If You Save One Life [Hardcover]

Eva Brown (Author), Thomas Fields-Meyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 2007

Point a finger, said the American soldier, at the one who made you look like a skeleton.

That sentence marks the end of a nightmare and a moment of moral clarity for Eva Brown, who survived Auschwitz and lost sixty members of her extended family in the Holocaust.

Born into a close and loving Jewish home, Brown saw her idyllic childhood end at age 16, when Nazi troops invaded the small Hungarian town where her father was a rabbi. In If You Save One Life, Brown vividly describes how she endured through faith, determination, and her sheer will to survive. Her story will make you cry and sing.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Very significant and meaningful...An everlasting and important legacy for the six million people who had no voice during the Holocaust and a reminder to future generations that championing tolerance, justice and social change are everyone's obligation. --Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center

Eva Brown's memoir of the Holocaust is an emotional cliffhanger of unspeakable evil and tragedy as well as hope, tolerace, and forgiveness. Her memory is history's DNA. --Madeline Gabriel, Outreach Manager, Beverly Hills Library

Literate...sensitive...embodies the agonies of the past, but also emphasizes the hope of the future. --Leon Morgenstern, MD, FACs, Director Emeritus, Center for Health Ethics, Cedars Sinai Medical Center

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Upper Story Press; 1st edition (October 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979358272
• ISBN-13: 978-0979358272
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,748,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary!, February 7, 2008

By 

Honey Meyer "No Electric Dishwasher" (Southbridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If You Save One Life (Hardcover)

This is an extraordinary book, one that once started, cannot be put down until finished. There are many personal memoirs of the Holocaust, and all remind us that "never again"; however, this book goes one step further in that Eva Brown's outlook on life reminds us, too, that life is worth living.
As told to Thomas Fields-Meyer, her words and sentiments are beautifully extracted so that her story, though terribly, horribly, immeasurably horrendous, nevertheless is told without personal pity. Here is a woman whose story is so compelling; that she survived is a miracle. That she survived with a positive outlook gives the reader goosebumps. Throughout the telling, Ms Brown's character remains intact. She is no Pollyanna, and Mr. Fields-Meyer carefully stays away from promoting any sugar coated, naive, lady. Eva Brown's story is strong, and bitter, occasionally bitter-sweet, and always honest. It is brilliantly told with great compassion and without pathos. This memoir is a must-read.
Honey Meyer

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible, horrifying, uplifting, November 4, 2010

By 

SUJEKA (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: If You Save One Life (Hardcover)

Eva Brown is an inspiration. So many of us feel that we "suffer", and perhaps we do. However, what this woman managed to survive -- and survive with her sanity and her love for humanity intact -- casts most of our woes in a completely different light. She is a living example of the greatness of the human spirit...her strength is something I cannot begin to fathom.

There are passages in this book that are so horrifying that I was almost physically ill. To think that human beings can willfully inflict this kind of suffering is disheartening and sickening. That Eva's beauty of spirit survived this provides a poignant counterpoint to the true evil she endured.

I wish all high school children in the Western hemisphere could read this book. I wish the leaders of our nations would read this book.

Those interested in Eva's story should also check out Alice: Dancing Under the Gallows on YouTube. This clip is from a documentary about the oldest living Holocaust survivor, a lady with a spirit very similar to Eva's.

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Changing Book, August 1, 2010

By 

Elizabeth "Psychotherapist and Author of more... (Burbank, California, United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: If You Save One Life: A Survivor's Memoir (Paperback)

Every now and then one reads a book which affects the core of your being and challenges you to new heights. As an author of a number of books, including two which relate to the Holocaust, I found the content of this book to be challenging and even healing. Most of my previous research on the Holocaust left me feeling somewhat hopeless. This book challenged me because of the great courage and positive spirit of the author. It is well written, easy to read but challenging to live out in one's daily life. Every public school should include it in their required reading.

Elizabeth Skoglund, Divine Recycling:Living Above Your Circumstances