Never Forget Your Name (eBook)

Alwin Meyer is a prizewinning author, journalist and curator who lives in Germany.

Acknowledgements

Preface

Life Before

'That's When My Childhood Ended'

'The Hunt For Jews Began'

Gateway to Death

'As If in A Coffin'

O wi cim - Oshpitzin - Auschwitz

Children of Many Languages

Small Children, Mothers and Grandmothers

'Di 600 Inglekh' And Other Manuscripts Found In Auschwitz

Births In Auschwitz

'Twins! Where Are The Twins?'

'To Be Free At Last!'

Transports, Death Marches And Other Camps

Dying? What's That?

Alive Again!

Who Am I?

'[...] The Other Train Is Always There'

Note on the Interviews

Notes

Index

"Shattering.... When you're writing about Auschwitz, where one million people were murdered, it's easy for everything to become a blur of numbers. But Meyer turns the statistics back into stories: telling us where the children came from, how they survived, and what happened to them after the war."
--Daily Telegraph

"An important book at a crucial time."
--San Antonio Review of Books

"In a list reminiscent of Schindler's, every name in the index corresponds to a tale of torture, suffering and loss. Opening the book randomly takes courage, as the risk is to possibly be confronted with paragraphs detailing the murder of newborns by willing nurses, or mothers kicked to death by guards. Only the photos of the surviving children allow the reader time to breathe, although Alwin found there were always moments of hope - even in Auschwitz."
--Jewish News

"This is a compelling book, magnificently researched and fluently written. The testimony of child survivors, on which the book heavily draws, is heart-rending; the sense of loss, and of being lost, that it conveys is haunting. The extraordinary range of primary documentation is matched by the swift passage of many stories, which makes this book an absorbing read - eloquent, powerful and abounding with humanity."
--Monica Tempian, Victoria University of Wellington

"Reading this book and using other books like it as teaching tools is critical, particularly in our current climate of racism and bigotry. If we are to grow together into a peaceful future, we must first identify the dangers of the past and be certain not to repeat them. This book is a great first step."
--New York Journal of Books

"Meyer has painstakingly detailed these stories as a labor of love so that every Jewish child born in, or survivor of, Auschwitz has a voice. This is their legacy."
--H-Net Reviews

"[Never Forget Your Name] is an invaluable read for readers looking to connect with human stories, and an important tool in the service of, as its title suggests, remembrance."
--Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism

"This is a valuable book that allows readers to glean the thoughts, memories, and responses of children who survived Auschwitz, as well as to understand the modes used to destroy families during the Holocaust and World War II. 'a valuable book.'"
--Antisemitism Studies