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I lost count of how many camps he was interned in.
Every other month he seemed to be back in a boxcar heading for another unknown destination - these included camps in Poland, France and Germany. What made this an especially riveting read was his narrative skill. It's perhaps less intellectual or philosophical than most Holocaust memoirs. He si Amazing story written by a remarkable man. He simply holds fast to the story of his suffering. Some memorable images included arriving in France and being applauded by the local residents who shouted "shame" at the SS guards.
He was so moved by the compassion of these people after the vitriol or indifference of his native Poles that it returned to him his will to live at a point when his morale was at its lowest ebb. A bizarre incident was when an elderly Jew who had earlier helped him was dragged away at a rollcall because he had a hernia. No one, of course, ever expected to see him again. However he returned a week later. The Germans had operated successfully on his hernia.
When you think of the colossal resources the Nazis put into killing Jews it's astonishing that they went out of their way to heal one. Also tremendously moving was how well the surviving prisoners were treated by the American and British soldiers. On the other hand, all the Polish Jews in the holding station were detained long after other nationalities had been repatriated because in Poland Poles were killing returning Jews, even with full knowledge of what the Nazis had done. Frankly, it's disgraceful that the present Polish government is trying to rewrite history where the Holocaust is concerned.
Of course there were many brave and generous Poles but on the whole anti-semitism was clearly the prevailing attitude in Poland throughout and even after the war. Escaping prisoners, for example, were often caught by Polish farmers and handed back to the Gestapo. George Salton emigrated to America where he became a member of staff at the Pentagon, overseeing the development of satellite systems. Amazing considering his education was halted by the Nazis and he could barely write a letter at the end of the war.
View all 8 comments. Jul 29, Larissa rated it it was amazing Shelves: One of the best holocaust memoirs I have read, second only to the pianist.
The 23rd Psalm A Holocaust Memoir George Lucius Salton With Anna Salton Eisen. "When Simon Dubnow, the renowned historian of European Jewry, was led. The 23rd Psalm: A Holocaust Memoir [George Lucius Salton, Anna Salton Eisen] on bahana-line.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. In September,
This man shows in a thousand different ways the horror of this time. Small events that add up to a great and encompassion picture.
Often we don't think about the common man in this time, because very few memoirs relate any information about the populace in intimate ways like this book does. You see at once the triumph of humanity in the actions of this boy and the cheers of the French popula One of the best holocaust memoirs I have read, second only to the pianist. You see at once the triumph of humanity in the actions of this boy and the cheers of the French populace and the evil of people in the average polish indifference and the murderous insanity of the germans.
I am grateful this man shared his past with us all.
Set up a giveaway. You will not be able to put it down. Your Web browser is not enabled for JavaScript. Often we don't think about the common man in this time, because very few memoirs relate any information about the populace in intimate ways like this book does. In September, , George Lucius Salton's boyhood in Tyczyn, Poland, was shattered by escalating violence and terror under German occupation.
Oct 30, Stephen Robertson rated it it was amazing Shelves: Everytime I think things are going bad in my life I Just think of people like Mr. Salton here and what they've gone through. Recommended for anyone whining about how hard things are.
May 05, Nancy rated it it was amazing Shelves: I listened to this book at bed time, and had to find my way back to the last places I had heard, so that I could go on listening. I was also reading a free historical novel on the holocaust during the same time period. The books that are memories of that awful time, are much more heart felt and satisfying than those with made up situations. George was about 12 years old at the time he was taken into captivity by the German's. He was separated from his parents, who were killed.
He was with his br I listened to this book at bed time, and had to find my way back to the last places I had heard, so that I could go on listening. He was with his brother a good part of the time of the telling of the story. They were separated during one of the selections. George was only 17 when he was liberated. After the war he kept searching for his brother in hopes he had survived. He wrote to his aunt and uncle in the United States, and they brought him to live with them.
George changed his name when he came to the United States, to one that didn't sound Jewish.
He kept the part of the holocaust from his children, so that he could give them a happy childhood. His children embraced their father's history when he finally brought it out in the open. But here, unlike the taunts and rocks from villagers in Poland and Germany, there was applause. Suddenly, I realized that the people of Colmar were applauding us! They were condemning the inhumanity of the Germans!
Of the prisoners of the Nazis who marched through the streets of Colmar in the spring of , just fifty were alive one year later when the U. Army 82nd Airborne Division liberated the Wobbelin concentration camp on the afternoon of May 2, It was my true self, the one who had stayed deep within and had not forgotten how to love and how to cry, the one who had chosen life and was still standing when the last roll call ended. George Lucius Salton emigrated to the United States after liberation.
University of Wisconsin Press, c Physical description p. P63 S Unknown. Find it at other libraries via WorldCat Limited preview. Contributor Eisen, Anna Salton.
His father, a lawyer, was forbidden to work, but eleven-year-old George dug potatoes, split wood, and resourcefully helped his family. They suffered hunger and deprivation, a forced march to the Rzeszow ghetto, then eternal separation when fourteen-year-old George and his brother were left behind to labor in work camps while their parents were deported in boxcars to die in Belzec.