The Fifth Diamond [Paperback]

Irene Weisberg Zisblatt and Gail Ann Webb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2008

As a young girl in Hungary, Irene Weisberg Zisblatt was taken by the Nazis and became a prisoner in the dehumanizing Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. She witnessed and experienced unspeakable cruelty, lost her entire family to the gas chambers, and became one of Josef Mengele's "guinea pigs". Somehow she survived, through her hope and faith and the strength drawn from her unshakeable bond with her best friend, Sabka. The Fifth Diamond: The Story of Irene Weisberg Zisblatt is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit. It took Irene fifty years to break free of the terror of her experience and speak about it for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, and in Stephen Spielberg's Oscar-winning documentary, "The Last Days." Now, in this new biography written with Gail Ann Webb, Irene continues her quest to educate children, in order to rid the world of prejudice, intolerance, and indifference.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ithaca Press (2008)
• ASIN: B00142DIJS
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #945,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, May 29, 2011

By 

desire' - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Fifth Diamond (Paperback)

This was a remarkable book, one you just couldn't put down. Poignant and inspirational, this book is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put the book down, January 21, 2009

By 

A. Schaja "coffeeholic" (Parkland, Fl United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fifth Diamond (Paperback)

This book is a remarkable true story of human survival. Even though many of the events depicted are horrific and very disturbing, there is an underlying tone of the undying human spirit and the will to live that permeates throughout the story. The book is a very fast and easy read. Once I started it, I was unable to put it down. This book should be read by everyone, students and adults alike, as a reminder of the horrible attrocities that were committed during the holocaust and the dangers of intolerance.

31 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Clearly a lie, January 2, 2009

By 

D. Owens - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Fifth Diamond (Paperback)

The account Zisblat gives of her torture at the hands of Mengele rings false. Supposedly he performed surgery without anesthesia, her eyes were injected with chemicals, she was subjected to freezing cold for days at a time, etc. And conveniently, the only firsthand witness besides the writer died one day after they were liberated. We'll just have to take the writer's word for all this--and she never mentioned any of this to anybody for fifty years. Chemicals were supposedly put in her food to sterilize her--but why would they bother to sterilize a woman they knew they were going to kill? Was she jumping in the latrine every day to sift through the excrement for her diamonds? If so, didn't anybody else notice this peculiar behavior? She's living on a starvation diet in horrible conditions and being physically abused every day, and yet her body still has the strength to resist infection from massive exposure to raw sewage? It turns out that one of Mengele's nurses was secretly a member of the Underground--has there ever been any documented case of any of Mengele's staff belonging to the Underground? The only thing this book does is to insult the memory of the millions who died or survived from the many real horrors and tragedies that took place in the 20th century. The author should be deeply ashamed of herself.