Branded on My Arm and in My Soul: A Holocaust Memoir - Hardcover
Abe Landau s near-idyllic life growing up in Wilczyn, Poland in the 1920s and 30s was filled with all the joys of youth attending cheder school, playing and picnicking with friends, working with his father and spending holidays with his loving family. Little did he know that his world would soon crumble around him. In 1940 the town s Jewish families were rounded up and transported to a ghetto in Zagorow. The following year, an SS man burst into Abe s home, grabbed him and threw him into the back of a truck bound for a labor camp in Inowroclaw. The sight of his mother chasing the truck and falling beneath the spray of machine-gun fire would be his final image of her or of anyone in his immediate family. Abe spent the next five years in labor and concentration camps throughout the Reich a slave for the Nazi machine committed to exterminating him and millions of other Jews. He emerged from the nightmare a man of faith and endurance, his spirit still alive after surviving death marches, starvation, beatings and brutal transports in cattle cars crisscrossing Europe. Starting anew in the United States, Abe rebuilt his life as a tailor cantor, activist and founder of the Holocaust Memorial in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Abe s journey is a bittersweet story of survival, a study of the strength of the human spirit and a graphic portrayal of man s inhumanity to man. As the number of accounts that bear testimony to the horrors of the Holocaust grows increasingly finite, it becomes all the more important for us, now, to seek out stories such as Abe s and learn what we can from them.
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About the Author:
Abe Landau was born on April 25, 1922 in Wilczyn, Poland, where he spent a happy childhood until the Nazi invasion in 1939 when his nightmarish life of imprisonment began. He met his future wife, Freida, at Bergen-Belsen, a former concentration camp that served displaced persons at the end of World War II. After their marriage, the couple decided to begin a new life in America and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1950. They eventually bought a small tailor shop, and together the personable couple who custom-made suits and altered apparel became known as “Landau the Tailor.” After years of silence, Abe began speaking publicly about his horrific experience during the Holocaust and how he survived by his wits and courage as well as “his miracles.” He gained prominence as he spoke to civic groups and school children throughout New England; before long, “the tailor” was also known as a teacher, activist, cantor and, ultimately, the founder of New Bedford's Holocaust Memorial. Abe died in January 2000; his beloved Freida died four months later. He leaves behind this stirring memoir, which reminds us to guard against the dark side of human nature while celebrating the triumph of the human spirit. Abe Landau's survival story will inspire readers to embrace life with faith, courage and daily renewal.
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- PublisherSpinner Publications
- Publication date2011
- ISBN 10 0932027202
- ISBN 13 9780932027207
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages144
- EditorJoseph D. Thomas, Marsha L. McCabe, Jay Avila
- Rating
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