holocaust survivors

The author tells the story of her mother's experiences as a young girl as she escaped the Holocaust.

Jack and Rochelle Sutin survived the Holocaust and World War II as part of a band of Jewish resistance fighters hiding in the dense forests of Poland. Their story is told by their son, Lawrence, and the book effectively describes the reality of months spent hiding in a dank underground bunker with lice and disease. When they met and fell in love they did not know if they would live through the war. But over fifty years later, their survival is a tale of strength and courage.

A Holocaust survivor who cannot seem to forge ahead with his life, steps off a curb into the path of a taxi in Times Square, and hovers between life and death while reliving the horror and tragedy of his past.

Presents a collection of original essays that provide an in-depth look at the literature that came out of The Holocaust.

Israel Meir Lau was eight when he emerged as one of the youngest survivors from the Buchenwald concentration camp at the end of World War II. He could neither read nor write. Born in a small town in Poland in 1937, the son of the town's last chief rabbi, he is descended from an unbroken chain of rabbis spanning over 1,000 years. His entire family was murdered during the Holocaust with the exception of his brothers, Naphtali and Joshua, and an uncle who had already emigrated before the war. The miracle of his survival was made possible by the efforts of his brother Naphtali and a Russian prisoner. He is currently the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the state of Israel.

Abrashe Szabrinski used the Yiddish typewriter given to him by his son Joe to record his unique story of survival and courage during the dark days of World War II. But it was only after his father's death that Joe found out the extent of Abrashe's exploits as a leader of the partisans who fought the Nazis in the forests of Lithuania. An officer in the Polish army, Abrashe fled ghettos and forced labor camps, joined the resistance in Vilna, and became not only a fighter, but also commander of partisan units serving under the Red Army. Alongside well-known figures such as Abba Kovner, he helped blow up bridges, railroad tracks, and munitions convoys, slowing down the Nazi war machine. An outspoken critic of those who headed the Judenrat as well as leaders of ideological movements, his straightforward, unpretentious style makes his descriptions of heroic deeds riveting. Like many Holocaust survivors, Abrashe did not divulge the entire story of his survival to his children while he was alive.

Fanya Gottesfeld Heller was born into a traditional Jewish family in a small Ukrainian village. She was able to evade the Nazi death squads with the help of a small group of Christian rescuers. Beset by hunger, and faced with the constant threat of execution, she miraculously survived. Today she shares her story and dedicates her life to furthering the cause of tolerance and hope.

The story of a child who, at the age of twelve, lost everything: hope, home, and even his own identity. Like so many Holocaust victims, Felix Weinberg's early childhood years were idyllic. That changed in 1938 when his father traveled to England, hoping to arrange for his family to emigrate there. His efforts came too late. Over the following years Felix survived five concentration camps. He lost his mother and brother in the camps and was liberated at Buchenwald. At the age of seventeen he was finally reunited with his father in Britain where they built a new life together.

Chronicles Eva and Heinz Schloss' struggles to survive Nazi persecution during World War II, and describes how they fled with their family from Vienna to Amsterdam.