Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

Survivors Club

The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"Narrator Fred Berman brings gravitas to the events of this memoir while still creating a voice for Michael [Bornstein] that sounds young and vulnerable. Berman also excels at the use of Yiddish, Polish, and German accents where needed to create a sense of the time and place." — AudioFile Magazine
This program includes a preface read by both authors with an afterword read by Michael Bornstein. A bonus conversation with the authors, archival recordings, and a pdf of photos are also included.
In 1945, in a now-famous piece of World War II archival footage, four-year-old Michael Bornstein was filmed by Soviet soldiers as he was carried out of Auschwitz in his grandmother's arms. Survivors Club tells the unforgettable story of how a father's courageous wit, a mother's fierce love, and one perfectly timed illness saved his life and how others in his family from Zarki, Poland, dodged death at the hands of the Nazis time and again with incredible deftness.
Working from his own recollections as well as extensive interviews with relatives and survivors who knew the family, Michael relates his inspirational Holocaust survival story with the help of his daughter, Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. Shocking, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting, this narrative nonfiction offers an indelible depiction of what happened to one Polish village in the wake of the German invasion in 1939.
This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 16, 2017
      After Bornstein discovered an image of himself as a child and other young Auschwitz survivors being used as Holocaust-denying propaganda, he resolved to research his history and share his memories. Assisted by his daughter Debbie, a news producer, he learned that out of 3,400 Jews living in Zarki, Poland, before the Holocaust, fewer than 30 survived, almost all from his family. Enhanced by meticulous archival research, Bornstein’s story unfolds in novelistic form, beginning with the arrival of Nazi soldiers in Zarki in 1939. Through the retelling of harrowing eyewitness stories, the authors recount the increasing degradation, deprivation, and terror of Zarki’s Jewish citizens, and the courageous attempts of Bornstein’s father to save many neighbors from death. Bornstein’s family’s fight for
      survival included his aunt and uncle leaving their three-year-old daughter
      at a Catholic orphanage while hiding in a neighbor’s attic; in Auschwitz, Bornstein’s mother hid him in her barracks. The story of a silver kiddush cup, which Bornstein’s father buried and his mother recovered after the war, bookends this moving memoir, an important witness to the capacity for human evil and resilience. Ages 10–14. Agent: Irene Goodman, Irene Goodman Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Author Michael Bornstein was only 4 years old when he and his grandmother left Auschwitz, liberated by Russian soldiers. Narrator Fred Berman brings gravitas to the events of this memoir while still creating a voice for Michael that sounds young and vulnerable. Berman also excels at the use of Yiddish, Polish, and German accents where needed to create a sense of the time and place. Bornstein and his daughter, coauthor Debbie Bornstein Holinstat, are charmingly natural and emotionally affecting in the preface and afterword, explaining why Bornstein felt compelled to share his story after more than 70 years. They have an easy banter that helps the listener understand Bornstein's sunny outlook despite the difficult circumstances of his early life. N.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Loading