"The Survivor" is a memoir of Jack Eisner’s life during World War II. He not only managed to survive the Warsaw Poland ghetto uprising, but also survived a death march, the infamous cattle car ride to the Majdanek concentration camp, a failed escape that resulted in a near-death beating, and life in the Budzyn labor camp and Flossenburg concentration camp- both of these also extermination facilities. Jack escaped more than once, each time only to find himself back in Nazi hands.

Jack Eisner tells his incredible story of one young boy’s fearless determination to survive against all odds. And he also shares with the reader how the horror of viewing the human atrocities of the Holocaust never ends- the pain lingers forever. Jack was blessed. At least he was one of the few that survived to tell his story. He begins his memoir by saying “If you saw me at a distance, you would think I was an ordinary person… I seem somehow alone, even in the middle of a crowd. You would be right, but you would also be wrong. For I am never truly alone. Thousands of people are always with me. My head is crowded with ghosts I sometimes think it will burst. My ears ring with cries from the voices of the dead. My dreams flame with horror. My memories are gray with ash. I am a survivor.” How does someone go on with life when they have lost everyone they loved, lived through hell on earth, and witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust. Tears came to eyes before I even completed the first page.

In 1939, at age 13 Jack witnessed the German invasion of Poland. Jack recounts stories of his parents losing their family business, being forced from their home to resettle in the Warsaw ghetto- an isolated district of Poland fenced off by barbed wire patrolled by armed Nazi guards. At first it was tolerable, but slowly the Jewish population was cut off from all normal society. All Jewish people were excluded from schools, forbidden to pray in public, were restricted to scanty food rations, and had to surrender all real estate, gold and jewelry. They were pushed to sub-human conditions.

Jack formed a gang to smuggle food and essential goods into the Warsaw ghetto. He was well aware that to be caught was certain death. But with no food death by starvation was just as likely, so he risked his life every day to stay one step ahead of the Nazi terrorists. He could have escaped the ghetto- had access to the outside, but each time he left he wanted to go back to shield his people and fight for the freedom of all the Jewish people still enslaved in Warsaw. Of the 500,000 Jewish people trapped in the Warsaw ghetto only about 500 inhabitants ultimately survivor. Jack was one of the lucky ones. No embellished fictional tale could be more frightening, more inspirational, or more heart breaking than this true story.

Jack Eisner’s story ends when World War II ends… as the American tanks rumbled into Germany. He witnessed the liberation. But the battle was not over for Jack. He also assisted the Bricha in secretly relocating Jewish Holocaust survivors to Palestine- which is a powerful story told by Leon Uris in his historic novel The Exodus. Jack Eisner later moved to New York City and established the Holocaust Survivors Memorial foundation.

I highly recommend reading "The Survivor". It is impossible to fathom how human beings could stoop to such hateful, barbaric, bestial behavior. It is a lesson in history we must never forget. ( )

Horror, Terror, War, Courage, Love. Incredible story of a 14 year old boy's determination to survive. ( )