Before that morning, I had only heard of prisons. After all, these had nothing to do with my life. But now, bewildered and numb, I was standing in a small hot room trying to keep from falling down, author Yakov Avidon describes as he opens To All Survivors, an intense, gripping, and graphic memoir of himself-a man who was there.
He didn’t seem to remember much. All he knew was that he was in some kind of prison with many beds, in blocks of eight, all welded together. Trying to remember, he looks back at the circumstances leading him to his present dilemma, beginning with his childhood and family. Jewish, he recalls fleeing from his home, when Germany invaded the country. He mentions the painful and bloody encounters, as well as many other heartbreaking and enduring exploits he and his family had to undergo while trying to stay alive. How the events unfold towards the narrator’s eventual redemption will touch the reader’s hearts.
