Short description
Presents stories of survival and triumph, collected from years of interviews with those who lived through the most harrowing decade of the twentieth century. This work features twenty-five tales of courage and loss, representing the experiences of women, men, and children, of people who either survived the death camps or lived in hiding.
Long description
As the last Holocaust survivors die, their testimonies make the transition from memory to history. In this compelling volume, Yehudi Lindeman, Director of the Living Testimonies Video Archive in Montreal, shares some of his most compelling stories of survival and triumph, collected from years of interviews with those who lived through the most harrowing decade of the twentieth century. Here are twenty-five tales of courage and loss, representing the experiences of women, men, and children, of people who either survived the death camps or lived in hiding, and of rescuers, and redeemers. The testimonies each show glimpses of the big picture of World War II, such as the fast German sweep into Poland, the bureaucratic German machine that marked and identified Jews in much the same manner across German-occupied Europe, the efficiently organised roundups of Europe's Jews, the gradual retreat of the German Wehrmacht from east to west, and the sudden attacks on Holland and France. The fate of the European Jews may have been a collective one, but the attempt to survive the onslaught on their liberty and life is often best understood as an individual struggle.;These events are portrayed and illustrated by focusing on individual lives, which capture this historical flow in all its precise subjective human detail.
Review
This is a beautiful and surprising book, intensely and painfully human yet careful and scholarly. Each of the narratives is distinctive and unforgettable; each is an account of extraordinary survival against all odds. Even the most seasoned reader of Holocaust memoirs and scholarship will find much to ponder here. Elegantly introduced and analyzed in a poignant and powerful conclusion, these testimonies constitute a historical record of immense value. This book is itself a testimony--to the enormous value of listening to survivors, and also to the incredible amount of knowledge, effort, and love needed to do justice to their lives and their words. -Doris L. Bergen Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies University of Toronto