I Choose Life - Hardcover

Jennings PhD, Jerry L; Finkelstein, Goldie; Finkelstein, Joseph S

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1441503064 ISBN 13: 9781441503060

Publisher: Xlibris, 2009

Synopsis

'I Choose Life' is the true, first person account of two Jewish youths, Sol and Goldie, who survived Nazi concentration camps and transcended despair by choosing life. The book title derives from a harrowing encounter between Sol and the Commandant in Auschwitz. The Nazi cruelly forced Sol to choose between execution by hanging or firing squad. Sol, then 19-years-old, defied him, declaring, 'If I have a choice, I choose life!' Goldie Cukier, a 13-year-old girl, and her older sister were rounded up in a random raid in their neighborhood. An SS guard gave Goldie' father the "choice" of freeing only one of his two daughters. Goldie volunteered to be taken so that her sister would be spared. It was the last she would ever see her family alive.

'I Choose Life' describes idyllic childhoods in Radom and Sosnowiec, Poland, in warm and loving families imbued with Jewish pride and values; years of darkness, suffering, separation, loss and death; raids, selections, forced labor camps, cattle cars, and death marches; and survival in Auschwitz, Mauthausen and Bergen-Belsen. Sol says, 'A sane person cannot imagine what it was like.'

I Choose Life is distinguished as a Holocaust testament, not only because it is two complete memoirs of a boy and a girl, but ultimately, because the two stories entwine as Sol and Goldie meet in a Displaced Persons camp in post-war Germany. The book explores the challenges of restoration and rebirth, how two youths regained the ability to trust and love, to rebuild new lives after unimaginable losses, and to move to another continent to start a new family and live the American dream. In one of the most peculiar and fascinating chapters of modern Jewish history, Sol and Goldie tell the story of how hundreds of Jewish concentration camp survivors from Europe found an unexpected new Zion in rural Vineland, Jersey, as a community of chicken farmers.

For years, Sol and Goldie never shared their stories, not even with each other. Now, they have decided to tell their stories, to leave a legacy to their grandchildren, and to help ensure the Holocaust is never repeated."

About this title

From the Author:

From Joseph S. Finkelstein: This book is a memoir written in the first person and tells the story of my parents' childhoods in pre-war Poland, their Holocaust experiences in various labor and concentration camps, and their rebuilding of Jewish life in America.

Both of my parents rebuilt their lives after the Holocaust as new people. They decided that they would not burden their children, nor to the extent possible, their own marriage with painful memories of the past. So, as the second-generation children of survivors, my siblings and I grew up in America without knowledge of the life and death events that our parents had experienced in Europe.

Gradually, my parents began telling their experiences through oral history projects and other media. But still I felt the need to do more. 'I Choose Life' has enabled my parents to leave a legacy of their experiences to their family and to future generations. As the next generation, I rejoice in the choices and courage of my parents, Sol and Goldie. As a child of Holocaust survivors, I take upon myself the legacy to preserve the history and memories of what they endured. It is the responsibility of all of us to listen, to learn, to embrace these stories, and to educate the next generation.

About the Author:

Dr. Jerry Jennings is a clinical psychologist and award-winning screenwriter and author. He has written two previous Holocaust survivor memoirs, Stella's Secret (Xlibris, 2005) and Darkness Hides the Flowers (Xlibris, 2007). Joseph S. Finkelstein, a second generation child of Holocaust survivors, is a lawyer in Philadelphia. Sol and Goldie Finkelstein, are Holocaust survivors residing in Vineland, New Jersey, where they raised three children on their chicken farm.

About this edition

• Publisher: Xlibris
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1441503064
• ISBN 13: 9781441503060
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 142