With the help of his son, Danny, Herman Rittman narrates his experience of the Holocaust. His story begins in Romania, where his happy childhood was interrupted when Hungarian officials sent the Jews to the Oradea ghetto, then to Auschwitz. Here the fourteen-year-old experienced unimaginable cruelty and countless deaths. He is sent to a gas chamber, only to have his life spared by Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death, in exchange for his participation in medical experiments.
Herman’s moving, evocative story is unsparing in its emotional honesty, filled with detailed vignettes about life in the death camp, his fellow prisoners, the guards and nurses, and finally the GIs who liberated Dachau in 1945. Herman ultimately reunites with his surviving family members in Romania, and emigrates to Palestine en route to a new life as an Israeli citizen.
This story of how the authors courage, resilience, and determination helped him survive horrific circumstances is an unforgettable memoir of a terrible chapter in modern history.
