Although there are more and more Holocaust memoirs on the market, this essential collection is the first to present such a large number of biographical profiles of survivors for a broad readership. Holocaust Survivors: A Biographical Dictionary comprises 278 entries on more than 500 survivors of the World War II genocide. The profiles, averaging 500 words, are mostly of Jews, both individuals and family members, from throughout Europe. Organized alphabetically, the essays cover their background, circumstances and ordeals during the war, aftermath, and life achievements, including family and career. Most are on ordinary people who have extraordinary life stories. Many stories come from interviews with the survivors by the author. Excerpts from primary documents and quotations are occasionally interspersed. Suggested reading or references per entry are included where possible. Added value comes from an historical introduction, chronology, resource guide, lists of entries, photos, and comprehensive index.
The set will be most valuable to high school students and general readers who do not want to read a full-length memoir. There is an intense and continuing demand for these stories. At the high school level, the set will supplement units on genocide and provides valuable distillation for research and reports to meet the World History Standard concerning the Nazi regime and the Holocaust. Some Holocaust survivors speak about their experiences at schools and public forums, and organizations representing such speakers are listed per state. At the college level, the profiles can be used for starting research in Holocaust history courses. The general reader will become familiar with a range of survivor stories and also use this a springboard for further reading. Examples of people profiled: Marie Blum-Albert—Belgian Jew who smuggled hundreds of Jewish children to safety through a hospital for tubercular children and kept many from being transported to Auschwitz. Abraham A. Foxman spent his pre-school years in Lithuania as a hidden child cared for by his Polish nanny who had him baptized as a Catholic and who taught him to hate Jews. Reilli Herchmer—Sinti fugitive who as a young girl delivered messages for the Nazi resistance underground, survived the Ravensbruck camp, and later moved to Denver with her American husband and raised a family. Victor Klemperer—Dresden professor who survived the war and the Allied fire bombing of the city because he was married to a gentile. He kept a secret, meticulous diary, published to acclaim in the 1990s, of their day-to-day existence as conditions deteriorated as the war progressed. Sam Nussbaum—Jewish-Polish plumber whose skills and strength allowed him to survive a Nazi labor camp. Halina Wind Preston was sent to prison after her Polish landlady exposed her for trying to live outside the ghetto and pass as a Christian, escaped from prison, and spent the rest of the war hiding in the sewers of Lvov.
