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Surviving Peace: A Political Memoir
by Olivera SimicHow do you pick up the pieces after your life is shattered by war? How do you continue living when your country no longer exists, your language is no longer spoken and your family is divided, not just by distance but by politics too? What happens when your old identity is taken from you and a new one imposed, one that you never asked for? When Olivera Simic was seven years old, President Tito died. Old divisions re-emerged as bitter ethnic conflicts unfolded. War arrived in 1992. People were no longer Yugoslavs but Serbs, Croatians, Bosnians. Old friends became enemies overnight. In this heartfelt account of life before, during, and after the Bosnian War and the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, Simic talks of her transition from peace to war and back again. She shows how she found the determination to build a new life when the old one was irretrievable. Traversing four continents, she takes us on her winding journey from Bosnia to Australia, revealing the complex challenges of adjusting to life in a new country and exposing the harsh reality of the post-traumatic stress that accompanies her. Simic strives to find the balance between wanting to move on to a different future and a pressing need to look back at a past that won't go away. The pull of her homeland remains irresistible despite it being ravaged by destruction, and her exposure of the war crimes that took place there means she is labeled both a "traitor" and a "truth seeker." Surviving Peace is one woman's story of courage that echoes the stories of millions of people whose lives have been displaced by war. As we still face a world rife with armed conflict, this book is a timely reminder that once the last gunshot has been fired and the last bomb dropped, the new challenge of surviving peace begins.
Surviving The Storm: Finding Life After Death
by Mike FrazierFasten your seat belt and let me take you for a ride! The true story of one man's triumph over tragedy. A torrential storm changed his life forever... leaving Mike Frazier for dead and killing his family. The deadly waters of a Texas creek rose, lifting their car with ease, tossing it over a bridge, drowning his mother, father, 2-year-old daughter, 11-year-old nephew and fiancee. It was by the grace of God that Mike escaped. Now he has overcome to tell his story of how he "Survived the Storm." Raised in a Christian home with an intense musical background, Mike found peace in the Lord and in his music. His natural gift of music began to emerge at an early age. Using his talent as a bass guitarist and drummer, Mike has toured with artists such as Kirk Franklin, R. Kelly, and Stevie Wonder. He has appeared on live recordings of Bishop T.D. Jakes. For the past several years he has been touring the country with Tyler Perry Gospel Stage plays, "I Know I've Been Changed," "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," "Madea's Family Reunion," "Madea's Class Reunion" and currently, Mike is the musical director for Tyler Perry's "Meet The Browns." God has appointed Mike to share his testimony of anger, depression, fear, loneliness, grief and thoughts of suicide in an effort to minister to those who have experienced the same. His story has been featured on various radio stations, news programs and in magazine publications, such as WOE magazine. He was also welcomed to the TBN family by Juanita Bynum, who states, "This book is a must read." Through the use of many avenues, Mike fulfills his passion and purpose, which is encouraging those who encounter storms in their lives to "hold on." He says, "If God carried me through the storm, He can do the same for you!"
Surviving in My World: Growing Up Dalit in Bengal
by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay Manohar Mouli Biswas Angana Dutta Jaideep SarangiIT GIVES US great pleasure to present the English translation of Manohar Mouli Biswas's Bengali autobiography Amar Bhubane Ami Benche Thaki (2013). The book consists of the autobiography and a detailed interview of the author; the latter attempts to bridge the gap between Biswas's days of struggle as a dalit child labourer, as narrated in the autobiography, and his later (so far unrecorded) life as an accomplished dalit literary activist, as one of the leading members of the Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha. His auto¬biography surprises us by its inherent truth and beauty.
Surviving the Angel of Death: The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz
by Lisa Rojany Buccieri Eva Mozes KorEva Mozes Kor was just ten years old when she arrived in Auschwitz. While her parents and two older sisters were taken to the gas chambers, she and her twin, Miriam, were herded into the care of the man known as the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele. Subjected to sadistic medical experiments, she was forced to fight daily for her and her twin's survival. In this incredible true story written for young adults, readers learn of a child's endurance and survival in the face of truly extraordinary evil.The book also includes an epilogue on Eva's recovery from this experience and her remarkable decision to publicly forgive the Nazis. Through her museum and her lectures, she has dedicated her life to giving testimony on the Holocaust, providing a message of hope for people who have suffered, and working for causes of human rights and peace.
Surviving the Angel of Death: The True Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz
by Lisa Rojany Buccieri Eva Mozes KorEva Mozes Kor was just ten years old when she arrived in Auschwitz. While her parents and two older sisters were taken to the gas chambers, she and her twin, Miriam, were herded into the care of the man known as the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele. Subjected to sadistic medical experiments, she was forced to fight daily for her and her twin's survival. In this incredible true story written for young adults, readers learn of a child's endurance and survival in the face of truly extraordinary evil and Eva's recovery and her controversial but often misunderstood decision to publicly forgive the Nazis. Readers will learn of how she triumphed over unfathomable pain and suffering into a life-long work for peace, human rights, and Holocaust education. The new edition provides interesting details and important context to the events related in the original story. A new Afterword by publisher Peggy Porter Tierney offers a richer portrayal of Eva as a person, the truth behind the controversies, and the eventful last ten years of her life.
Surviving the Death Railway: A POW's Memoir and Letters from Home
by Hilary Custance GreenThe ordeals of the POWs put to slave labour by their Japanese masters on the Burma Railway have been well documented yet never cease to shock. It is impossible not to be horrified and moved by their stoic courage in the face of inhuman brutality, appalling hardship and ever-present death.While Barry Custance Baker was enduring his 1000 days of captivity, his young wife Phyllis was attempting to correspond with him and the families of Barrys unit. Fortunately these moving letters have been preserved and appear, edited by their daughter Hilary, in this book along with Barrys graphic memoir written after the War. Surviving the Death Railways combination of first-hand account, correspondence and comment provide a unique insight into the long nightmare experienced by those in the Far East and at home. The result is a powerful and inspiring account of one of the most shameful chapters in the history of mankind which makes for compelling reading.
Surviving the Dragon: A Recent History of Tibet through the Looking Glass of a Tibetan Lama
by Arjia RinpocheSurviving the Dragon is the remarkable life story of Arjia Rinpoche, who was ordained as a reincarnate lama at the age of two and fled Tibet 46 years later. In his gripping memoir, Rinpoche relates the story of having been abandoned in his monastery as a young boy after witnessing the torture and arrest of his monastery family.
Surviving the Dragon: A Tibetan Lama's Account of 40 Years under Chinese Rule
by Arjia RinpocheOn a peaceful summer day in 1952, ten monks on horseback arrived at a traditional nomad tent in northeastern Tibet where they offered the parents of a precocious toddler their white handloomed scarves and congratulations for having given birth to a holy child—and future spiritual leader.Surviving the Dragon is the remarkable life story of Arjia Rinpoche, who was ordained as a reincarnate lama at the age of two and fled Tibet 46 years later. In his gripping memoir, Rinpoche relates the story of having been abandoned in his monastery as a young boy after witnessing the torture and arrest of his monastery family. In the years to come, Rinpoche survived under harsh Chinese rule, as he was forced into hard labor and endured continual public humiliation as part of Mao's Communist "reeducation."By turns moving, suspenseful, historical, and spiritual, Rinpoche's unique experiences provide a rare window into a tumultuous period of Chinese history and offer readers an uncommon glimpse inside a Buddhist monastery in Tibet.
Surviving the Gulag: A German Woman's Memoir
by Ilse JohansenOne woman’s story of her struggle to survive while imprisoned in a Soviet gulag following World War II.“The terrified yell of my comrades makes me stop. I drop the potatoes into the grass and turn around. He has pulled out the pistol and is taking aim. Slowly I come back.”Surviving the Gulag is the first-person account of a resourceful woman who survived five grueling years in Russian prison camps: starved, traumatized, and worked nearly to death. A story like Ilse Johansen’s is rarely told—of a woman caught in the web of fascism and communism at the end of the Second World War and beginning of the Cold War. The candid story of her time as a prisoner, written soon after her release, provides startling insight into the ordeal of a German female prisoner under Soviet rule. Readers of memoir and history, and students of feminism and war studies, will learn more about women’s experience of the Soviet gulag through the eyes of Ilse Johansen.“Surviving the Gulag is an unflinching story of being a German woman in the very places that have been written about by so many men.” —Lolita Lark, RALPH Magazine
Surviving the Holocaust and Stalin: The Amazing Story of the Seiler Family
by Vanessa HolburnThe horrors of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and labor camps were just the beginning of the struggle to survive for the Seiler family. As Hungarian Jews, they faced persecution of the very worst kind both from their own government and Nazi Germany. After liberation by the Soviets at the end of WWII they endured further punishment from the Stalinist regime concealed behind the Iron Curtain. This memoir is drawn from a recently re-discovered cache of precious family letters and exclusive interviews with Marta Seiler, who translated those letters for the first time. Marta has supplemented the account with childhood memories and original photos. The narrative is told through the voices of Marta, her mother Izabella and her father Lajos on a journey that takes us from 1935 to the present day. The reader is able to piece together the family’s personal challenges set against the backdrop of international political conflict. Exploring themes of resilience, identity and inherited trauma, by the end of the book we learn how Marta rediscovered her forbidden Jewish identity, found her place within the community and has moved toward a place of tolerance. In the tradition of oral history, Marta told her remarkable family story exclusively to journalist Vanessa Holburn. For Marta it’s important we learn the lessons of the past before they are lost for good.
Surviving the Japanese Onslaught: An RAF PoW in Burma
by William TateThese are the firsthand memoirs of the late William Albert Tate (W.O, RAF Bomber Command) framed within the factual history of his service career in the Royal Air Force between the years 1938 and 1946, penned by his son. This gripping narrative relays William's firsthand recollections of his time spent as a Japanese Prisoner of War, when he was incarcerated for two years in Rangoon Gaol, after bailing out of his Wellington over Burma. Tales of the harsh brutalities inflicted by his captors and the unsanitary conditions in which he and his fellow captives were held offer a real sense of the everyday realities experienced by Japanese Prisoners of War at this time. Jungle diseases, enforced starvation, sadistic torture tactics and the ever present threat of aerial bombardment all beset these prisoners. William and his son meditate on the legacies of enduring such trials as these in an engaging account of survival against the odds.
Surviving the Mob: A Street Soldier's Life Inside the Gambino Crime Family
by Dennis N. Griffin Andrew DiDonatoWhat do you do when the law wants you behind bars and the New York crime families want you buried? That was the life-and-death dilemma confronting Andrew DiDonato, who began his criminal career at age 14 under the watchful eyes of the local Mob. By the time he was 17, the infamous Gambino family made DiDonato an associate of the Nicholas Corozzo crew. For the next 14 years, he was a loyal street soldier, immersed in dangerous and profitable criminal activities: burglary, forgery, extortion, loan sharking, car theft, bank robbery, counterfeiting, drug dealing, credit-card and insurance fraud, witness tampering, weapons possession, and attempted murder. He was also involved in the underworld gambling operations, which took in millions dealing dice and cards, booking sports and horses, and running numbers. Between these pages you'll find the most in-depth look at Mob gambling ever. At age 31, DiDonato ran afoul of both the law and his friends, turning him into a hunted man on two fronts. After 17 months on the run, the law caught him first. This book is a cautionary tale of the harsh reality of a criminal, inmate, fugitive, and witness who--so far--has lived to tell the tale.
Surviving the Nazi Onslaught: The Defence of Calais to the Death March for Freedom
by Carole McEntee-TaylorTed Taylor, 1st Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, was sent to France in May 1940 as part of Calais Force. Initially sent to open up supply lines to the rapidly retreating BEF, they soon found themselves defending Calais against the might of the 10th Panzer Division. Outnumbered by at least three to one they held out for 4 days until they ran out of ammunition and were forced to surrender.For the next five years Ted found himself part of the huge slave labour force in Poland under the administration of Stalag XXA and Stalag XXB. Life in the POW camps bore little resemblance to the cheerful films of the 1950s with casual brutality never far from the surface. As 1945 began and the war entered its final bloody phase, the POWs dared to believe that at last they might be going home. But fate had one more cruel trick to play.As the Russians approached rapidly from the east, the terrified Germans evacuated the camps and, in temperatures below -25c, began marching the malnourished, poorly-clothed POWs back across Europe. The infamous 'death marches' to freedom across the frozen, chaotic, war ravaged landscape of Eastern Europe had begun.
Surviving the Reich: The World War II Saga of a Jewish-American GI
by Ivan GoldsteinThe memoirs of a Jewish-American soldier who is taken as a POW by the Germans and survives against all odds.Ivan Goldstein was a nineteen-year-old green-as-grass soldier heading into his first battle: the Battle of the Bulge, World War II’s fiercest engagement between the American army and Hitler’s army. A bow gunner on a Sherman tank, Private Goldstein was only hours into his first battle when his tank was hit by an enemy shell, and he was almost killed. Goldstein escapes with his life . . . only to be captured by the Germans. This could be the story of many young men from what has rightly been called “the Greatest Generation,” but Goldstein is not any young man. He is an American Jew. And when a German officer learns this, the officer says, “In the morning, take the Jew out and shoot him.” What follows is an epic story of survival in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds that is sure to engage everyone interested in the war against the Third Reich.
Surviving the Survivors: A Memoir
by Ruth KleinRuth Klein&’s story is about merchants and landowners—aristocratic Polish Jews. It&’s about their lives in refugee and concentration camps. About parents who survived the Holocaust but could not overcome the tragedy they had experienced, and about their children, who became indirect victims of the atrocities endured by Holocaust victims. After their liberation, Ruth&’s parents were brought to the Displaced Person Camps in Germany, where they awaited departure to the United States. They were traumatized, starving, and impoverished—but they were among the survivors. Once in America, however, their struggles didn&’t end. Nearly penniless, Ruth&’s family—and the close-knit group of Polish refugees they belonged to—were placed for settlement in Los Angeles, where they lived in poverty only a few miles away from the wealth and glamor of Hollywood and Beverly Hills in the early 1950s. Ruth tells how, time after time, her parents had their dreams broken, only to rebuild them again. She also shares what it was like to grow up with parents who were permanently damaged by the effects of the war. Theirs was a dysfunctional household; her parents found great joy and delight moving through life&’s experiences in their new country, yet tumult and discord colored their world as well. As a young girl, Ruth developed a passionate relationship with the piano, which allowed her to express a wide range of feelings through her music—and survive the chaos at home. Full of both humor and unfathomable tragedy, Surviving the Survivors is Ruth&’s story of growing up in an environment unique in time and place, and of how, ultimately, her upbringing gave her a keen appreciation for the value of life and made her, like her parents, a survivor.
Surviving the United Nations: The Unexpected Challenge
by Robert B. AdolphA UN security advisor recounts his dangerous—and often contentious—time with the organization in this candid combat memoir.Robert B. Adolph was a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces before becoming a security advisor for the United Nations. Adolph was sent to some of the most dangerous places on earth in pursuit of humanitarian efforts. But sometimes his worst opponent was the institution that had sent him. He holds the distinction of having been twice promoted—and twice fired—by the U.N. In Surviving the United Nations, Adolph vividly recounts his experiences on assignment in Iraq when terrorists blew up the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. He also describes encounters with murderous child-soldiers; blood diamonds; a double hostage-taking; an invasion by brutal guerrillas; an emergency aerial evacuation; a desperate mission to recover hundreds of prisoners; tribal gunfights and unusual kidnappings; refugee camp violence; and institutional corruption.
Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir
by Rebecca CarrollA stirring and powerful memoir from black cultural critic Rebecca Carroll recounting her painful struggle to overcome a completely white childhood in order to forge her identity as a black woman in America.Rebecca Carroll grew up the only black person in her rural New Hampshire town. Adopted at birth by artistic parents who believed in peace, love, and zero population growth, her early childhood was loving and idyllic—and yet she couldn&’t articulate the deep sense of isolation she increasingly felt as she grew older. Everything changed when she met her birth mother, a young white woman, who consistently undermined Carroll&’s sense of her blackness and self-esteem. Carroll&’s childhood became harrowing, and her memoir explores the tension between the aching desire for her birth mother&’s acceptance, the loyalty she feels toward her adoptive parents, and the search for her racial identity. As an adult, Carroll forged a path from city to city, struggling along the way with difficult boyfriends, depression, eating disorders, and excessive drinking. Ultimately, through the support of her chosen black family, she was able to heal. Intimate and illuminating, Surviving the White Gaze is a timely examination of racism and racial identity in America today, and an extraordinarily moving portrait of resilience.
Surviving to Drive: A Year Inside Formula 1: An F1 Book
by Guenther Steiner#1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • A high-octane, no-holds-barred account of a year inside Formula 1 from Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, star of Drive to Survive, one of the most successful Netflix series of all time&“People talk about football managers being under pressure. Trust me, that's nothing. Pressure is watching one of your drivers hit a barrier at 190mph and exploding before your eyes...&”In Surviving to Drive, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner brings readers inside his Formula 1 team for the entirety of the 2022 season, giving an unobstructed view of what really takes place behind the scenes. Through this unique lens, Steiner guides readers on the thrilling rollercoaster of life at the heart of high-stakes motor racing. Packed full of twists and turns, from pre-season preparations to hiring and firing drivers, from the design, launch, and testing of a car to the race calendar itself–Surviving to Drive is the first time that an Formula 1 team has allowed an acting team principal to tell the full story of a whole season.Uncompromising and searingly honest, told in Steiner's inimitable style, Surviving to Drive is a fascinating and hugely entertaining account of the realities of running a Formula 1 team.
Survivor of the Long March: Five Years as a PoW 1940-1945
by Terry Waite Charles Waite Dee VarderaNothing prepares a man for war and Private Charles Waite, of the Queen’s Royal Regiment, was ill-prepared when his convoy took a wrong turning near Abbeville and met 400 German soldiers and half a dozen tanks. ‘The day I was captured, I had a rifle but no ammunition.’ He lost his freedom that day in May 1940 and didn’t regain it until April 1945 when he was rescued by Americans near Berlin, having walked 1,600 kms from East Prussia. Silent for seventy years, Charles writes about his five lost years: the terrible things he saw and suffered; his forced work in a stone quarry and on farms; his period in solitary confinement for sabotage; and his long journey home in one of the worst winters on record, across the frozen river Elbe, to Berlin and liberation. His story is also about friendship, of physical and mental resilience and of compassion for everyone who suffered. Part of that story includes the terrible Long March, or Black March, when 80,000 British POWs were forced to trek through a vicious winter westwards across Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany as the Soviets approached. Thousands died. There are simply no memoirs of that terrible trek – except this one.
Survivor on the River Kwai: The Incredible Story of Life on the Burma Railway
by Reg TwiggSurvivor on the River Kwai is the heartbreaking story of Reg Twigg, one of the last men standing from a forgotten war. Called up in 1940, Reg expected to be fighting Germans. Instead, he found himself caught up in the worst military defeat in modern British history - the fall of Singapore to the Japanese.What followed were three years of hell, moving from one camp to another along the Kwai river, building the infamous Burma railway for the all-conquering Japanese Imperial Army. Some prisoners coped with the endless brutality of the code of Bushido by turning to God; others clung to whatever was left of the regimental structure. Reg made the deadly jungle, with its malaria, cholera, swollen rivers, lethal snakes and exhausting heat, work for him. With an ingenuity that is astonishing, he trapped and ate lizards, harvested pumpkins from the canteen rubbish heap and with his homemade razor became camp barber.That Reg survived is testimony to his own courage and determination, his will to beat the alien brutality of camp guards who had nothing but contempt for him and his fellow POWs. He was a risk taker whose survival strategies sometimes bordered on genius. Reg's story is unique.Reg Twigg was born at Wigston (Leicester) barracks on 16 December 1913. He was called up to the Leicestershire Regiment in 1940 but instead of fighting Hitler he was sent to the Far East, stationed at Singapore. When captured by the Japanese, he decided he would do everything to survive.After his repatriation from the Far East, Reg returned to Leicester. With his family he returned to Thailand in 2006, and revisited the sites of the POW camps. Reg died in 2013, at the age of ninety-nine, two weeks before the publication of this book.
Survivor's Obligation: Navigating an Intentional Life
by Chris Stricklin Joel NeebThis book will inspire you to face whatever circumstances life brings your way and will challenge you to live your best life!"... two incredible personal stories of survival ... This book is for anyone traveling the unpredictable path of life."—Lee Woodruff, coauthor, New York Times bestseller In an Instant"... will definitely change your perspective ... A must read!"—Susan Hendricks, anchor, CNN Headline NewsChris Stricklin ejected from the F-16 he was piloting during a Thunderbirds air show."The decision [to eject] would change my life and priorities forever."Joel Neeb survived stage IV appendix cancer."I didn't want my new life to become like my old one."In their award-winning memoir, Chris and Joel share how their survival experiences transformed their lives and how their journey of healing is enriched by fulfilling what they call survivor's obligation—a responsibility to live an intentional life. Each day, they live out their purpose—for themselves and their families, and in honor of all those who didn’t get a second chance.Multiple-Award-Winning Book!IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Gold, Best MemoirMidwest Book Award Silver, Best Inspiration Book
Survivor: A Memoir
by Christina CrawfordBeyond Mommie Dearest—the inspiring and shattering sequel to the groundbreaking #1 New York Times bestseller. At publication the world as I knew it blew up in my face. Christina Crawford’s Mommie Dearest cast a spotlight on the unspoken horrors of family violence and exorcised the demons of her childhood. But in the years following the controversial bestseller’s publication, the author’s resilience was tested in ways she never expected. Crawford was forced to brave a stunning backlash intended to shame her, a film adaptation that bastardized her story and compounded the trauma, a descent into alcoholism, a divorce that ruined her financially, and a massive stroke that left her paralyzed. Staying true to her fighting spirit, she made a remarkable comeback. More than a personal memoir of triumph over tragedy, Survivor is an enlightening spiritual roadmap to recovery for anyone who has suffered the ordeals of physical and emotional abuse, devastating illness, or seemingly insurmountable despair. Crawford’s story is not just about the will to survive; it is about the unparalleled joy of coming out on the other side, finding calm, and celebrating a fulfilling life. “The author of Mommie Dearest . . . hits her stride with this strong account of her simultaneous tragedies. . . . One closes this fine, moving read with great respect for Christina Crawford.” —Kirkus Reviews
Survivor: An Abortion Survivor's Surprising Story of Choosing Forgiveness and Finding Redemption
by Steve Rabey Claire Culwell Lois Mowday RabeyAn abortion survivor and leading pro-life spokeswoman tells her inspiring and sometimes surprising story of redemption, healing, and forgiveness, offering grace and support—not shame—to women facing the most difficult decision of their lives. &“Claire&’s heart-wrenching and inspiring story is exactly what our world needs today.&”—Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, author of Fighting for LifeForeword by Abby Johnson, bestselling author of Unplanned, and afterword by Josh McDowell, founder of Josh McDowell Ministry Raised in a loving adoptive home, Claire Culwell, at the age of twenty-one, decided to meet her birth mother—and got the shock of her life. Claire&’s birth mother, Tonya, confessed that when she was pregnant with Claire, she&’d gone to a clinic for an abortion. Yet, after the abortion, the pregnancy continued to progress. What Tonya&’s doctor had overlooked was that she&’d been pregnant with twins. The abortion that terminated the life of Claire&’s twin had miraculously spared Claire. Claire embraced the unique circumstances, soon sharing her story with the world and urging her listeners to understand how abortion takes the life of a child. When Claire faced her own unplanned pregnancy as a single woman, she embraced the added opportunity to step into the shoes of those she advocates for. Her heart grew bigger on the issue of life, which increased her extension of empathy and grace to women in pregnancy crisis. At the same time, she began to challenge churches to truly value not just the unborn but also the women who face unexpected pregnancy. Survivor is Claire&’s incredible story of surviving abortion and advocating for life—the lives of unborn babies as well as the lives of their mothers. Her powerful message of grace speaks louder than politics or controversy or shame as she inspires each of us to choose life wherever we are.
Survivor: Auschwitz, The Death March And My Fight For Freedom
by Sam Pivnik**For fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz**Sam Pivnik is the ultimate survivor from a world that no longer exists. On fourteen occasions he should have been killed, but luck, his physical strength and his determination not to die all played a part in Sam Pivnik living to tell his extraordinary life story. In 1939, on his thirteenth birthday, his life changed forever when the Nazis invaded Poland. He survived the two ghettoes set up in his home town of Bedzin and six months on Auschwitz's notorious Rampkommando where prisoners were either taken away for entry to the camp or gassing. After this harrowing experience he was sent to work at the brutal Furstengrube mining camp. He could have died on the 'Death March' that took him west as the Third Reich collapsed and he was one of only a handful of people who swam to safety when the Royal Air Force sank the prison ship Cap Arcona, in 1945, mistakenly believing it to be carrying fleeing members of the SS. He eventually made his way to London where he found people too preoccupied with their own wartime experiences on the Home Front to be interested in what had happened to him. Now in his eighties, Sam Pivnik tells for the first time the story of his life, a true tale of survival against the most extraordinary odds.
Survivor: Auschwitz, The Death March And My Fight For Freedom (Extraordinary Lives, Extraordinary Stories of World War Two #4)
by Sam Pivnik**For fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz**Sam Pivnik is the ultimate survivor from a world that no longer exists. On fourteen occasions he should have been killed, but luck, his physical strength and his determination not to die all played a part in Sam Pivnik living to tell his extraordinary life story. In 1939, on his thirteenth birthday, his life changed forever when the Nazis invaded Poland. He survived the two ghettoes set up in his home town of Bedzin and six months on Auschwitz's notorious Rampkommando where prisoners were either taken away for entry to the camp or gassing. After this harrowing experience he was sent to work at the brutal Furstengrube mining camp. He could have died on the 'Death March' that took him west as the Third Reich collapsed and he was one of only a handful of people who swam to safety when the Royal Air Force sank the prison ship Cap Arcona, in 1945, mistakenly believing it to be carrying fleeing members of the SS. He eventually made his way to London where he found people too preoccupied with their own wartime experiences on the Home Front to be interested in what had happened to him. Now in his eighties, Sam Pivnik tells for the first time the story of his life, a true tale of survival against the most extraordinary odds.