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Guarded By Angels: How My Father And Uncle Survived Hitler And Cheated Stalin
Gene and Mark Elsner, and their cousin, Henek, were forced to flee their home in Nowy Sacz, in southern Poland, when the Germans invaded. When they reached Lvov, in the Soviet zone of Poland, they were arrested and deported to the Gulag where they faced unimaginable hardship under arctic conditions. After Germany invaded Russia, they were released to join a new Polish army fighting the Germans.
Their description of the odyssey through Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara on the way to join up with the Poles, a journey which took them through the Soviet heartland, allows the reader to see what life was like there during wartime. Through it all, the brothers schemed and struggled to stay together, using guile and wits. Gene even became a translator for the occupying German army; of course, they didn’t know he was a Jew.
No matter what he witnessed, he had to stay focused on keeping himself and his brother alive. Not only does this memoir provide historical insight into the Nazi occupation of the Caucasus, it personifies the Jewish will to resist as Gene made contact with the resistance and was able to aid them. It is also as much a story about family and brotherhood as it is about the cruelty of two regimes—fascist and communist.
After the war, the two brothers settled in Israel, side by side. Henek, from whom they had become separated, survived, sheltered by a Polish Christian woman whom he later married.
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 2005
41 people want to read
About the author
Alan Elsner
15 books9 followersAlan Elsner has 30 years' experience in journalism, covering stories ranging from the September 11, 2001 attacks on America and the crisis in the Middle East to the 2000 Presidential election and the end of the Cold War. Elsners career has been marked by a passion for justice and truth, unquestioned integrity, and a willingness to confront the powerful, the complacent and the evasive.
In The Nazi Hunter he turns that formidable knowledge and expertise towards a gripping thriller weaving together fierce partisan politics, the search for ex-Nazi war criminals, romance, music and a crazed far-right militia intent on bringing down the government.
"
In The Nazi Hunter he turns that formidable knowledge and expertise towards a gripping thriller weaving together fierce partisan politics, the search for ex-Nazi war criminals, romance, music and a crazed far-right militia intent on bringing down the government.
"
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 7, 2025
Guarded By Angels
In May, 2002, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Holocaust Survivor's Memorial Project an organization under the auspices of Yad Vashem in Israel, issued a press release announcing that they would publish a series of ten memoirs of Holocaust survivors. The Chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Museum explained: "there is no substitute for authentic testimony -- the voices of the Holocaust -- the survivors themselves." Among the volumes selected for publication was "Guarded by Angels: How my Father and Uncle Survived Hitler and Cheated Stalin" by Alan Elsner in which, as the May, 2002 press release indicated "Elsner recounts the Holocaust-era experiences of his father and uncle, both under the Nazi and Soviet occupation of Poland, in the Soviet gulag, in the Central Asian Caucuses, and in the Red Army." A journalist for Reuters News Service, Elsner has written several novels and works of nonfiction together with this memoir.
Elsner's book is an account of the wartime experiences of two brothers, Gene Elsner, his younger brother Mark, and their friend and cousin Henek Klafter who lived until adolescence in the town of Nowy Satz, Poland. With the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, the three young men began a long series of travels and death-defying adventures in the face of prosecution from both the Soviets and the Nazis. Alan Elsner is the son of Gene. Elsner's grandparents remained in Nowy Satz and ultimately were killed by the Nazis in the concentration camp at Belzec.
The book opens with the author's seemingly paradoxical statement: "My father was killed on my birthday". In spite of this beginning personal reference, a striking feature of the account is the narrative distance that the author maintains throughout most of the book. Elsner recounts the experiences of his protagonists in a third-person voice with little mention of his own relationship to them. Only near the end of the book, after Gene Elsner arrives, badly wounded, in England does the voice shift. Elsner observes: It is difficult for me to imagine what it must be like for Gene arriving in Britain in 1946. He was alone, penniless, semi-disabled, and spoke imperfect English." (p. 246) The final pages of the book describe Elsner's relationship to his father, and the relationship between Gene, Mark, and Henek in Israel well after the War. The power of the book is enhanced by the focus on the characters rather than the author.
The story is told eloquently and with novelistic detail that enhances its impact. Elsner describes people, places and event in the odyssey of the brothers and of Henek (the brothers and Henek are parted about mid-way in the narrative.) The most vivid writing in the book occurs as Elsner recounts the three characters prolonged stay in the Soviet Gulag in 1940-41. Elsner describes the horror of the camps in, for example, the following passage:
"In the camp, they were soon to learn, only a privileged few and the rats ate regular meals, and sometimes only the rats. The camp had been hacked out of the forest, and tree stumps protruded from the ground like tumors. Rats congregated around the stumps, scores of them. When disturbed they charged into the water, which writhed with their glistening bodies. Still, the boys liked the lake. It provided their only view of the world unimpeded by barbed wire. Reflected images of clouds, white and puffy, floated in its placid waters. But soon enough, summer would fade and the lake would turn dark and taciturn and begin to acquire the mysterious velvet stillness of water about to freeze. It would cease its gentle lapping against its rocky shore and hold its breath. Then winter would slip a straightjacket over its surface, snow would fall on top of the ice, and the lake would turn white."
Between 1939 and 1945, the protagonists had a long odyssey from Poland through the gulag. Then, with Hitler's invasion of Russia, the boys were released from the gulag to wander a long course through the Soviet Union to wind up, for a time, in a Cossak village called Nezlobnaya. When the Nazi's occupied the town, the Elsner's survived by changing their identities, as Gene managed to become a translator for the invaders while clandestinely working for the resistance. He came chillingly close to discovery by the Gestapo, and he witnessed many Nazi atrocities. Following the Nazi defeat at Stalingrad, both Gene and Mark Elsner were trained as artillery officers in the Polish-Soviet Army. Gene Elsner and his unit were ambushed in a German forest near the end of the War, and he was left for dead.
There is a large, useful color-coded map in the middle of the book which details the journey and allows the reader to see the breadth of the terrain the young men covered over places that most American readers will find entirely unfamiliar.
Elsner's memoir works on many levels. It is first a story of the wartime experiences of the Elsner's and Henek, and it offers an invaluable personal portrayal of the Stalin and Hitler regimes. The book also covers a good deal of WW II and Holocaust history on the Eastern front. For all the historical implications of the account, family love is a key theme of the story. At one point, the three young men describe themselves as the "three musketeers -- one for all and all for one." When the brothers are forced to part from Henek, they are driven with regret. Many families lack strong bonding. The three men in this story become close forever through their shared travails. Elsner's writing helps make their story riveting.
Robin Friedman
In May, 2002, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Holocaust Survivor's Memorial Project an organization under the auspices of Yad Vashem in Israel, issued a press release announcing that they would publish a series of ten memoirs of Holocaust survivors. The Chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Museum explained: "there is no substitute for authentic testimony -- the voices of the Holocaust -- the survivors themselves." Among the volumes selected for publication was "Guarded by Angels: How my Father and Uncle Survived Hitler and Cheated Stalin" by Alan Elsner in which, as the May, 2002 press release indicated "Elsner recounts the Holocaust-era experiences of his father and uncle, both under the Nazi and Soviet occupation of Poland, in the Soviet gulag, in the Central Asian Caucuses, and in the Red Army." A journalist for Reuters News Service, Elsner has written several novels and works of nonfiction together with this memoir.
Elsner's book is an account of the wartime experiences of two brothers, Gene Elsner, his younger brother Mark, and their friend and cousin Henek Klafter who lived until adolescence in the town of Nowy Satz, Poland. With the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, the three young men began a long series of travels and death-defying adventures in the face of prosecution from both the Soviets and the Nazis. Alan Elsner is the son of Gene. Elsner's grandparents remained in Nowy Satz and ultimately were killed by the Nazis in the concentration camp at Belzec.
The book opens with the author's seemingly paradoxical statement: "My father was killed on my birthday". In spite of this beginning personal reference, a striking feature of the account is the narrative distance that the author maintains throughout most of the book. Elsner recounts the experiences of his protagonists in a third-person voice with little mention of his own relationship to them. Only near the end of the book, after Gene Elsner arrives, badly wounded, in England does the voice shift. Elsner observes: It is difficult for me to imagine what it must be like for Gene arriving in Britain in 1946. He was alone, penniless, semi-disabled, and spoke imperfect English." (p. 246) The final pages of the book describe Elsner's relationship to his father, and the relationship between Gene, Mark, and Henek in Israel well after the War. The power of the book is enhanced by the focus on the characters rather than the author.
The story is told eloquently and with novelistic detail that enhances its impact. Elsner describes people, places and event in the odyssey of the brothers and of Henek (the brothers and Henek are parted about mid-way in the narrative.) The most vivid writing in the book occurs as Elsner recounts the three characters prolonged stay in the Soviet Gulag in 1940-41. Elsner describes the horror of the camps in, for example, the following passage:
"In the camp, they were soon to learn, only a privileged few and the rats ate regular meals, and sometimes only the rats. The camp had been hacked out of the forest, and tree stumps protruded from the ground like tumors. Rats congregated around the stumps, scores of them. When disturbed they charged into the water, which writhed with their glistening bodies. Still, the boys liked the lake. It provided their only view of the world unimpeded by barbed wire. Reflected images of clouds, white and puffy, floated in its placid waters. But soon enough, summer would fade and the lake would turn dark and taciturn and begin to acquire the mysterious velvet stillness of water about to freeze. It would cease its gentle lapping against its rocky shore and hold its breath. Then winter would slip a straightjacket over its surface, snow would fall on top of the ice, and the lake would turn white."
Between 1939 and 1945, the protagonists had a long odyssey from Poland through the gulag. Then, with Hitler's invasion of Russia, the boys were released from the gulag to wander a long course through the Soviet Union to wind up, for a time, in a Cossak village called Nezlobnaya. When the Nazi's occupied the town, the Elsner's survived by changing their identities, as Gene managed to become a translator for the invaders while clandestinely working for the resistance. He came chillingly close to discovery by the Gestapo, and he witnessed many Nazi atrocities. Following the Nazi defeat at Stalingrad, both Gene and Mark Elsner were trained as artillery officers in the Polish-Soviet Army. Gene Elsner and his unit were ambushed in a German forest near the end of the War, and he was left for dead.
There is a large, useful color-coded map in the middle of the book which details the journey and allows the reader to see the breadth of the terrain the young men covered over places that most American readers will find entirely unfamiliar.
Elsner's memoir works on many levels. It is first a story of the wartime experiences of the Elsner's and Henek, and it offers an invaluable personal portrayal of the Stalin and Hitler regimes. The book also covers a good deal of WW II and Holocaust history on the Eastern front. For all the historical implications of the account, family love is a key theme of the story. At one point, the three young men describe themselves as the "three musketeers -- one for all and all for one." When the brothers are forced to part from Henek, they are driven with regret. Many families lack strong bonding. The three men in this story become close forever through their shared travails. Elsner's writing helps make their story riveting.
Robin Friedman
February 25, 2015
Fascinating, true account of two Polish, Jewish brothers lived through the holocaust, though caught between the Germans, Soviets, and anti-Semitics of WW II, they truly were "guarded by angels" to have survived. Their many experiences, many of which could have resulted in their death; as well as the incredible amount of territory they traversed from 1939-1945 is well depicted by the author, who himself is a son of one of the brothers.
July 18, 2011
A few years ago, Mr. Elsner gave me this book and said that I could only have it if I promised to actually read it. Lucky for me, he didn't say something like, "...in the next three years." Anyway, now I wish that I had read it sooner. It is a fascinating true adventure story that's really different from a lot of those classic books about WWII Jews.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews