Book reviews -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 2/6/2007
Last Visited: 11/30/2008
This book, by Joe Rosenblum with David Kohn (Praeger Publishing) is a must-read for all ages.
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Joe Rosenblum, having lived through the horrors and atrocities of the Holocaust, tells in a first-person narrative, (which is beautifully written by co-author David Kohn), of his suffering, degradation, and pain.
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As a teenager, Rosenblum watched as the Nazis invaded Miedzyrzec, Poland, his peaceful village.
Neighbors, friends, and his brother were killed simply because they were Jews.
Fortunately for Rosenblum, his Aryan appearance enabled him to narrowly escape mass executions.
Unable to put down this riveting, totally absorbing book, I learned how Rosenblum was first sheltered by a local Gentile family - making it possible for him to make dangerous trips back to his family with scraps of food to sustain them while they hid in secret dugouts.
Later, he took refuge with Russian partisans.
Eventually captured by the Germans and sent to three concentration camps - Majdanek, Auschwitz, and Dachau - he lived by his wits as a courier for the camp underground, and was able to help other prisoners, as well as saving a few children selected for the gas chambers.
Sick, starving, and near death himself, he suddenly found himself working for the infamous Dr. Mengele who later performs life-saving surgery on Rosenblum—the only known Jew to be ,saved' by the deadly doctor's skills.
Rosenblum miraculously survived the Holocaust --- by radiating hope and humanity and, as the authors agree, by defying the darkness.
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In her book, Following the Nez Perce Trail (Oregon State University), author Cheryl Wilfong draws on eyewitness accounts to chronicle the heartbreaking retreat of Chief Joseph and his people.