Description
A classic of Holocaust literature, the eloquent, acclaimed memoir of childhood by a Pulitzer-winning historian, now reissued with a new introduction by Claire Messud
Four months before Hitler came to power, Saul Friedl nder was born in Prague to a middle-class Jewish family. In 1939, seven-year-old Saul and his family were forced to flee to France, where they lived through the German Occupation, until his parents' ill-fated attempt to flee to Switzerland. They were able to hide their son in a Roman Catholic seminary before being sent to Auschwitz where they were killed. After an imposed religious conversion, young Saul began training for priesthood. The birth of Israel prompted his discovery of his Jewish past and his true identity. Friedl nder brings his story movingly to life, shifting between his Israeli present and his European past with grace and restraint. His keen eye spares nothing, not even himself, as he explores the ways in which the loss of his parents, his conversion to Catholicism, and his deep-seated Jewish roots combined to shape him into the man he is today. Friedl nder's retrospective view of his journey of grief and self-discovery provides readers with a rare experience: a memoir of feeling with intellectual backbone, in equal measure tender and insightful.
Author: Saul Friedländer
Publisher: Other Press (NY)
Published: 08/04/2020
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.44lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9781635420500
ISBN10: 1635420504
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs
- History | Modern | 20th Century | Holocaust
- Religion | Judaism | History
Four months before Hitler came to power, Saul Friedl nder was born in Prague to a middle-class Jewish family. In 1939, seven-year-old Saul and his family were forced to flee to France, where they lived through the German Occupation, until his parents' ill-fated attempt to flee to Switzerland. They were able to hide their son in a Roman Catholic seminary before being sent to Auschwitz where they were killed. After an imposed religious conversion, young Saul began training for priesthood. The birth of Israel prompted his discovery of his Jewish past and his true identity. Friedl nder brings his story movingly to life, shifting between his Israeli present and his European past with grace and restraint. His keen eye spares nothing, not even himself, as he explores the ways in which the loss of his parents, his conversion to Catholicism, and his deep-seated Jewish roots combined to shape him into the man he is today. Friedl nder's retrospective view of his journey of grief and self-discovery provides readers with a rare experience: a memoir of feeling with intellectual backbone, in equal measure tender and insightful.
Author: Saul Friedländer
Publisher: Other Press (NY)
Published: 08/04/2020
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.44lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9781635420500
ISBN10: 1635420504
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs
- History | Modern | 20th Century | Holocaust
- Religion | Judaism | History
About the Author
Saul Friedländer is an award-winning Israeli-American historian and currently a professor of history (emeritus) at UCLA. He was born in Prague to a family of German-speaking Jews, grew up in France, and lived in hiding during the German occupation of 1940-1944. His historical works have received great praise and recognition, including the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his book The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945.