The boy who followed his father into Auschwitz : a true story

by Jeremy Dronfield

Paper Book, 2019

Status

Available

Call number

940.5318 DRO

Collection

Publication

[London] : Penguin, 2019.

Description

Biography & Autobiography. History. Judaica. Nonfiction. HTML: "Brilliantly written, vivid, a powerful and often uncomfortable true story that deserves to be read and remembered. It beautifully captures the strength of the bond between a father and son."�??Heather Morris, author of #1 New York Times bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz The #1 Sunday Times bestseller�??a remarkable story of the heroic and unbreakable bond between a father and son that is as inspirational as The Tattooist of Auschwitz and as mesmerizing as The Choice. Where there is family, there is hope In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholster from Vienna, and his sixteen-year-old son Fritz are arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Germany. Imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp, they miraculously survive the Nazis' murderous brutality. Then Gustav learns he is being sent to Auschwitz�??and certain death. For Fritz, letting his father go is unthinkable. Desperate to remain together, Fritz makes an incredible choice: he insists he must go too. To the Nazis, one death camp is the same as another, and so the boy is allowed to follow. Throughout the six years of horror they witness and immeasurable suffering they endure as victims of the camps, one constant keeps them alive: their love and hope for the future. Based on the secret diary that Gustav kept as well as meticulous archival research and interviews with members of the Kleinmann family, including Fritz's younger brother Kurt, sent to the United States at age eleven to escape the war, The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz is Gustav and Fritz's story�??an extraordinary account of courage, loyalty, survival, and love that is unforge… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Booksrme
Harrowing. Not to be read if depressed !
LibraryThing member Bookish59
Beautiful story of one of the millions of families caught up in the horror of the nazis' murderous rampage during WWII. Gustav Kleinmann was a good husband, father of 4, and a kind man. He loved and fought for Austria, twice suffering injuries. But that didn't help when the nazis came for him and
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his oldest son Fritz. His wife, Tini expended much effort trying to get her children out of the country, and managed to send the oldest, Edith to England, and later her youngest to the US.

Gustav and Fritz spent nearly 6 years in multiple concentration camps as slave labor to the nazi machine of war. Together with their wits and much love.they were able to support each other despite back-breaking work, beatings, starvation, cold, and disease. Gustav kept a small notebook of significant events and his feelings which would years later become the foundation of The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz.

Reading about Gustav's naive optimism, and the fact that father and son were able to remain together for so long is captivating. Book should be read to learn how this one family fared.
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Awards

Language

ISBN

9780241359174

Local notes

Donated by Joan Yona Foster, August 2022.
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