Petit Claude: The Orphan of Auschwitz [Paperback]

Agnes Holzapfel Seugnet (Author), Agnes Holzapfel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2001

This is the compelling true story of a four-year-old Jewish boy who was almost miraculously rescued from a Nazi prison on the way to Auschwitz, where both his parents died. A young French Christian couple sheltered him for three drama-filled years and came to love him almost as their own son. But, at the end of World War II, Petit Claude was uprooted again, and taken to live in what would soon become Israel. Contact with his French rescuers was lost for nearly fifty years. It was only after Petit Claude was found again a few years ago that the missing parts of his life could be told. How he overcame the tragic events of his early life makes an inspiring story. The author also interweaves the moving account of Claude's Jewish family's persecution in the Holocaust with the story of the Christian couple who risked their lives working in the underground French Resistance movement to save him and others from the Nazis.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Agnès Holzapfel Seugnet, author, painter, and educator, is uniquely qualified to write the story of Petit Claude, as she is the daughter of the heroic couple who sheltered him during the years of Nazi occupation of France. Today a plaque in the Garden of the Righteous in Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, bears the names of her parents, honoring them for their rescue of Uri (Petit Claude) Blum. Born in France, Ms. Seugnet received her MA from the Sorbonne University in Paris. She has lived in France, and in the USA.

Ann Keay Beneduce is a well-known editor, and writer, as well as a translator. She has translated a number of art books from French into English.

Product Details

• Paperback: 217 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris Corp; 1 edition (April 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738860697
• ISBN-13: 978-0738860695
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,508,706 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 A Remarkable Story of Courage and Humanity, February 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Petit Claude: The Orphan of Auschwitz (Paperback)

Recently I met Agnes Seugnet, author of a newly published book called, "Petit Claude The Orphan Of Auschwitz And His French Rescuers." This is a true story of the rescue of a little Jewish boy in France during the time of the Holocaust. The couple that sheltered and nurtured the child during the war was Mrs. Seugnet's parents. They were members of the French resistance. It is an emotional and very sincere book that can be enjoyed by both teenagers and adults.

Mrs. Seugnet's book is very important. She is a direct link to the Holocaust experience and is willing to share it with others. By reading the book, teenagers can acquire a much deeper and more immediate understanding of the Holocaust. This experience led to my discussing the Holocaust with my own family. I urge other families to talk to their children about these events. To those families with survivors I urge the survivors to talk to their children and grandchildren for you are a link to the past. As Mrs. Seugnet puts it, it is your "duty to share the memory."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling tale of true heroism, January 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Petit Claude: The Orphan of Auschwitz (Paperback)

We always hear about all the terrible things that happened in World War II - how a whole nation ultimately colluded with a psychopath who managed to wreak havoc across the entire world and how millions of people suffered and died for no reason at all. It can lead to a very depressing conclusion about human nature and the world we live in.

So with that in mind, its very refreshing to read a book like this which is about two unlikely lovers, a German and a Frenchwoman, who dared to stand against the fascist regimes of Nazi Germany and Vichy France, risking their lives to save that of a young Jewish boy whose family are, one by one, murdered by the Nazis. There is no more powerful way of understanding the real horror of what the Nazi's committed and also of what an impact one person's decision to do the right thing can have.

The orphan's two rescuers are actually the author's own parents and one gets the sense that this book is as much a personal voyage to understand her parents as it is to relay a heroic tale. As such the intricacies and contradictions of their characters come across in a very compelling and intriguing way.

Overall, I found "The Orphan of Auschwitz" both depressing and hopeful, tragic and heroic. It certainly gives an astonishing insight into the lives of real people living and fighting in that extraordinary period and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is at all interested in how the moral dilemmas of the war forced ordinary people into leading extraordinary lives.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Important Addition to the Resistance Literature, February 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Petit Claude: The Orphan of Auschwitz (Paperback)

This book is an honest and moving true account of an unusual situation: a French woman and a German man protecting a little Jewish boy during World War II. The resolve and nationalities of the couple add a new dimension to our understanding of the complexity of French and German resistance.