Inherit the Truth: A Memoir of Survival and the Holocaust [Hardcover]

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (Author), Martin Gilbert (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 2000

In the years following her liberation from the Nazi death camp, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, like most survivors of the Holocaust, struggled to build a normal life for herself. Decades later, she realized that in her efforts to achieve normality she had not spoken to her children or her grandchildren of her terrifying odyssey. Her memoir of the period between 1939 and 1945, was written for her children so that they would Inherit the Truth.

This is the story of the destruction of a talented Jewish family, and of the survival against all the odds of two young sisters. Anita and her elder sister Renate defied death at the hands of the Gestapo and the SS over a period of two and a half years, being first imprisoned as criminals and then being transferred, separately to Auschwitz, and finally to Belsen. They were saved by their exceptional courage, determination and ingenuity, and by several improbable strokes of good luck -- the greatest of which was the fact that Anita played the cello.

Lasker-Wallfisch draws from her own startlingly vivid memories of her experience, and also incorporates the letters her family wrote to one another during this period as well as other primary documents. She succeeds in conveying -- in unsentimental prose -- what it was to have been a Jew living in Germany at the time of the Third Reich and what it was to have survived.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sharply etched memories animate this strong contribution to Holocaust literature. Lasker-Wallfisch, a founding member of the English Chamber Orchestra, spent her happy early years in Breslau, Germany, but the persecution of Jews there escalated during the 1930s, as she documents with correspondence between family members and Marianne, one of her sisters, who had fled to England. When her parents were deported in 1942, Lasker-Wallfisch and her other sister, Renate, were sent to an orphanage. When they attempted to flee Germany for France, the two teenagers were imprisoned and later sent to Auschwitz--a place she describes in clear, chilling prose. Luck intervened: because she played the cello, Lasker-Wallfisch was permitted to join the camp orchestra that was made famous in the film Playing for Time, based on Fania F?nelon's memoir. The author takes issue here with F?nelon's portrayal of the women in the camp stealing food and betraying one another. Lasker-Wallfisch recalls that ill and starving musicians frequently shared bread, showed concern for one another and retained their humanity. When the orchestra was disbanded, the musicians were shipped to Bergen-Belsen. After liberation in 1945, Lasker-Wallfisch and Renate made their way to England. This story, as it promises, illustrates "how precariously thin the dividing line is between human integrity and barbarism." B&w illus. (Apr.) FYI: Richard Newman and Karen Kirtley Fania also challenge F?nelon's portrayal of the Auschwitz women's orchestra and its leader in Alma Ros?: Vienna to Auschwitz (Forecasts, Mar. 13).
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The author was one of three daughters of middle-class assimilated Jews living in Breslau, Germany. The family's attempts to arrange emigration before the outbreak of World War II failed, except for an older sister who fled to England. In 1942 Lasker-Wallfisch's parents and other relatives were deported; the author and another sister were sent to an orphanage. Later, they were sent to a prison in Breslau. Eventually they were transferred (separately) to Auschwitz concentration camp and finally to Bergen-Belsen, where they were liberated in April 1945. Lasker-Wallfisch, a cellist, played in the women's orchestra in Auschwitz, a vocation that helped keep her alive. The book is based primarily on family letters written to the author's sister in England. Lasker-Wallfisch has lived in England since 1946 and is a founding member of the English Chamber Orchestra, in which she plays the cello. The book contains a preface by Holocaust historian Martin Gilbert and 27 photographs. George Cohen

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (April 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312208979
• ISBN-13: 978-0312208974
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,328,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for musicians, September 12, 2009

By 

Raphael & Antonio Gagliano (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Inherit the Truth: A Memoir of Survival and the Holocaust (Hardcover)

One of the most inspiring, and, of course, sad books I have ever read. One of the very best. I had always wondered how the Hitler's victims in the concentration camps stayed sane. God bless them, and, I thank those of them for the courage to relive it all again in print.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most humane books I've ever read, September 12, 2010

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Pastmaster (Ripon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inherit the Truth: A Memoir of Survival and the Holocaust (Hardcover)

.One of the most humane books I've ever read, about anything. You will emerge a better person for having read it. A decent account by a decent person.