"Though language cannot truly capture the depth of the suffering inflicted on Holocaust victims by the Nazis, this book offers a haunting approximation. Written from the perspective of a Holocaust survivors daughter, the book also reminds us of the importance of Jewish survival through ldor vdor, or intergenerational connection and communication. Further, this book succeeds in shedding light on the suffering of Holocaust victims without reducing them to mere symbols of tragedy or passive figures stripped of their individuality. Readers will likely finish this book hoping to meet Sol. Despite what he went through, Sols positivity and love for others make you feel good about humanity despite the fact he witnessed the worst of it." -- Jewish Book Council "In this poignant account, Lurie and Holocaust scholar Jacobs (Antisemitism) retrace the steps of Luries father Sol, who survived six different Nazi concentration camps. He narrowly escaped death on multiple occasions, sometimes due to luck, but often, as Sol would stress later in life, due to the unexpected kindness of others. It makes for an informative contribution to Holocaust studies." -- Publishers Weekly "As the last survivors of the Holocaust depart, their children continue to tell their stories. In this account of one survivors life in the vanished world of Lithuanian Jewry, Sol Luries daughter and her collaborator tell of a young boy stripped of his childhood. His personal tale gives hope to modern readers faced with political struggle and an increasing social intolerance. The book presents a readable, capsule history of Jewish life in northern Europe, largely for the purpose of restoring Lithuanian traditions. A moving tale of personal resilience, told through a history of Lithuanian Jewry." -- Kirkus Reviews We live in a time of the passing of generations and the receding of memory into the shadows of history. And yet the Eventthe Holocaustcasts its shadow over us. Here, in the testimony contained in these pages, we have a convergence of history, memory, and the transmission of memory, for the sake of a future. Sols words reach out to us through the words of those who have been entrusted with his testimony, a testimony that transforms all of us into witnesses. -- David Patterson, University of Texas at Dallas, from the Afterword Slaughters, betrayals, broken treaties and broken promises. They're all here, as they are in any account of the Nazi years. Defying them was a young Lithuanian Jew graced with courage, imagination and sometimes pure luck. In the end, Sol Lurie found love, family and the tenacity to tell his story to a world that too often didn't want to hear it. Lurie not only endured. He survived and thriveda stubborn phoenix rising from the ashes. -- Arthur J. Magida, author of Two Wheels to Freedom
