- Summary
- The inspiring true story of a father and son's fight to stay together and to survive the Holocaust. In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer in Vienna, was seized by the Nazis. Along with his teenage son, Fritz, he was sent to Buchenwald in Germany. There began an unimaginable ordeal that saw the pair beaten, starved and forced to build the very concentration camp they were held in. When Gustav was set to be transferred to Auschwitz, a certain death sentence, Fritz refused to leave his side. Throughout the horrors they witnessed and the suffering they endured, there was one constant that kept them alive: the love between father and son. Based on Gustav's secret diary and meticulous archive research, this book tells his and Fritz's story for the first time - a story of courage and survival unparalleled in the history of the Holocaust.
- Format
- Book
- Author/Creator
- Dronfield, Jeremy, author.
- Published
- UK : Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2019
- Locale
- Austria
Vienna
- Contents
-
Part I: Vienna
"When Jewish blood drips from the knife ..."
Traitors to the people
Part II: Buchenwald
Blood and stone: Konzentrationslager Buchenwald
The stone crusher
The road to life
A favorable decision
The new world
Unworthy of life
A thousand kisses
A trip to death
Part III: Auschwitz
A town called Oświęcim
Auschwitz-Monowitz
The end of Gustav Kleinmann, Jew
Resistance and collaboration: the death of Fritz Kleinmann
The kindness of strangers
Far from home
Resistance and betrayal
Part IV: Survival
Death train
Mauthausen
The end of days
The long way home
Epilogue: Jewish blood.
- Notes
-
Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-349) and index.
Part I: Vienna -- "When Jewish blood drips from the knife ..." -- Traitors to the people -- Part II: Buchenwald -- Blood and stone: Konzentrationslager Buchenwald -- The stone crusher -- The road to life -- A favorable decision -- The new world -- Unworthy of life -- A thousand kisses -- A trip to death -- Part III: Auschwitz -- A town called Oświęcim -- Auschwitz-Monowitz -- The end of Gustav Kleinmann, Jew -- Resistance and collaboration: the death of Fritz Kleinmann -- The kindness of strangers -- Far from home -- Resistance and betrayal -- Part IV: Survival -- Death train -- Mauthausen -- The end of days -- The long way home -- Epilogue: Jewish blood.
