The 23rd Psalm: A Holocaust Memoir
by George Lucius Salton
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In September, 1939, George Lucius Salton's boyhood in Tyczyn, Poland, was shattered by escalating violence and terror under German occupation. His father, a lawyer, was forbidden to work, but eleven-year-old George dug potatoes, split wood, and resourcefully helped his family. They suffered hunger and deprivation, a forced march to the Rzeszow ghetto, then eternal separation when fourteen-year-old George and his brother were left behind to labor in work camps while their parents were show more deported in boxcars to die in Belzec. For the next three years, George slaved and barely survived in ten concentration camps, including Rzeszow, Plaszow, Flossenburg, Colmar, Sachsenhausen, Braunschweig, Ravensbrøck, and Wobbelin. Cattle cars filled with skeletal men emptied into a train yard in Colmar, France. George and the other prisoners marched under the whips and fists of SS guards. But here, unlike the taunts and rocks from villagers in Poland and Germany, there was applause. "I could clearly hear the people calling: "Shame! Shame!" . . . Suddenly, I realized that the people of Colmar were applauding us! They were condemning the inhumanity of the Germans!" Of the 500 prisoners of the Nazis who marched through the streets of Colmar in the spring of 1944, just fifty were alive one year later when the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division liberated the Wobbelin concentration camp on the afternoon of May 2, 1945. "I felt something stir deep within my soul. It was my true self, the one who had stayed deep within and had not forgotten how to love and how to cry, the one who had chosen life and was still standing when the last roll call ended." show lessTags
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whymaggiemay This book is a view of the war from the perspective of a young woman in the Netherlands who as part of the resistance must find places to hide Jews, support them once placed with identity papers, food, and other things, and often move them to another place when necessary. Having read many Holocaust memoirs, I enjoyed finding out what the hardships were of those who put their lives on the line to save Jews.
Member Reviews
Imagine being an eleven-year old Jewish boy when the Nazis occupy your home town. Then, imagine being fourteen when you and your family are forced to move to the ghetto. Imagine watching your parents being marched off to “resettle in German-occupied Ukraine”, knowing that you might never see them alive, again. And, finally, imagine yourself, being moved to ten different concentration camps in Poland, France and Germany before being liberated at the age of seventeen.
Salton’s struggle to survive the atrocious and horrific circumstances he found himself in is heartbreaking within his concise and vivid imagery of the events that occurred and events that he witnessed during the Holocaust. The fact that he had the inner determination show more and strength to continually live under the duress and constant danger he encountered is a testament to his spirit and courage. It is a testament to his goodness. It is a testament to his parents. show less
Salton’s struggle to survive the atrocious and horrific circumstances he found himself in is heartbreaking within his concise and vivid imagery of the events that occurred and events that he witnessed during the Holocaust. The fact that he had the inner determination show more and strength to continually live under the duress and constant danger he encountered is a testament to his spirit and courage. It is a testament to his goodness. It is a testament to his parents. show less
This is a very powerful memoir of an 11-year-old Jewish boy thrust into a new, insane world by the capture of Poland by the Germans in 1939. What makes it powerful is not the writing (solid, but not lyrical), but the way he makes the reader feel every indignity, every slight, and every blow, without imbuing revenge or hatred. Recommended.
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History: Holocaust
106 works; 1 member
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1 Work 49 Members
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- Genres
- Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, History, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 940.53 — History & geography History of Europe History of Europe 1918- World War II, 1939-1945
- LCC
- DS135 .P63 .S2457 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Asia History of Asia Israel (Palestine). The Jews Jews outside of Palestine
- BISAC
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- 48
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- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.25)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
