ePub Guardian of Guadalcanal by Gary L. Williams in History

Description

The war brought about scarcities of just about everything...except misery. “Alle raise;” (everybody out); the German soldiers screamed as they pounded on our door with the butts of their rifles. And thus began a 4;500-mile journey from Poland through Russia and Siberia and eventually to Uzbekistan in Central Asia; as the author’s family used bribery and darkness of night to flee as the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. Young Mendel; from age four to fourteen; tells in vivid detail the wretched journey in cramped cattle cars through frigid Russia; the indignities of being forced labor; the shame of begging for bread just to survive; and death of those closest to him. The family’s plight includes abandonment; hunger; and separation (and later remarkable twists of fate and reunion) quite unlike other Holocaust stories. This coming-of-age Holocaust memoir is the author’s personal account of how—through great sacrifices by his mother—he managed to survive the worst atrocities in human history and his uncertain days in a Polish Children’s Home; scrabbling for fallen fruit; and surviving kidnapping and murder on the Black Road; and return to German Displaced Persons camps at war’s end. But to what fate? Originally written as a memoir just for his grandchildren; Milton Kleinberg gives a moving account of his family’s hardships and eventual immigration with a lump-in-the-throat passage to America past the Statue of Liberty and into a land of opportunity tinged with bigotry yet with a promise to future generations. This book for young adults has been reviewed by the Institute for Holocaust Education and includes a glossary; a book club discussion guide; a timeline; and a Teacher’s Guide.