The Watchmakers: A Powerful WW2 Story of Brotherhood, Survival, and Hope Amid the Holocaust

(Hardback)

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"Inspiring. Exhilarating. Astonishing. An epic tale of brotherhood, ingenuity, and survival." -Heather Dune Macadam, International Bestselling author of 999- The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz Told through meticulous interviews with his son, this is an extraordinary memoir of endurance, faith, and a unique skill that kept three brothers together-and alive-during the darkest times of World War II. "A truly extraordinary book." -Damien Lewis, #1 international bestselling author Harry Lenga was born to a family of Chassidic Jews in Kozhnitz, Poland. The proud sons of a watchmaker, Harry and his two brothers, Mailekh and Moishe, studied their father's trade at a young age. Upon the German invasion of Poland, when the Lenga family was upended, Harry and his brothers never anticipated that the tools acquired from their father would be the key to their survival. Under the most devastating conditions imaginable-with death always imminent-fixing watches for the Germans in the ghettos and brutal slave labor camps of occupied Poland and Austria bought their lives over and over again. From Wolanow and Starachowice to Auschwitz and Ebensee, Harry, Mailekh, and Moishe endured, bartered, worked, prayed, and lived to see liberation. Derived from more than a decade of interviews with Harry Lenga, conducted by his own son Scott and others, The Watchmakers is Harry's heartening and unflinchingly honest first-person account of his childhood, the lessons learned from his own father, his harrowing tribulations, and his inspiring life before, during, and after the war. It is a singular and vital story, told from one generation to the next-and a profoundly moving tribute to brotherhood, fatherhood, family, and faith. "Deeply moving." -Jesse Kellerman, bestselling author "Vivid and compelling." -Christopher R. Browning, Frank Porter Graham Professor of History Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author of Ordinary Men 2022 National Jewish Book Award Finalist

Reviews

Praise for The Watchmakers

The reader hears Harrys voice bringing his experiences to life with all their daily horrors and cruelty yet imbued with the brothers devotion to each other and their determination to live. It is apowerful voice recounting an inspiring story of hope in the face of unimaginable hardship. Like their father before them, the three sons became watchmakers, little imagining that the trade would provide not just alivelihood but life itself. Jewish Book Council

Here is a Holocaust memoir that is so well told that you feel like you are sitting in the room with Harry Lenga, listening to him as he relates the meaningful episodes of his life.His narrative, as transcribed and edited by his son Scott, is at times folksy, other times philosophical, and always interesting. . . . Even if you have read other Holocaust memoirs before, reading this one will be well worth your time.Harrys positivity, optimism andseichelare truly inspiring. San Diego Jewish World

A truly extraordinary bookone full of compassion, love, and hope in the midst of unimaginable suffering and despairThe Watchmakers is a humbling account, one that is both jaw-droppingly well-written and uplifting at the same time. It reads like a thriller, and revived my faith in the enduring quality and beauty of the human spirit, even when mired in the depths of darkness and crazed evil. Once I had finished the last page I only wanted to start reading it all over again. Unputdownable, despite the cruelty, brutality, barbarism, and sheer downright hatred visited upon the brothers at the heart of this epic tale. I will return to The Watchmakers again and again.
Damien Lewis, #1 international bestselling author

Inspiring. Exhilarating. Astonishing. An epic tale of brotherhood, ingenuity, and survival, told with the ticking precision of a wind-up watch. The Watchmakers reminds us of the importance of loyalty, how to persevere against aggression, and how well-timed and precisely measured audacity can ignite a hidden spark of humanity in the darkest of times. Heather Dune Macadam, international bestselling author of 999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz and Star Crossed: A True Romeo and Juliet Story in Hitlers Paris

The Watchmakers is an astonishing testament to courage, guile, and brotherly devotion under impossible circumstances. Gripping as a thriller, deeply moving, it brings fresh urgency to a vitally important piece of history. Everyone should read it. Jesse Kellerman, bestselling author

The Watchmakers is a hybrid first- and second-generation Holocaust survivor memoir.Based on more than forty hours of his fathers recorded oral testimonies and using his fathers own words, Scott Lenga has crafted a vivid and compelling account of survival through family solidarity and bartered watchmaker skills.The journey of Harry Lenga and his two brothers from the Kozhnitz ghetto through various slave labor camps and finally Auschwitz-Birkenau, Mauthausen, Melk, and Ebensee is a story of resilience, adaptability, ingenuity, endurance, and perseverance.
Christopher R. Browning, Frank Porter Graham Professor of History Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author of Ordinary Men and Remembering Survival

Every story of Holocaust survival is extraordinary and few more so than Harry Lengas. Captured by his son, Scott, this is a saga of fortitude, resilience, brotherly love, and faith. It should be read by anyonestudents, teachers, historianswho cares about preserving the memory of those who, like Harry Lenga and his brothers, found a way of remaining aliveand remaining humanin the face of evil. Dr. Michael Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, and member of Knesset

The Watchmakers is an extraordinary bookgripping, inspiring, and terrifying all at once. Each Holocaust survivor is a walking miracle. Many of them volunteered to testify to their lives in hell, but most did not manage to do so in time. We feel the loss of precious untold stories from the generation of survivors whose hard-earned physical existence will soon pass from this world. It is in that context that we honor this renewed literary genre of Holocaust testimony furthered by Scott Lenga, son of Harry Lenga. Harry speaks to us in his own voice captured from more than forty hours of interviews, notwithstanding the twenty-two years since his natural death. Here, Scott Lenga offers an empowering model for future generations of survivor descendants and delivers a harrowing saga of timeless values put to the test. Blu Greenberg, author of On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition and How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household, and founder of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance

A fascinating read. The horror of Nazi Germany will always haunt us, but like most traumas there is a temptation to file the era away and pay scant attention to the experience. The Watchmakers cuts through that and lays bare the utter inhumanity of what happened in appalling detail. Its focus on the day-to-dayindeed the moment-to-momentstruggle to survive strikes home vividly. Only occasionally does Harry Lenga stop to think about the wider implications, and I think that makes his experiences come across with an immediacy that is sometimes missing from other accounts. I really came to appreciate the life and death significance of something as simple as a pair of shoes, a battered metal soup bowl, or a shave. I found myself shocked, once again, by the mindless brutality and casual cruelty of the Nazi regime and its henchmen. As Harry notes, it could happen anywhere. The Watchmakers serves as a fresh warning of the dangers of ignoring history. Simon Scarrow, Sunday Times bestselling author of Blackout and the Eagles of the Empire series

World War II and the Holocaust still have lessons to teach us, and stories yet to be told. The Watchmakers presents a unique survival story that will take its place in Holocaust literature alongside works by greats such as Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi. Tom Young, author of Silver Wings, Iron Cross and Red Burning Sky

The Watchmakers is a beautiful tribute to the bond of brotherhood. Against all odds,Harry Lenga and his brothers managed to endure multiple concentration camps, ghettos, and a death march during the Holocaust. Their survival was largely based on making decisions as a team of brothers, their watchmaking abilities, and luck. Harrys son, Scott Lenga, does a wonderful job of incorporating his fathers own words throughout the story. Additionally, the strong relationship between the brothers is undeniable as the author writes, The togethernessthe will to livewas so strong. Even though the book documents the worst of mankind, I found their story compelling, as it manages to highlight the beautiful bond between brothers and the hope for a better tomorrow. Adena Bernstein Astrowsky, author of Living among the Dead: My Grandmothers Holocaust Survival Story of Love and Strength

A must read! This is a story of broken family relationships that become unbreakable when put to the test. You feel their quickening heartbeat and the cut of the tightrope on their feet as they face death with every step. Inspiring and unforgettable. Hadassah Lieberman, author of Hadassah: An American Story

The Watchmakers is an intimate, powerful, and eloquent memoir. As told by Harry Lenga, the story is drenched in pain, brutality, and sadness, but with hardly a drop of hopelessness or despair. The focus required for precision watchmaking became a shield of resistance for Harry and his brothers in the Nazi slave labor and death camps. This craft learned from their father sustained their spirits, lifting them above the soul-crushing world of their captivity. Moreover, The Watchmakers teaches a lesson: when confronting a murderous evil, your biggest challenge is holding on to your own human decency. Michael Clerizo, author of Masters of Contemporary Watchmaking and George Daniels: A Master Watchmaker and His Art

Scott Lengas significant accomplishment was to capture his fathers voice and portray his experience from early childhood as a young Chassidic boy into the gates of Auschwitz and beyond, from the death marches to life in postwar Germany and his resettlement in St. Louis. Survivors often mistakenly say that the reason they survived was luckthey all knew someone smarter and wiser, braver and stronger, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and did not make it through. Harry Lenga survived not merely by luck, but with his skill as a watchmaker, his audacity, and his ingenuity as he faced all but certain death time and again. He survived with his brothers because they too had skills, and they forged an iron bond to pull each other through. The work is compelling, the writing is riveting, and one comes away with deep gratitude to both father and sonfather for telling the story to his son, and son for faithfully transmitting a story that must be told. Michael Berenbaum, Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of Sigi Ziering Institute, American Jewish University, Los Angeles

A very personal life of a Polish Jew. The Watchmakers is an important account of Jewish life in Poland inthe years precedingtheHolocaust and the struggle for life during the Holocaust itself. It beautifully describes the strength of spirit that enabled some Jews to survive the Nazi onslaught. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Soci

Author Bio

Harry Lenga was born in 1919 to a family of Chassidic Jews in Kozhnitz, Poland, where his father taught him and his brothers the watchmaking trade that would save their lives during the war. Harry was working in Warsaw when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, and escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941 to reunite with his family in the Kozhnitz Ghetto. The night before the Germans murdered its entire Jewish population-including his remaining family members-Harry and two of his brothers escaped Kozhnitz to a nearby Polish-run labor camp. From there, the three brothers were transported between 1942 and 1945 to the camps in Wolanow, Starachowice, and Auschwitz, and then to the Austrian concentration camps of Mauthausen, Melk, and Ebensee. All three brothers were liberated by the U.S. Army on May 6, 1945. In 1949, Harry immigrated to St. Louis, Missouri, where he married, had three sons, and went on to have grandchildren. He continued working as a watchmaker for nearly thirty years before retiring and later moving with his wife to Israel. Harry Lenga died on January 2, 2000 at the age of eighty. Scott Lenga is the son of Harry Lenga. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, he holds a BA in economics from UC Berkeley and a law degree from UCLA. He and his wife live in Israel, where they raised three daughters who grew up listening to stories about the grandfather they never really knew. In addition to writing and speaking about his family's experiences during and after World War II, he serves as a corporate and intellectual property lawyer for technology companies. Visit him online at ScottLenga.com.