The Jew with the Iron Cross: A Record of Survival in WWII Russia [Paperback]

Georg Rauch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2006

As a teenager, author Georg Rauch helped his mother protect the Jewish couples hidden in their Viennese attic. Officially classified as one-quarter Jewish, Rauch is drafted into Hitler’s army and sent to fight for causes he detests. Rauch finds himself near death many times, but his talents as a shortwave radio operator, chef, and even harmonica player all play a role in his survival. Captured by the Russians in the autumn of 1944, Rauch faces brutality and near-fatal illness as a POW. Recruitment for Russian espionage saves his life this time, but his story isn’t over yet.

Based on eighty letters sent home from the Russian trenches, The Wooden Spoon is a riveting tale of paradox and survival during World War II.

“A fascinating account of what it was like for a partial Jew to serve in the German military during World War II. Rauch’s experiences and hardships dramatically depict the physical and emotional struggles of a ‘Mischling’ during the Third Reich.”—Bryan Mark Rigg, author of Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers

“Not about combat tactics but about what it meant to be in an army at war. Rauch has put a human face on aspects of the war that are usually only referred to in passing.”—Tom Houlihan, WWII cartographer

"With honesty and affection Georg Rauch tells of the love and respect between a mother and son as well as the nightmare experiences of a young soldier fighting and barely surviving a war he ³never wanted, understood or could justify." —Ellen Barone,Lake Chapala Review

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Georg Rauch is a professional artist who has exhibited extensively in Europe, the United States, and Mexico. For the last thirty years, Rauch and his wife, Phyllis, have made their home overlooking Lake Chapala in the central highlands of Mexico.

www.georgrauch.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 269 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (June 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595379877
• ISBN-13: 978-0595379873
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,448,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Georg Rauch was born in Salzburg, Austria on Valentine's Day 1924. Because of his Jewish blood, he was treated as a second class citizen, and ignored by his teachers at school. He spent his youth helping his mother to feed and care for the Jews she was hiding in their Viennese attic. He also taught himself Morse code, to cook, to build radios and to play the harmonica. All of these would come in very handy when he was sent as a foot soldier and telegraphist to the Russian Front during WWII. His memoir, The Jew with the Iron Cross, is based on his experiences as a Jewish soldier in Hitler's army and as a prisoner of the Russians. The inspiration for the book are the 80 plus letters he wrote to his mother from the Russian trenches. Following the war Rauch spent 1 1/2 years in an alpine TB sanatorium after it was discovered he had contracted TB while a prisoner of war. Rauch had drawn and painted from childhood,and after leaving the TB hospital, he began to dedicate himself professionally to what he had always loved best - painting. He was supported by grants from the Austrian government and had numerous one man shows in the European capitols. After meeting his wife, Phyllis, he moved to the United States in 1966 and continued to exhbit in New York, California, and Toronto. After a first trip to Mexico in 1967, Rauch exhibited regularly in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. In 1976 Georg and Phyllis moved permanently to Mexico where Georg continued to show all over the country and was honored with various large museum retrospectives. Georg's memoir was published in the summer of 2006 and he died in November of the same year. The Jew with the Iron Cross has been translated into Spanish and won a prize for life stories awarded by Writer's Digest magazine in 2007.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jew with the Iron Cross: Personalizing the Impersonal -- Humanizing the Inhuman, August 29, 2006

By 

Matthew Ingram (New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jew with the Iron Cross: A Record of Survival in WWII Russia (Paperback)

The Jew with the Iron Cross, by George Rauch, is a well-written and well-translated (by Phyllis Rauch) personal account of World War II. The author is part Jewish, and as a young boy he helps his Jewish mother hide relatives and other refugees in their Austrian home. Under the circumstances of WWII Austria, however, he finds himself a teenager forced into the infantry of the German war machine who then struggles to both survive and retain his identity. In this sense, the book could be summarized as a story of survival under the most adverse of circumstances. However, the book is much more than that.

In its personal, first-hand account of the battles, both inner and outer, confronted by this young man as he struggles to make sense of the multiple contradictions brought on by the war, this book is also about the dehumanizing and depersonalizing nature of war. Through the author's experiences, from conscription to the army in Vienna to killing opposing soldiers on the Russian front, we are reminded of the way in which war erases personhood and individual identity. The individual Russians, after all, may be just like him, captives of circumstance forced into a conflict they do not wholly understand and do not support. War, waged by governments and states, does not consider the individual sensibilities of those persons who will do the fighting. More importantly, once in a state of war, individuals lose many of the luxuries of decisionmaking, choice, agency, and autonomy that may have existed prior to the war. Starker still, at the front lines of wars, boys become soldiers, soldiers become killers, and the best chance of survival lies in becoming one of the best killers out there. And, in a tragic stroke of irony, those who fight the hardest to survive seem to lose the most upon survival.
War, in short, does not care. In the midst of this war, however, the author cared very much, and managed to survive both in person and in spirit. This book, then, is about more than the irony of an openly Jewish soldier fighting in the Nazi army, a young man removed from his family, a man forced to fight other men he had never met, or an artist's sensibilities tested, in the truest sense of the word, by the brutality and savagery of war. This book is about the impersonal and dehumanizing nature of war, and one man's struggle to retain his personality and humanity.

One of the unique aspects of this book is the correspondence between the author and his mother throughout the war. The book includes over 100 letters written by the author during the war and carefully saved by his mother in war-torn Austria. The letters fill in minute details of daily life on the front, and the absence of letters during the author's internment in a Russian prisoner camp only help to accent his isolation.

This book is a good reminder of how important it is to self-consciously consider our rationales for war. The author reminds us that war is very, very ugly. In addition to all the physical destruction, we also destroy and lose ourselves -- our sense of personhood and humanity -- in the impersonal and inhuman act of war. The book stands as an implicit indictment of war. Thus, in times of conflict, or impending conflict, we should ask more questions about who we are and who our supposed "enemies" are, rather than resorting to simplistic rhetoric that dehumanizes the other side and turns "we" and "they" into "us vs. them". The author's physical survival could be fairly categorized as miraculous, but his moral survival -- his humanity -- is of even greater substance and significance. It is this moral survival that should generate optimism about the future of the world. But we should pay tribute to this moral survival not by counting on our ability to do the same in times of conflict, but by struggling to prevent such conflicts in the first place.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!!!!, July 11, 2006

By 

Michael Liljequist - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jew with the Iron Cross: A Record of Survival in WWII Russia (Paperback)

This was a great book! It was very well written and easy to read. I have been reading about WWII all my life(and I am 43) and this book is up there amongst some of the best that I have read. I have read numerous autobiographies and this one is upfront, honest and very revealing of His(Georg's) life and what extreme things He had to endure. I found it every bit as enjoying as The Forgotten Soldier. This book was written to establish a form of closure for Georg, and I know you will not be dissapointed in buying it. Along with the help of His Great and longtime partner(wife...)Phyllis, they made this extaordinary accomplishment come to life in book form. Thanks for sharing this with us all. A+
Regards,
Michael
"k9mike"

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting real-life story, July 7, 2006

By 

Loraine Carlson "Loraine Carlson" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jew with the Iron Cross: A Record of Survival in WWII Russia (Paperback)

This engrossing first-hand account of war on the horrendous Eastern Front of World War II presents a vivid picture of life in the German army as it waned in power and was eventually routed from Russia. At the time, the author was a young anti-war Viennese who was drafted into the German army when he reached his eighteenth birthday and was soon sent to the front. His letters home form a large part of the book, and together with the linking narrative they tell in breathtaking detail of his frequent escapes from death, sometimes by luck and often by quick-wittedness.

Peripherally, other aspects of the times come to light. Rauch was considered a Jew by the army because he had a Jewish grandmother. On this account he was not eligible for officer training, which was open to others at his educational level. This prejudice accounts for his being sent to the trenches so rapidly. We learn of his family, which was nonreligious but socially conscious, and their efforts to save Jews who were threatened by the Gestapo. And we also get glimpses of prewar Vienna and of the city under occupation, first by the Germans and then by the victorious Allies.

At the end I found myself amazed that anyone could live through so many harrowing experiences. The telling was lively, and I highly recommend the book.