Customer Reviews

Be Happy, Be Free, Dance! A Holocaust Survivor's Message to His Grandchildren

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are probably countless books about the Holocaust from the classic books of personal recollection of Elie Wiesel (especially "Night"), to stories of "Shindler's List" and "Sophie's Choice," and the cold objective histories epitomized by William Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich."

Richard Weilheimer's book adds another way of talking about this subject, perhaps one which will resonate with the youngest generation more than the others. For few of the children caught in the Holocaust survived and even fewer wrote a book about it.

It is from the eyes of a child (Richard, himself, at ages 7 through 10), having no ability to survive himself, except for the extraordinary efforts and love of his parents (who did not survive) and a Quaker woman, Alice Resch who saves Richard, his brother and dozens of other children caught in this cruel web of barbarism.

Richard takes us through his memories, on his father's shoulders seeing Hitler at a parade just after he took power, not yet aware or comprehending what lay in store for his Jewish Family, at that time proud citizens of Germany. He takes us through a child's eye-level witness of Kristelnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, when Jews were beaten and imprisoned, and their businesses and professions destroyed.

He forces us to experience how his family is told to pack a single suitcase and abandon their home in one hour. How his family was put on a darkened train and forced to endure days of travel, without food to an "internment" camp, Gurs, in the south of Vichy France. And we experience his description of how, when escape for the entire family becomes impossible, his parents allow him and his younger brother, Ernest to accompany Alice Resch, with a small group of children from the camp to an under-used school to be educated and to escape with the help of the Quaker organization.

And through this frightening experience, we read the loving letters of Richard's parents, his Muti (mother) and Popi (Father). Wear a coat in the cold, drink water when it is hot, eat your vegetables, study your lessons, write us, take care of your younger brother. Richard, Ernest and their group escapes to the U.S. His parents, uncles and other relatives perish.

We read how Richard adjusts to the United States (classified as a foreign alien), attends school, becomes an American, joins the U.S. Army and becomes a medal winner in Korea and goes on, as did many of these "refugees", to become exemplary U.S. Citizens.

Of interest also is a key experience in his adult life that encouraged Richard to become a survivor who decides to speak out and recount his experiences. It enables Richard to carry on the legacy of his parents, grandparents and family to be a remembrance forever. He also describes how the group of 48 children, in their adult years spread out across the world, reunite (some by rare coincidences)and bring Alice Resch, their "angel", to a reunion where she can see the hundreds of people who now live because of her efforts and those of the American Friends Service Committee.

The title of his book is addressed to his granddaughter, Arden, who dances and sings for him and reminds him every day that the evil plan of the Nazis and their complicit collaborators could not bring about the Final Solution. The Jewish people and their children and grandchildren, survive.

I gave copies of this book to my children and they are encouraging their children to read it. They will better understand the evil of the Holocaust when described through the eyes of a child.

This is a story of unbelievable suffering but yet there is hope and survival. The author tells the story of his family and how they perished during the Holocaust. How he and his brother was saved by the kindness of the Quakers.

This book should be required reading in the schools when the Holocaust is taught. Let the kids read the words of the author who was a child when the atrocity began. This book truly puts a face on the ugliness of that time.

As the trap closed around his family, Richard had to face the prospect of life in a concentration camp. The letters from his family reveal a portrait of a family that refused to give up and in the end, Richard finds freedom and a chance to start a new life in America.

Richard passed away this morning (11/27/09). His story is his memorial and will let him live forever.