The Unfinished Road: Jewish Survivors of Latvia Look Back

(Hardback)

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Description

During the Holocaust, thousands of Jews from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and later Hungary were transported to Latvia, where they were concentrated in the Riga Ghetto and in extermination camps--joining the thousands of Latvian Jews who were already interned there. Only a few hundred survived. Gertrude Schneider, herself a survivor of the death camps, traveled Eastern Europe, Israel, and the United States to collect statements of other survivors as well as documentary evidence on the lives of the inmates, guards, and others who witnessed the Latvian Holocaust. Collected in The Unfinished Road are the remembrances of survivors. Each personal account is combined with a note on the individual's subsequent life. The volume concludes with a general bibliography and index. To begin to understand the Holocaust, one must somehow personalize the numbing statistics of the millions who were transported, concentrated, and killed. This volume moves in that direction by providing the reader with the unique human responses of those who actually witnessed the atrocities, from the Jewish SS guard in the camps to the Latvian-Swedish businessman-humanitarian, himself a Jew, who negotiated with Himmler to save concentration camp inmates; from those whose fate and cunning enabled them to survive to and later lead fulfilling lives; and to those broken by the experience. Above all, it combines a portrait of unbelievable courage and endurance with one of unspeakable brutality. Scholars and general readers alike will find Schneider's collection a valuable reminder.

Reviews

This is a useful book for young adults, as well as adult readers, as it is written clearly.-Jewish Book World
"This is a useful book for young adults, as well as adult readers, as it is written clearly."-Jewish Book World

Author Bio

GERTRUDE SCHNEIDER is Associate Placement Director and President of the Ph.D. Alumni Association at the City University of New York Graduate School. Dr. Schneider has lectured on the Holocaust at the University of New York Graduate School, among others. She is the editor of the Latvian Jewish Courier and is the author of Journey Into Terror: The Story of the Riga Ghetto and Muted Voices: Jewish Survivors of Latvia Remember. Her articles have appeared in such publications as the Jewish Frontier, Jewish Social Studies, the Jewish Press, and the Daily Forward. Dr. Schneider has been interviewed on a number of television programs, including 60 Minutes and has appeared in the film Shoah.