For Those I Loved (Signet) [Paperback]

Martin Gray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 1974 | Series: Signet

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." —George Santayana

We need only to look back to Rwanda, and now to Darfur, to see that once again we are living the worst of times. Who better to guide our understanding and give us hope than Martin Gray—a man who survived the worst of times, flourished, and still managed to find joy in living?

Martin has come full circle since his boyhood world was turned upside down by the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Overnight, the teenage Martin and his family were immersed in the horrors of the Holocaust and held captive in the Warsaw Ghetto. It was a nightmare of brutality, starvation, and death. Martin became a clever smuggler to help his family survive—until the "butchers” of Treblinka took his mother and brothers. Against impossible odds, Martin survived and returned to fight in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. As the Nazis incinerated the ghetto, he escaped to fight with the partisans, and then the Red Army.

After the war, Martin made his way to New York. The cunning and skills he developed during the war enabled him to learn the language and create a successful business. At 35, he retired to France with a fortune and a beautiful Dutch wife, starting a family and living in happiness and peace. But his world was shattered once again by a forest fire that engulfed his fleeing family. In a tragic repeat of history, Martin alone survived.

Martin Gray's past could be our future if we don't heed his call to be the change. In this 35th anniversary expanded edition of For Those I Loved, a book beloved by millions of readers worldwide, Martin reminds us that the past is connected to the present. Only we can ensure that history is not repeated.

Martin Gray still lives in the South of France and has devoted his life to his family, writing, human rights, and environmental and cultural causes. He received the United Nations Dag Hammar­skjöld Award and the Gold Medal of European Merit.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Signet; First mass market paperback edition (January 8, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451057341
• ISBN-13: 978-0451057341
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,581,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A factual and Moving account of the Holocaust., April 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: For Those I Loved (Hardcover)

It was with great dismay that I read some of the comments questioning Martin Gray's life and history. They are obviously written by Holocaust deniers and individuals who will not accept the fact of the brutality and rabid hatred of many Eastern European's in assisting the Germans. Several years ago I read the book and had the honor to make the acquaintence of Martin Gray. I have been to his home several times to interview him. As a historian of the holocaust I fully researched his account and have talked at length with Martin about his many experiences. Not only are ALL his facts accurate but his personal ans unambiqious rendition can only lead one to the unmistakenable conclusion that he did personally suffer through those terrible times. His book is touching and horrifying and permits the readers to comprehend the vile and vicious treamtent of the Jews by the Poles, Ukraiains and Germans alike. These historical facts are well known.

As for Martin's involvemnt in the "KGB", he was never in the KGB as there was no KGB in WWII. It was called the NKVD. His work for them involved finding Nazis in hiding and collaborators in Eastern Europe. He left to America because he realized the NKVD would soon turn into a State supported police orgainzation.

Martin is a decent and honest man who suffered horribly.. He lost his entire family in Treblinka and had the courage to tell the world about it. His book should be read by anyone interested in this topic and anyone who wants to learn how one can build a new life despite experiencing such horror. The "reviewers" who discount the book base their opinion on incorrect information and unsupported allegations. Readers should make the effort to find and this book.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Unbelievable Life Story, September 25, 2005

By 

Joshua Padnick (Scottsdale, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For Those I Loved (Hardcover)

I read this book because someone close to me had revealed a tragedy they suffered in their lives, and I wanted some way to understand how a human being copes with such things. Needless to say, I got much more than I bargained for.

This story is about Martin Gray and the utterly incredible life he lived and endured. He escapes from the clutches of death so many times that you lose count, his will to survive and the cleverness he employs to that end is amazing, and the schemes he conjures to bring food into the ghetto or escape from the death camps or to make his fortune are phenomenal.

With a life story like his, it'd almost be hard to write a non-engaging book. For myself, I read about 350 pages in around 3 days; it was just that riveting. But the writing style is powerful, too. Most of the book is written in the first-person and interspersed with dialogue; it's basically a window into Martin's inner thoughts.

Most people know the horrors of the Holocaust but actually reading a first-hand account of them, and the subsequent thought process Martin had to try to make sense of it all was so powerful.

Why read this book? I'll be honest, a large part of me wasn't enthused about absorbing the lowest depths of humanity through a Holocaust memoir. But the curiosity of how this man lived to write this memoir in the first place and how he dealt with it all propelled me forward. Martin writes so viscerally that I feel I've come away with a deeper understanding of the range of the human experience, how our emotions respond to the world around us, and how one man lives his life.

Strange as it may sound, being Jewish myself, I feel like I have a piece of Martin inside of me now. Sadly, all he had at the end of this book was a story to tell and a cause to pursue; nearly everything else in his life had been taken from him. It makes me feel good that I have aided his quest, read his story, suffered with him, and can now tell others about the life he endured.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Those I Loved, August 30, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: For Those I Loved (Hardcover)

I have read this book several times; it is one of the most powerful accounts of a Holocaust experience that I have ever read. I find that after years (I first read it about 17 years ago) this story has stayed with me.

I was always curious to know what happened to Martin Gray and I looked up Max Gallo (who collaborated with Gray in writing the book) on the Internet and was happy to find out that Martin Gray is alive and well (as of this writing) and living in Brussels, and has 4 children. He has written over 10 books in French since having written For Those I Loved.