Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Epic, moving and important Robert Harris

From longstanding political columnist and commentator Daniel Finkelstein, a powerful memoir exploring both his mother and his fathers devastating experiences of persecution, resistance and survival during the Second World War.
Daniels mother Mirjam Wiener was the youngest of three daughters born in Germany to Alfred and Margarete Wiener. Alfred, a decorated hero from the Great War, is now widely acknowledged to have been the first person to recognise the existential danger Hitler posed to the Jews and began, in 1933, to catalogue in detail Nazi crimes. After moving his family to Amsterdam, he relocated his library to London and was preparing to bring over his wife and children when Germany invaded Holland. Before long, the family was rounded up, robbed, humiliated, and sent to Bergen-Belsen.

Daniels father Ludwik was born in Lwow, the only child of a prosperous Jewish family. In 1939, after Hitler and Stalin carved up Poland, the family was rounded up by the communists and sent to do hard labour in a Siberian gulag. Working as slave labourers on a collective farm, his father survived the freezing winters in a tiny house they built from cow dung.

Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad is a deeply moving, personal and at times horrifying memoir about his parents experiences at the hands of the two genocidal dictators of the 20th century. It is a story of persecution and survival; and the consequences of totalitarianism told with the almost unimaginable bravery of two ordinary families shining through.

Reviews

Early Praise for Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad

A terrific piece of work, epic, moving and important, the grim history of 20th century Europe encapsulated in one extraordinary, ordinary family Robert Harris

This truly remarkable book brings vividly home the horrors perpetrated against one family by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, serving as an indictment of their crimes against millions. Diligently researched, beautifully written and on occasion unbearably moving, this is a powerful moral work about political extremism and the importance of bearing witness, but at the heart of it is love Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny

Danny Finkelstein has written an elegant, moving account of the history of one family, and in doing so shines light on the history of the 20th century. If you want to understand Hitler and Stalin, read this book about people whose lives were upended by both of them Anne Applebaum, Author of Gulag: A History, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

This is a powerful and moving account of one family's story of resilience and survival during one of the most terrible periods of human history. It will never not be acutely relevant. Everyone should read it Sonia Sodha

Daniel Finkelsteins beautifully written book Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad is a tale of survival and humanity surrounded by death and brutality. At a time when Holocaust denial is on the rise among the young, and people talk fondly again of communism, it is a reminder that for all their problems, our wonderful, messy democracy and our great shared European civilisation must be constantly defended George Osborne

An extraordinary story both horrifying and inspiring that grips you completely from start to finish Gyles Brandreth

Hitler Stalin Mum and Dad is superb. An extraordinary story: moving and terrible but redemptive Jonathan Dimbleby

Author Bio

Daniel Finkelstein is a British journalist and opinion writer who brings to that role long experience in politics. A former executive editor of The Times, he continues to write for the paper. He has been political columnist of the year four times. Before joining The Times in 2001 he was adviser to prime minister John Major and Conservative leader William Hague. He was appointed to the House of Lords in 2013 and is a father of three.