My Father's Testament: Memoir of a Jewish Teenager, 1938-1945

by Edward Gastfriend

A first-person account, by the youngest of eight children of a pious Jewish family, showing the remarkable faith of a teenager faced with the horrifying realities of the Holocaust. Edward Gastfriend remembers in heart-wrenching detail the seven years he survived in German-occupied Poland.

187 pages, Paperback

First published December 10, 1999

Reviews

[ShamSham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful Holocaust memoir of a 13 year-old boy from a large Hasidic family living in a Polish border town at the outbreak of WWII. He sees his parents and most of his siblings taken away for extermination while he manages to elude the authorities until 1943 when he captured and sent to a number of concentration and death camps, miraculously managing to (barely) survive until Russian liberation in April 1945.

Some observations:

* I didn't realize how many Jews lived for YEARS under Nazi occupation (particularly Polish Jewry) BEFORE being sent to concentration camps. Imagine living under the nightmarish conditions of the occupation, only to be sent down into an unimaginable DEEPER level of HELL and depravity.
* I always thought the term "Judenrat" was some kind of pejorative for Jews that collaborated with the Nazis. In fact, it was simply the German term for "Jewish council" - the administrative agency imposed by Nazi Germany in occupied territories. Quite ironic that the term itself today takes the form of an inherent insult, at least in English.
* The author beautifully captures a fragment of Hasidic life in small town Poland.

While this book provides personal details, it is not as personal as other memoirs like Victor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." It is less focused on the author's thoughts and feelings and more on recounting all he went through. So while I found it less impactful for that reason, the book's detail definitely piqued my interest in learning more.

[Nguyên Lương · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many times my eyes are opening in shock or I close my eyes accepting some sad truths while reading the book. I rate it 4.5/5 since its hard to believe he was so damn lucky to avoid death, to some extent it feels impossible and unbelievable for me.