In this Book
- A Final Reckoning: A Hannover Family's Life and Death in the Shoah
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: The University of Alabama Press
- Series: Judaic Studies Series
summary
A work of both childhood memory and adult reflection undergirded with scholarly research
Ruth Herskovits Gutmann’s powerful memoir recounts her life not only as a concentration camp inmate and survivor, but also as a sister and daughter. Born in 1928, Gutmann and her twin sister, Eva, escaped the growing Nazi threat in Germany on a Kindertransport to Holland in 1939
.
Gutmann’s compelling story captures many facets of the Jewish experience in Nazi Germany. She describes her early life in Hannover as the daughter of a prominent and patriotic member of the Jewish community. Her flight on the Kindertransport offers a vivid, firsthand account of that effort to save the children of Jewish families. Her memories of the camps include coming to the attention of Josef Mengele, who often used twins in human experiments. Gutmann writes with moving clarity and nuance about the complex feelings of survivorship.
A Final Reckoning provides not only insights into Gutmann’s own experience as a child in the midst of the atrocities of the Holocaust, but also a window into the lives of those, like her father, who were forced to carry on and comply with the regime that would ultimately bring about their demise.
Ruth Herskovits Gutmann’s powerful memoir recounts her life not only as a concentration camp inmate and survivor, but also as a sister and daughter. Born in 1928, Gutmann and her twin sister, Eva, escaped the growing Nazi threat in Germany on a Kindertransport to Holland in 1939
.
Gutmann’s compelling story captures many facets of the Jewish experience in Nazi Germany. She describes her early life in Hannover as the daughter of a prominent and patriotic member of the Jewish community. Her flight on the Kindertransport offers a vivid, firsthand account of that effort to save the children of Jewish families. Her memories of the camps include coming to the attention of Josef Mengele, who often used twins in human experiments. Gutmann writes with moving clarity and nuance about the complex feelings of survivorship.
A Final Reckoning provides not only insights into Gutmann’s own experience as a child in the midst of the atrocities of the Holocaust, but also a window into the lives of those, like her father, who were forced to carry on and comply with the regime that would ultimately bring about their demise.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. i-iv
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xii
- 1. Early Years
- pp. 1-32
- 2. The Nazi Noose Tightens
- pp. 33-43
- 3. Kindertransport to Holland
- pp. 44-55
- 4. Families Bloemkoper and Meijer
- pp. 56-63
- 5. We Are Back in Hannover
- pp. 64-94
- 6. Theresienstadt
- pp. 95-106
- 7. Birkenau
- pp. 107-125
- 8. Reichenbach and Four Other Lagers
- pp. 126-136
- 9. Liberation
- pp. 137-148
- 10. Time to Reflect
- pp. 149-160
- 11. Then and Now
- pp. 161-174
- Afterword: Primo Levi’s Last Book
- pp. 175-182
- References
- pp. 193-194
Additional Information
ISBN
9780817387181
Related ISBN(s)
9780817318093, 9780817359935
MARC Record
OCLC
871238140
Pages
232
Launched on MUSE
2014-03-10
Language
English
Open Access
No