Mark it with a Stone [Hardcover]

Joseph Horn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1996

He stayed alive while his family perished, working as a slave laborer,and surviving torture at Auchwitz and Bergen-Belsen.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this slim volume, Horn has written a heartrending account of his struggle to stay alive under the most horrific conditions in concentration camps including Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen during World War II. The book's nine chapters detail powerfully the author's struggle to survive from September 1, 1939, when the Germans invaded Poland and entered Horn's home city of Radom, about 80 miles from Warsaw, until the Allies liberated Bergen-Belsen in 1945. In a gripping chapter, the author describes life in the Peenemunde concentration camp, where prisoners faced death from overwork, extermination, or the reign of terror organized by the capos. Grim but compelling reading for popular collections.?Mark Weber, Kent State Univ. Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Horn's horrifying ordeal began on September 2, 1939, when at age 12 he watched German bombers attack his home city of Radom, Poland. The ordeal ended on April 15, 1945, when Allied forces freed him from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. His parents and sister were killed in Treblinka, and his two brothers and two uncles also perished. Horn survived Auschwitz and six other concentration camps before being sent to Bergen-Belsen. In 1964 when he applied to the German restitution office for compensation, the court rejected his claim, ruling that since no human was capable of withstanding the experiences described, he must be lying. His memoir, Horn writes, "is my chance to point an accusing finger at my oppressors and to record what is indelibly marked in the inner recesses of my mind." George Cohen

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Barricade Books (April 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569800685
• ISBN-13: 978-1569800683
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,025,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Doubt about it,Mark this book with a Stone and Five Stars, February 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Mark it with a Stone (Hardcover)

After reading the powerful first hand account,Mark It with A Stone, by Joseph Horn, think of how lucky you are to have a family, food, and a roof over your head. This autobiography takes you along Joseph Horn's journey through Europe and many different concentration camps. He faced death several times and there were times when he'd rather have been dead than alive and suffering. When all the Jews were liberated, he moved to the States. He had to learn how to start over and make a living with few friends and no direct family living. I can assure you that you will not forget such an experience like this one and will learn to teach others of this unfortunate disaster. Knowledge was one concept Horn kept, and hopefully we can all gain more knowledge and use it wisely just like Joseph did, not too long ago! Horn's most interesting aspect was definitely his courage. When you're facing danger, it's hard to act quickly and maturely. Yet, Joseph Horn did this without a problem. Courage is a characterisitic that does not come easily to most people, but Horn demonstrates this several times. To go through the death defying situations that Horn went through, it is evident that courage is needed. Horn was very lucky and benefited from having this important quality that he took with him through life. I highly recommend this book to all young adults and their parents. It's a great book that should be shared with people all around the country. It is very powerful and can be very graphic, so if you're not good at handling these details, then maybe it's not such a good idea. But, we could all learn a lot from Joseph Horn and his story. Regardless of religion, race, or ethnic background, this book should be read by all. If there were only more people with Joseph's courage, strength, wisdom, and compassion, the world would be a better place.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mark it With a Star, November 8, 2000

By 

Chris Kim (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mark it with a Stone (Hardcover)

Joseph Horn's memoir, Mark it with a Stone, is a sharply etched portrayal of the Holocaust as seen for seven years from inside a series of boxcars and concentration camp factories where workers who broke down were systematically broken down. Rich in irony, Horn's visual imagery of what is was like to be a Holocaust victim makes the whole terrible processing of humans seem almost normal despite his vivid accounts of near-starvation, random murders, beatings, and human callousness beyond beliefs. Horn survived several years as a slave of the Nazis, he believes, so he could tell the world what happened as he saw it. Mark it with a Stone accomplishes that goal using visual descriptions that are absolutely convincing and avoiding the lurid hyperbole that turn up in the average Holocaust story. It's all like a description of a day at school punctuated by chronic overwork, wretched food, and occasional murder. The reader, emotionally attached to the hardships of each and every Jewish person, not only feels he or she is actually there but also emerges as a survivor of the book. Because "Mark it with a Stone" presents itself in such an emotionally attaching and vivid manor, high school or advanced middle school students would find it accessible while adults would read it in a single sitting.

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing Holocaust story; very good book!, January 18, 2010

By 

feemeister (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mark it with a Stone (Hardcover)

This book is very engrossing and informative, as well as showing you what it was like to live through the horrid times of the holocaust, through the eyes of a child who had to grow up very quickly. He would go through all these terrible things, and then all of a sudden he would catch a great break and be doing really well for himself (all things considered), and then he'd be shipped off somewhere else. Where it would NOT be so well for him. There were lots of ups and downs with these experiences. But learning to live in death camps and seeing the chimneys, the smoke and the fires every day, just stands out to me.

This book gives lots of information I hadn't heard before. Such as the Nazis stuffing the Russian POWs into sealed barracks and suffocating them by the thousands, to get rid of them. And then burying them in mass graves. And also, the Nazis seeing what went on in the Katyn digup, and deciding they needed to dig up their own mass graves and burn the bodies. It makes me wonder how many mass graves there are all over Europe and Russia. How many bodies were never accounted for, and the people will never be able to be properly buried?

Also like that he included some information on the trial he testified in, and also he gave as much of a rundown as he could of what happened to his family and friends you met in his book.

This book is highly readable, and I recommend it to people interested in this subject. Also think it would be excellent reading for teenagers, to show them what can happen in our world, and make them appreciate all that they are given in life. I think this lesson is one that would definitely stick with you, and wish I had read it as a teenager.