, the state of Israel established Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem to commemorate and perpetuate the memory of the heroes and martyrs of the Holocaust. An independent committee reviews and awards the honor of The Righteous Among the Nations to those documented cases of rescue. Over 20,000 people, from all nationalities and religious groups, have received this prestigious awards.This work selects approximately 200 biographies from among the Righteous, and describes the circumstances of the rescue. Each entry includes description of the contact; the aid extended; dangers and risk faced by the rescuer; motivation (eg, friendship, altruism, religious belief); and evidence from the rescued. These little–known stories offer a picture of the best of humanity in the worst of times.

Trieste


Daša Drndić - 2007
    Now an old woman, she waits to be reunited after sixty-two years with her son, fathered by an S.S. officer and stolen from her by the German authorities during the War as part of Himmler's clandestine 'Lebensborn' project, which strove for a 'racially pure' Germany. Haya's reflection on her Catholicized Jewish family's experiences deals unsparingly with the massacre of Italian Jews in the concentration camps of Trieste. Her obsessive search for her son leads her to photographs, maps and fragments of verse, to testimonies from the Nuremberg trials and interviews with second-generation Jews, as well as witness accounts of atrocities that took place on her doorstep. A broad collage of material is assembled, and the lesser-known horror of Nazi occupation in northern Italy is gradually unveiled. Written in immensely powerful language, and employing a range of astonishing conceptual devices, Trieste is a novel like no other. Dasa Drndic has produced a shattering contribution to the literature of our twentieth-century history.

A Daughter of Two Mothers


Miriam Cohen - 2007
    Open this book and you will step into the world of a generation gone, of pre- and post-war Hungarian Jewry, as young Leichu moves between two communities and their divergent lifestyles. This is a gripping story of separation and reunion, of pure faith and acceptance of G-d's will, and of triumph over despair.

Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933-1945


Saul Friedländer - 2007
    Friedländer also provides the accounts of the persecutors themselves—and, perhaps most telling of all, the testimonies of ordinary German citizens who, in general, stood silent and unmoved by the increasing waves of segregation, humiliation, impoverishment, and violence.The second part covers the German extermination policies that resulted in the murder of six million European Jews—an official program that depended upon the cooperation of local authorities and police departments, the passivity of the populations, and the willingness of the victims to submit in desperate hope of surviving long enough to escape the German vise.A monumental, multifaceted study now contained in a single volume, Saul Friedländer's Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933-1945 is an essential study of a dark and complex history.

Roman's Journey


Roman Halter - 2007
    'Survivor' is the story of impossible misfortune and improbable good luck - the compelling and uplifting account of the boy who made it out of the ghetto, survived Auschwitz and Stutthof and endured the Dresden bombing, before escaping to England.

Auschwitz: the residence of death


Teresa Świebocka - 2007
    We have reached our new graves, as we refer to our new homes. Before we have dragged ourselves to our new places. Before we have barely had a chance to snatch a breath of air, several of us have been clubbed over the head. Blood has already flowek from cut heads or battered faces. This is the houcewarming for the new arrivals. We`re all in a state of shock as we look around at the place they`ve brought us to. They immediately inform us that this is a taste of life in the camp. Iron discipline prevails here. We are in a death camp. It is an island where nothing lives. People are not here to live. They are here to find their death, sooner or later. There is no room for life here. This is the residence of death...' 'Czlapiemy po rozmoklym, gliniastym gruncie pelni strachu i u kresu sil. Dochodzimy do naszych nowych grobow, jak to nazwalismy nasze nowe domy. Zanim doczlapalismy sie do nowego miejsca, ledwo zaczerpnelismy swiezego powietrza, juz kilku z nas oberwalo palkami po glowach. Juz lala sie krew z rozcietych glow lub okaleczonych twarzy. To jest pierwsze przywitanie nowo przybylych. Wszyscy sa oszolomieni i rozgladaja sie, dokad to ich zaprowadzono. Zaraz informuja nas, ze oto mamy probke zycia obozowego. Panuje tutaj zelazna dyscyplina. Tutaj znajdujemy sie w obozie smierci. Jest to martwa wyspa. Czlowiek nie przybywa tutaj, aby zyc, lecz aby wczesniej czy pozniej znalezc swa smierc. Tu nie ma miejsca dla zycia. Jest to rezydencja smierci...'.

The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories


Joshua Rubenstein - 2007
    These documents are first-hand accounts by survivors of work camps, ghettos, forced marches, beatings, starvation, and disease. Collected under the direction of two renowned Soviet Jewish journalists, Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman, they tell of Jews who lived in pits, walled-off corners of apartments, attics, and basement dugouts, unable to emerge due to fear that their neighbors would betray them, as often happened.

Escape From Auschwitz


Andrey Pogozhev - 2007
    Among these men was prisoner number 1418 Andrei Pogozhev. He survived, and this is his story.

Michelangelo in Ravensbruck: One Woman's War Against the Nazis


Karolina Lanckoronska - 2007
    After joining the resistance, she was arrested, sentenced to death, and held in Ravensbruck concentration camp. There she taught art history to other women who, like her, might be dead in a few days. This brilliantly written memoir records a neglected side of World War II: the mass murder of Poles, the serial horrors inflicted by both Russians and Nazis, and the immense courage of those who resisted.

To Survive Sobibor


Dov Freiberg - 2007
    The author paints a phenomenally detailed picture of an individual life and of the lives of the Jews of Poland before their destruction, during the occupation and the Holocaust, and after liberation by the Soviet army. With its comprehensive description of Sobibor and the prisoners' revolt, this is not only the fascinating memoir of an extraordinary life but also a valuable historical testimony.Dov Freiberg was only twelve when he was hurled into the crushing events of the German occupation of Poland. His father was killed by German soldiers in the first days of the war, and his mother fought valiantly to keep her four children fed as the ghetto walls grew more and more constricting. Smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto, young Dov was soon captured by the Nazis and imprisoned in the living hell of Sobibor death camp, where he witnessed the extermination of his people. One of several hundred inmates to escape during the prisoners' revolt, he began anew his struggle for life in the unfriendly forests of occupied Poland. By the time the Soviet army liberated the region nine long months later, Freiberg found himself the lone survivor of his family.

They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland before the Holocaust


Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett - 2007
    Mayer Kirshenblatt, who was born in 1916 and left Poland for Canada in 1934, taught himself to paint at age 73. Since then, he has made it his mission to remember the world of his childhood in living color, "lest future generations know more about how Jews died than how they lived." This volume presents his lively paintings woven together with a marvelous narrative created from interviews that took place over forty years between Mayer and his daughter, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. Together, father and daughter draw readers into a lost world—we roam the streets and courtyards of the town of Apt, witness details of daily life, and meet those who lived and worked there: the pregnant hunchback, who stood under the wedding canopy just hours before giving birth; the khayder teacher caught in bed with the drummer's wife; the cobbler's son, who was dressed in white pajamas all his life to fool the angel of death; the corpse that was shaved; and the couple who held a "black wedding" in the cemetery during a cholera epidemic. This moving collaboration—a unique blend of memoir, oral history, and artistic interpretation—is at once a labor of love, a tribute to a distinctive imagination, and a brilliant portrait of life in one Jewish home town. Copub: The Judah L. Magnes Museum

Resistance Fighter


Jorgen Kieler - 2007
    Writing in lively tones with a wit that reveals his indomitable spirit, the author paints a vivid picture of the resistance movement in Denmark, with detailed descriptions of many of the Holger Danske group's daring sabotage operations.

Johanna Krause Twice Persecuted: Surviving in Nazi Germany and Communist East Germany


Carolyn Gammon - 2007
    Johanna Krause Twice Persecuted is her story.Born in Dresden into bitter poverty, Krause received little education and worked mostly in shops and factories. In 1933, when she came to the defence of a Jewish man being beaten by the brownshirts, Krause was jailed for "insulting the Furer" After a secret wedding in 1935, she was arrested again with her husband, Max Krause, for breaking the law that forbade marriage between a Jew and an "Aryan."In the years following, Johanna endured many atrocities--a forced abortion while eight months pregnant and subsequent sterilization, her incarceration in numerous prisons and concentration camps, including RavensbrA1/4ck, the notorious women's camp near Berlin, and a death march.After the war, the Krauses took part enthusiastically in building the new socialist republic of East Germany--until 1958, when Johanna recognized a party official as a man who had tried to rape and kill her during the war. Thinking the communist party would punish the official, Joanna found out whose side the party was on and was subjected to anti-Semitic attacks. Both she and her husband were jailed and their business and belongings confiscated. After her release she lived as a persona non grata in East Germany, having been evicted from the communist party. It was only in the 1990s, after the reunification of Germany, that Johanna saw some justice.Originally published as Zweimal Verfolgt, the book is the result of collaboration between Johanna Krause, Carolyn Gammon, and Christiane Hemker. Translated by Carolyn Gammon, Johanna Krause Twice Persecuted will be of interest to scholars of auto/biography, World War II history, and the Holocaust.

Jacob's Courage: A Holocaust Love Story


Charles S. Weinblatt - 2007
    At the end of the read one feels both hope and admiration for the human spirit.” Holocaust Center of Toledo“And I Cried… This book brings the Holocaust to life and evokes emotions not found in many history books. Weaving together a story of love, passion, horror, and history, Weinblatt left nothing out.” Sylvania (OH) Historical Society“A tender, coming of age tale. This book shows the critical roles that love, determination, and steadfast belief play toward battling one’s demons both physically and mentally. Jacob’s Courage is ultimately a tribute to the triumphant human spirit.” Jewish Book World“The reader sees events through the eyes of archetypal participants… a doctor forced to experiment on his own, a Sonderkommando and a hero.” The Association of Jewish Libraries“The author maintains a driving, relentless pace. Jacob and his beloved Rachael try to escape the madness of Nazi Germany while maintaining their humanity; in the end, the visionary protagonist comes to echo his Biblical counterpart who fled danger in his own country and saw a life-changing vision in his dreams.” The University of Toledo“Jacob’s Courage follows the young couple from the forced ghettos to the concentration camps and beyond, with several harrowing twists and turns that allow Weinblatt to illustrate the myriad tragedies Holocaust victims faced.” Toledo Free Press“The love story was beautiful and touching. This was such an emotional read. Weinblatt’s vivid descriptions of the time beautifully entwines with the love story. Jacob’s Courage is a powerful story of how love does conquer all. No matter how hard the times are, love and humanity never lose their power.” My Love Affair with Books“Weinblatt has painted a picture with words of the horrors of the holocaust. He has done so in a haunting and evocative way. Weinblatt has the talent to convey the terror of the Jews.” James E. Vigiletti, Attorney at Law.“You see hear and smell… Hitler’s Third Reich.” Ron Braithwaite, author“Jacob’s Courage reminded me of one of the greatest books of the 20th Century, Viktor Frankl’s, Man’s Search for Meaning. Weinblatt has painted a picture with words of the horrors of the holocaust. Jacob’s Courage is a personal, real life example of holding on to something greater than one’s self. The love that grows between Jacob and Rachael sustains them through the horrors of life in a Nazi death camp. We all could learn a lesson from these two teenagers, coming of age and faced with the greatest existential threat to life.” Frank Fiore, author“Not since Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place have the horrors of the holocaust been brought to life in such vivid detail. Charles Weinblatt takes you to Nazi Germany through the lives of two young people whose world is torn apart at a time in their lives when it should be blossoming. Weinblatt does a masterful job of touching your emotions throughout the book by placing you inside the lives of Jacob and Rachel. I recommend you pick up a copy of this book and a box of tissues. Get ready for a good cry and a heartwarming ending as Jacob and Rachel find the courage to live.” Rick Rodgers, author” Weinblatt weaves such detail into his story that the reader comes away with a powerful sense of what life was like for the Jews during this horrible period in history. Jacob’s Courage shines a spotlight on the truth. Anyone interested in World War II, the Holocaust, Jewish history, or a love story, should pick up Jacob’s Courage.” Darcia Helle, author.“This is an amazing book… one of the best reads that I’ve had in a long while and I literally could not put it down.” Jodi Shepard.“For a clear and no-holds-barred description of life as a Jew in Nazi Germany, you can’t beat Jacob’s Courage, by Charles Weinblatt.” Jennifer Feddersen, Editor.

My Darkest Years: Memoirs of a Survivor of Auschwitz, Warsaw and Dachau


James Bachner - 2007
    Once a happy child in a well-to-do German family, as the years passed Bachner faced first ridicule and persecution, then imprisonment and deprivation. Attributing his survival to a combination of strength and being in the right place at the right time, Bachner's memoir is a poignant and often horrific account of Jewish struggles during the days of World War II. Beginning with his idyllic childhood, Bachner expresses the range of emotions he experienced as the Nazis transformed his homeland into a nation where he and his fellow Jews were no longer welcome. He describes the volatile political atmosphere and the fears inspired in all Germans by tales of the concentration camps. In addition, he tells of the belief many Jews held that the West would step in and put an end to Hitler's reign. The work then details the realities of life in a concentration camp. The end of the war, Bachner's reunion with his remaining family members and his eventual relocation to America are also discussed.