Een kort oponthoud op de weg van Auschwitz

by Göran Rosenberg, Jasper Popma (Translator)

'Waar ben je op de trein gestapt? Zo veel stations die niemand zich nog herinnert. Zo veel plekken die niet meer bestaan. Zo veel treinen om uit te kiezen. Zo veel treinen die allemaal te vroeg en voorgoed stoppen.'

Göran Rosenberg was twaalf jaar toen zijn vader zelfmoord pleegde. Zijn ouders hadden Auschwitz overleefd, en waren in Zweden een nieuw bestaan aan het opbouwen. Maar zijn vader verdroeg dat nieuwe leven niet.
Vijftig jaar later gaat Rosenberg op zoek naar die bijna onbekende vader. Het wordt een reis langs zijn jeugdherinneringen, maar ook verder terug, naar het leven van zijn vader in het voormalige getto van ód, in het werkkamp van de firma Büssing bij Braunschweig, en in het concentratiekamp Auschwitz.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Holocaust, Biography, Memoir, War, Swedish Literature

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Göran Jakob Rosenberg is a Swedish journalist and author. He is the son of David and Hala Rosenberg from Łódz in Poland, who both came to Sweden after having survived concentration camps during World War II.
Rosenberg has worked at Sveriges Radio and Sveriges Television; 1979–85 he was host and reporter of the actuality-program Magasinet. In 1990 he founded the magazine Moderna Tider which he was editor-in-chief of until 1999, and he also hosted the actuality-program with the same name which was broadcast in TV3. 1991–2011 he worked as columnist at Dagens Nyheter. He workes as honorary degree at the University of Gothenburg.
Göran Rosenberg competed in the TV program På spåret in 2009/2010 together with his daughter Vanna.

Reviews

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read “A Brief Stop on the Road From Auschwitz” immediately following “The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah, so I thought I was prepared for another story about the horrors of World War II. This book, though……it is incredibly powerful. When I read the last three sentences, the little hairs stood up on the back of my neck. I had goosebumps all over my body. I was transformed. I did not see the end of this book coming, but I should have. I should have.

This book is a memoir; a son reconstructing and retelling his father’s life story. Painstakingly recalled, researched and assembled, Goran Rosenberg gently takes us along on his father’s life journey. As he does so, he speaks to his father - sharing what he knows, all that he has discovered, what he can’t remember but wishes he could, what he will never know but imagines to be true. Goran’s father and mother are Polish Jews who miraculously survive the “liquidation” of the most brutal of the Nazi concentration camps and end up in what Goran calls “The Place,” which is Södertälje, Sweden. What was intended to be a brief stop in a life’s journey turns out to be entirely the wrong stop for Goran’s father.

Some parts of this book literally took my breath away. One excruciating passage tells of a man named Chaim Rumkowski, who is chairman of the Jewish Council in the Lodz ghetto. For four years, he has been running the ghetto as a slave labor factory for the Germans and now he has been engaged by the Germans to liquidate the ghetto – starting with “dispatching” 20,000 Jews including the sick, the elderly and all children under the age of ten. The speech Rumkowski gives to his people, telling them of the sacrifice they have to make, is shocking and absolutely unfathomable.

The focus of the book, though, is less on what happened before the Rosenbergs arrive in “The Place” and more on the father’s journey afterwards. What we often don’t realize are the difficulties the concentration camp survivors faced afterwards – finding their entire families, neighborhoods, and towns wiped out; a world that wants to move on and forget; being refugees in foreign countries alienated further by language barriers and dead end jobs; the indignity of having to prove to a German government that you were “permanently damaged” by time in a concentration camp before receiving money from a German reparation program; the burden of having survived when so many were lost. There is a difference between “surviving” and “living,” as Goran relates to his father:

“It’s (Södertälje ) too small of a place for someone like you, with too few people who appreciate where you came from and what you carry with you, with a factory too large and too dominant to free oneself from, with too few exits to a future other than the one already mapped out, and with a horizon that never really wants to open up.”

I am stunned that this book hasn’t received more attention. It is beautifully crafted and written, a very thoughtful, incisive and articulate tribute to David Rosenberg - and in many ways, to all concentration camp survivors.

Highly recommend.

[Karenina (Nina Ruthström) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jag har antagit en ny utmaning att läsa alla böcker som vunnit Augustpriset i kategorin skönlitteratur. Det är 32 böcker som utgivits mellan 1989 och 2020. För mig innebär det att 16 böcker återstår att läsa (se lista nedan). Jag började utmaningen med att lyssna på Ett kort uppehåll på vägen från Auschwitz författad och uppläst av Göran Rosenberg.


Göran Rosenberg är son till David Rozenberg, född som jude i Polen 1922(23?). Han genomlever andra världskriget som fånge i Auschwitz och kommer 1947 till Södertälje tågstation (som omslaget visar). Via Rosenbergs penna följer vi pappans liv fram till 1960 då han dör och lämnar sin 12-årige son efter sig. Med bifokal blick pusslar författaren ihop ett porträtt av mannen som är hans far och överlevare, med hjälp av minnesskärvor, bilder, brev och tidningsurklipp. Bokens jag är författaren som riktar sig till ett du, pappan. Detta grepp lämpar sig väl för berättelsen som till stora delar av uppenbara skäl håller en distans till protagonisten. En stor del av handlingen kretsar kring ”torra” (men intressanta) historiska fakta om andra världskriget men också om Sveriges arkitektur, industrialiseringens spirande, barnträdgårdarnas framväxt med mera. Avvägningen mellan fakta och skönlitterärt berättande är perfekt. Många fina metaforer och en lysande prosa gör den här romanen till en fantastisk läsupplevelse. Rosenbergs ton är imponerande samlad och samtidigt skarp. Trots att jag läst många ”holocaustromaner” och berättelsen om den judiska diasporan tillför den här något nytt.

En metafor som berör mig är den om sputnik som kräver en obegripligt stor utskjutningshastighet för att kunna nå ut i rymden. Denna till synes ouppnåeliga kraft krävs även av fadern för att kunna lösgöra sig från den Scaniafabrik som är och förblir hans arbetsplats under tiden i Sverige. Jag tänker på Agota Kristofs Igår och hur hon beskriver fabriksarbetet som monotont och nedbrytande. Pappan vill komma vidare, han är driftig och målmedveten, men han är ensam i en stad med en för stor lastbilsfabrik och han lider av posttraumatiskt stressyndrom.

Depression och självmord är ofta tätt sammankopplat med överlevares liv. David Rozenberg är inget undantag. Författaren diskuterar i samband med detta ett för mig nytt begrepp, ”fridöd” – att avsluta sitt liv som en akt av värdighet och inte uppgivenhet. Förklaringarna till överlevarnas sjukdomar är många och komplexa. Först är det alla dessa trauman som krig och förföljelse innebär, sen att hantera det faktum att man överlevt. Att komma till en ny plats som överlevare och omvandlingen till fortlevande. Rosenbergs pappa söker kompensation och bemöts av den grova misstänksamhet som invandrare än idag möter. Inexaktheter, skrivfel och missförstånd luskas fram med syfte att få den sökande att framstå som simultant och bedragare.

”Språkförbistring är det ord jag sätter på den osynliga vägg som reser sig mellan er och platsen. Inte en vägg mellan språk så mycket som mellan världar. Mellan den värld ni lämnat och den värld ni vill göra till er. En vägg som inget språk kan vi genomtränga. Orden finns ju där redan ghetto, dödsläger, gaskammare, förintelse, utrotning men ingen förstår vad det betyder.”

Trots den enorma tragiken framstår också klara förbättringsmöjligheter. Ett axiom som vi aldrig får tillåta oss att släppa taget om är vikten av förbindelsen mellan platsen man lämnat och den nya man kommer till. Ingen människa kan eller ska behöva assimileras på ett sätt som raderar härkomsten. Då riskerar man att aldrig hitta hem igen. Kronisk hemlöshet är outhärdligt och livsfarligt.

David Rozenberg levde sitt korta liv som överlevare i enlighet med cykelteoremet: den som inte trampar faller omkull. Att stanna är att låta skuggorna hinna ifatt.

___________________________________

De författare och verk som tilldelats Augustpriset i kategorin skönlitteratur är:

✔️2020 – Samlade verk av Lydia Sandgren
✔️2019 – Osebol av Marit Kapla
✔️2018 – Aednan av Linnea Axelsson
✔️2017 – De kommer att drunkna i sina mödrars tårar av Johannes Anyuru
✔️2016 – De polyglotta älskarna av Lina Wolff
✔️2015 – Allt jag inte minns av Jonas Hassen Khemiri
✔️2014 – Liv till varje pris av Kristina Sandberg
✔️2013 – Egenmäktigt förfarande – en roman om kärlek av Lena Andersson
✔️2012 – Ett kort uppehåll på vägen från Auschwitz av Göran Rosenberg
✔️2011 – Korparna av Tomas Bannerhed
2010 – Spill. En damroman av Sigrid Combüchen (läser nu)
2009 – De fattiga i Lodz av Steve Sem-Sandberg
✔️2008 – Ett annat liv av Per Olov Enquist
2007 – Stundande vatten av Carl-Henning Wijkmark
✔️2006 – Svinalängorna av Susanna Alakoski
2005 – Den amerikanska flickan av Monika Fagerholm
✔️2004 – Gregorius av Bengt Ohlsson
2003 – Skraplotter av Kerstin Ekman
2002 – Den vidunderliga kärlekens historia av Carl Johan Vallgren
2001 – Underdog av Torbjörn Flygt
✔️2000 – Populärmusik från Vittula av Mikael Niemi
1999 – Livläkarens besök av Per Olov Enquist
1998 – Berömda män som varit i Sunne av Göran Tunström
✔️1997 – Aprilhäxan av Majgull Axelsson
1996 – Sorgegondolen av Tomas Tranströmer
✔️1995 – Hummelhonung av Torgny Lindgren
1994 – Synden av Björn Ranelid
✔️1993 – Händelser vid vatten av Kerstin Ekman
1992 – Medan tiden tänker på annat av Niklas Rådström
1991 – Livets ax av Sven Delblanc
1990 – De sotarna! De sotarna! av Lars Ahlin
1989 – Tecknens rike av Cecilia Lindqvist

[Cindy Knoke · Rating 5 out of 5]

So incredibly brilliant, it defies description. You should read it.

[Kuszma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Íme a holokausztirodalom egyik legkiemelkedőbb alkotása. Paradox módon azáltal válik azzá, ami benne nem holokausztirodalom – sokkal inkább a holokausztutániság, esetleg a holokauszton kívüliség irodalmához sorolhatnánk, már ha bele lennénk pistulva a pontos definiálásba. (Bele vagyunk. Elnézést. A királyi többesért is.) Azért, mert ez a könyv:
1.) miközben megjeleníti a borzalmak síkját (a łódżi gettót, a munka- és haláltáborokat, a lezárt, vaksötét vagonokban haldoklókat), végig érzékeltetni képes a párhuzamos svéd valóságot, egy semleges állam szinte irritálóan gondtalan életét, ahol a kis színesek között kap helyet, ha Hollandia összes zsidóját deportálták, mert a címlapot a helyi iskola udvarának felújítása foglalja el. Hja, a problémák relatívak. Kisvárosias idill és a legsötétebb pokol egymás mellett, egyetlen időben, és a világ nem omlik össze az ellentmondás súlya alatt.
2.) nem az embertelenségről szól, hanem az emberről. Rosenberg megkockáztatja a kijelentést, hogy az auschwitzi rámpáig vezető út mindig egyforma, mert a borzalom gépiessége alakítja. Az igazán izgalmas és egyéni az, amikor az ember kilép Auschwitzból, és megkísérli feldolgozni azt, ami vele történt – vagy egyszerűen csak elfelejteni. Megpróbálja elhinni, hogy a társadalom nem veszedelmes fenevad, aki elpusztításunkra tör, hanem jóindulatú, de legalábbis semleges közeg, amibe bele kell illesztenünk a saját kis puzzle-darabunkat, és amiben aztán fel kell nevelnünk a gyermekeinket. Egyszerűen mondva: újra kell tanulni a létezést. És nem biztos, hogy ezt elvégezni könnyebb, mint élve kikeveredni a krematóriumok közül.

Szabatos, erős szöveg, az a fajta esszéregény, amiben termékeny fúzióra lép a személyesség a releváns ismeretek átadásával. Azt hiszem, az efféle könyvek miatt becsülöm én olyan nagyra az esszéregényeket. Arra meg már ki se térjünk (vagy igen), hogy mintegy mellesleg (de közben elsősorban) az esszéregény álcája alatt egy bitang megrázó aparegényt is kapunk.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

”A short stop on the road from Auschwitz”, in English.

Rosenberg claims that there are many stories about how people ended up in the concentration camps, all more or less resembling each other. There are less stories about the way out, and every way out is a unique story. What happens when confronted with the real world again? What thoughts and emotions are going to form the new life? And what happens when the bridge to the past is being forgotten by the world?

Rosenberg's parents survived the ghetto of Lodz, Auschwitz, the slave camps and the death transports. Their life shattered, they finally ended up in Södertälje, in Sweden. Rosenberg's father David liked Sweden, but never felt that he belonged. Without peace, he always wanted to take another step, hence the title.

Rosenberg earned the August prize 2012 for this story about his parents' struggle for a normal life, in a world that's forever altered but forgets fast. He addresses his father throughout the book, tries to learn to know him and follows in his never ending, fleeing footsteps. How difficult to live a normal life in a normal world, when knowing that one's life isn't normal and the world certainly has turned out to be everything but. The rest of the world lives on, as though nothing has happend, and Rosenberg thinks that just because of that, the survivors can't. The knowledge that others didn't survive prevents them from turning their backs on their past. Rosenberg reasons that the survivors might think they ought to have survived for a reason. For the horrible past to be remembered. Perhaps they think they owe it to the ones that didn't survive, and therefor they are trapped between their self declared purpose to remember and not wanting to. As difficult as it is to face, the past is catching up, anyway. So, what happens when the world moves on and the holocaust is nearly forgotten? Rosenberg's father wasn't the same as he used to be, and he wasn't like the people around him. Who was he if not confronted by the past? His place, where he had grown up, was destroyed and the place he had come to know as his new home was limited. Perhaps it would have been easier for to heal if the world acknowledged the holocaust instead of trying to forget it. To share the self made responsibility of remembering all by himself.

It's really emotional to read about his father's frequent work situations, his search for something, the attempt to fill every moment with something that prevent the shadows from catching up with him. The saddest part is that David never really left Auschwitz. He was trapped, and the new environment didn't offer an opening. There was no way out.

Rosenberg honours his father in a truly heartbreaking, beautiful way, through fragments of memory, described with the most philosophical prose, and old letters between his mother and father. In a world that forgets, books like this one are the very foundation on which a better society could be built. We cant afford to view the holocaust as a distant event. We have to realize it's the world we live in to make it a better place.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a haunting exploration of the Auschwitz legacy — how it crushes long after the gas chambers are shut down. In "A Brief Stop on the Road From Auschwitz," Swedish author Goran Rosenberg masterfully retraces the struggle of his father to rebuild a completely shattered life after surviving Nazi slave labor and death camps, including the infamous Auschwitz. Goran Rosenberg has wrought, from the second-generation perspective, a book that overwhelms.
This book has a power that is reminiscent of Primo Levi's "If This Is a Man" and other literary classics of the Holocaust. A must-read.

[Anders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jag blir alltid så känslomässigt berörd av allt som rör förintelsen. Och jag fasar när jag tänker på vad vi människor är kapabla At utsätta varandra för. Göran Rosenberg har fångat så mycket i sin bok att jag kommer att återvända till den igen, och jag rekommenderar ALLA att läsa den. Tänk också på att någonstans pågår alltid dess hemskheter fortfarande! Reagera!!

[Seved Malm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Efter den här stenhårda historien, redogörelsen för hur märkta förintelsens överlevare var.
Ingen bok man mår bra av men viktig.
Jag ger alla förintelseförnekare, nazister och fascister ett elakt och långt finger. En viktig bok, speciellt i den tid vi tycks vara på väg in i.
Läs!

[Tamás Gábor · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Rosenberg Auschwitz-i útja szó szerint élet- és halál kérdése, no, meg a szerencsén múlt.

https://gaboolvas.blogspot.com/2019/0...

[John Hatley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tragic, sad, beautiful book. As soon as it is available in English, German or another language accessible to my non-Swedish-speaking friends, I highly recommend that you read it. My Swedish-speaking friends can read it now! The title in English, roughly (my translation) "A brief stop on the way from Auschwitz".

[Inka Partanen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Voimallinen, pysäyttävä, kiihkeä kirja. Kirja holokaustin seurauksista yhdelle perheelle mutta myös koko maailmalle. Kirja isästä ja pojasta - ehkä myös kaikista isistä ja pojista, kipeistä ja syvistä suhteista.

Olen lukenut kymmeniä kirjoja keskitysleireistä ja niistä selvityneistä tai niissä tuhoutuneista ihmisistä. Tämä oli yksi parhaista, ellei paras. Kirjan omintakeinen ääni ja tapa nivoa dokumentit ja tunne osoittelemattomaksi ja kohteliaan raivokkaaksi todistusten nipuksi on jotain, mitä en ole ennen kokenut. Lisäksi kirja jatkaa siitä, mihin holokaustikirjat usein päättyvät: mitä tapahtui pahimman jälkeen.

[Mike Beder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredibly insightful book describing one man’s post-concentration camp life in the aftermath of WWII. While I initially found it hard to read, once you are in the rhythm of the narrative, this well-researched heartbreaking story was hard to put down. This book enhanced my knowledge about post-war Europe and the journeys of people like Dadek Rozenberg.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a lot of Holocaust and WWII memoirs and biographies, and this is by far the most unique version I've come across. Rosenberg recreates his father's steps following his liberation from a concentration camp at the end of the war. He tells the story with precision, every detail carefully researched and verified.

Using letters between his father and other members of the family, German records of Jewish prisoner transports, and newspaper archives, as well as probing the memories and research of others in his family and beyond, Rosenberg puts forth a compelling, engaging, and brilliant narrative that describes life after the Holocaust.

With so many tellings and retellings and rememberings of the Holocaust and life inside the camps and hiding from and avoiding them, "A Brief Stop..." is a refreshing approach to continuing the survivor story. Most Holocaust memoirs end with liberation, with brief afterwords that outline the individual's remaining decades, relegating restarting life in a new place with virtually no friends or family left alive, changing one's name, marriage, children, and end-of-life to a few short paragraphs. The genius of Rosenberg's book is that it tells (briefly) the story of what happened inside the camps, but focuses on how his father survived serious illness and injury as well as the trauma of the Nazi treatment he received, only to discover upon liberation that his world was gone and he had to create a new one. This book is the story of how he went about that.

Rosenberg's voice is calm, thoughtful, and reflective. He doesn't tell the story in chronological order, but it all makes absolute sense and there is never a sense of confusion at all. Names enter the picture and leave it, employers, business endeavors, places, vacations, days at the beach or the park or the factory...everything comes together perfectly with a dramatic closure that saddens, angers, and emotionally deeply impacts the reader.

I appreciate that the author does not focus on the negative. His goal is not to disparage any country, group, or people; he simply wants to tell an accurate story and he does so with feeling and rigorous research. When that includes negative aspects, he tells it like it is, but does not dwell on them. What we're left with is the skillfully crafted bigger picture of the world the Holocaust really created for those it condemned, from one man's perspective, as told by his son.

[Joseph Sverker]

Ett kort uppehåll på vägen från Auschwitz kan mycket väl vara unik då den på många sätt, förstås, visar på det hemska med Auschwitz, men den visar på hur en traumatisk upplevelse gnager och skaver inne i en människa för att till slut förstöra dennes liv. Rosenberg visar hur Auschwitz kan vara plågande likt tortyr, men också hur förintelsen är en cancer som kan ta år och decennier innan den dödar en människa inifrån, även om nu orsaken till döden var extern.

Rosenberg fångar även mycket av Sverige på 40-50-talet. Ett Sverige som jag upplever såg mycket annorlunda ut från idag. Det kanske är min allra största behållning då jag har läst relativt mycket litteratur kring förintelsen.

Jag kan störa mig något på språket i boken. Någonstans kan jag känna att Rosenberg har det lite väl lätt för att skriva bra. Jag undrar om det liksom bara flyter på, eller om han verkligen jobbar, knådar texten. Det finns många natur- och situationsbeskrivningar som känns nästan för litterära och det finns en förkärlek till upprepningar som kan vara ett effektivt litterärt grepp, men som irriterar (mig i varje fall) när det används för mycket.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not going to claim any wide knowledge of books written on the subject of the Jewish holocaust and the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi machine during WWII, but I should imagine that Goran Rosenberg's 'A Brief Stop On The Road From Auschwitz' is a unique work in this genre.
First published in Sweden in 2012 and translated into English two years later, here is a tragic family memoir that affirms that there was nothing final about the final solution, but that for many of the survivors and their families, the human tragedy lingered, and the trauma cast a dark shadow long after liberation.
A rare and highly emotive research into the family history of David Rosenberg by his son Goran that traces a path from Lodz ghetto to Auschwitz followed by train transports to slave camps at Braunschweig and Salzgitter-Watenstedt and via Ravensbruck to a final hell at Wobbelin. For David Rosenberg his final solution was implemented in 1960.
Written in extraordinary style that could be described as almost poetic, with a stark honesty and intelligence. If you are not moved by this book you must be immune to dynamite.

[Lorri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four-stars on goodreads denotes 'I really liked it'. I give the book four-stars, but didn't really like it, in the sense that I found it an enjoyable read.

Enjoyable, no, as there is nothing enjoyable reading about the Holocaust years for the author's parents, in particular his father. There is nothing enjoyable reading about his father's struggle to survive, after liberation, and the effects that the Holocaust imprinted upon his psyche.

That Goran Rosenberg chose to honor his father's life, and chose to understand his father's suffering, and how the Holocaust affected his father, is a testament to his love and devotion for the man who endured the unfathomable.

[Minty McBunny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very nearly stopped reading this, the narrative voice was very awkward and distracted a great deal from the story. I pressed on only due to my interest in the subject matter. Sadly, the author's attempt to distance himself from the (very personal) story of his father's post-Auschwitz life and to tell the story from a purely objective standpoint made his story so dispassionate that it was nearly impossible for me to care or invest any of my own emotions into what I think could have been a powerful story.

[Anja Hildén · Rating 4 out of 5]

En oväntat vacker och långsam bok om det lilla barnet och den stora gåtan med faderns död. Ger en helt ny bild av Södertälje, vilket kan låta trist men är precis tvärtom. Det stora i det lilla, nazismen, kanalgrävande, Scania, kriget, lekplatsen.

[Carla Geraldes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um livro que me custou imenso a ler, pela forma em que está escrito.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautifully written - devastating content....

[Clara Ljunggren · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 +

[Erland Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Faktaspäckat, omständig och för detaljerad för min smak men gav ändå en förståelse av de överlevande svårigheter att smälta in i samhället.

[Viktorija Marinković Uma Vid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Det finns inga ord att beskriva hur mycket jag har gråtit i slutet av boken.
Inga.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at Auschwitz survivors from the vantage point of their child. I often find it difficult to adjust to the cadence of books by foreign authors, and this one started out pretty muddled for me, but it settled down finally and told the story. It is written by the son of two fortunate Auschwitz survivors. They had been forced by the Nazis into a ghetto in Lodz, Poland. There they lived under Nazi rule, with a Jewish mayor who bargained with the Nazis to spare lives, but who ultimately had no choice but to obey. Rosenberg discusses the topic of collaborators, and concludes that if this Jewish mayor had not fought so hard to keep some Jews alive, even as he had to select others for death, the entire population of Lodz might have died in flames as did the Jews in Warsaw. Because of his stubbornness, the depopulation of the ghetto by transport to extermination camps went more slowly; the population was not starved, and they didn't die in a conflagration. This conclusion may be correct; whether or not it is, it is food for thought. Collaborators are often reviled, but maybe their motives were more pure than is generally credited; and maybe they were sometimes successful in saving lives.

Rosenberg describes his father's journey through the slave labor camps at the end of the war, and the few lucky breaks that save him. He finds the places he's been, the trains and buses he took to finally arrive in Sweden to begin his new life. He describes the further luck that allowed him to bring to a reluctant Sweden, the childhood sweetheart who would become his life. They ended up in a small town; his father worked in a factory. But he didn't feel at home here. He felt the loss of his language, his culture. His son, the author, was a Swedish boy who wanted to be like the others. He turned his back on his parents' discomfort and unhappiness, and now he tries to understand what happened to his father, who was, in fact, a lucky man.

It's a very different perspective on the Holocaust, and for those interested in that time, a very good, very sad window. The Holocaust is not ever over even if you've escaped, and its effects are passed along the generations. The healing is not done.

[Axel Nydén · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very weak 3 stars. Mycket svag trea

Som jag redan konstaterat är facklitteratur svårrecenserad. Det här är en slags biografi över Rosenbergs far (och mor) som båda överlevde Auschwitz II (Birkenau), och deras osannolika historia. Boken är läsvärd som ett dokument över Förintelsen, som aldrig får glömmas. Men Rosenbergs skrivteknik är förvillande. Boken är skriven i andra person – du-form – riktad mot Rosenbergs far, David. Ett ovanligt och svårmanövrerat grepp, men här lyckas det. Rosenberg verkar i viss mån förutsätta baskunskaper i tyska, vilket jag saknar, en viss bakgrundskunskap som förvisso är del av allmänbildningen avfordras läsaren. Väl läsvärd i vilket fall. För en bredare bild av förintelsen, och speciellt ghettot i Łódź, rekommenderar jag Augustprisvinnaren 2009. ”De fattiga i Łódź” (Steve Sem-Sandberg).

Factual literature is hard to review. This is a kind of biography over Rosenberg’s father (and mother) who both survived Auschwitz Ii (Birkenau), and their improbable story. The book is worth to read as a historical document over the Holovaust, which must never be forgot. However—and I do not know whether this shows in the translation—Rosenberg’s writing technique is confusing. The book is written in second person point of view—‘you’—directed to Rosenberg’s father, David. This is an unusual and hard-mastered take, but Rosenberg is successful. However, he seems to demand a certain degree of basic knowledge in German, which I lack (again, this may not show in the translation!); a certain background knowledge on the holocaust, which is of course common knowledge, is needed. It is in any case well worth a read. For a wider picture of the Holocaust in general, and the Łódź ghetto in particular, I recommend the Swedish writer Steve Sem-Sandberg’s ‘The Emperor of Lies’ (2009, translated by Sarah Death).

[David Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway. In the last few years, I've read through The Diary of a Young Girl, Number the Stars and Night as well as both the Holy Bible: King James Version and the The Quran. I also worked through The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany and The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine – A Tale of Two Narratives.

All that said, the perspective in this narrative was quite different. It tells the story of a survivor through the eyes of his son, written many years after his death. Rosenberg writes almost conversationally with his father, attempting to understand something utterly incomprehensible. It is a touching and compelling story of a man struggling to break free but ultimately failing to break through the new horizon.

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book as a First Reads Give-away. Goran Rosenberg beautifully and poignantly wrote of his mother's and father's journey from Auschwitz. While some of the story showed their journey to the Nazi concentration camp and their lives, as well as other lives, in Auschwitz, Mr. Rosenberg took us on an expedition through the seldom told recovery of life after Auschwitz.
Goran himself is a legacy of life after such extreme death and depravity. His parents triumphed by the mere fact that they moved on, created life, held productive jobs and tried to forget. While the Nazi’s evil changed and formed, and even broke some of what his parents were, it did not breach their most intimate resolve.
On every level this book is superior to most that I’ve read. The writing is poetic, sensitive, and elegiac. Goran Rosenberg wrote a deeply personal narrative of his family life in a way that will touch any reader and propel us into seeing others, not merely for who they are today, but for their back story. I have been changed and even a little broken by these people’s tragedy and triumph. Their strength and nobility are admirable. I want to meet them and emulate their dogged desire to live fully.

[Darcy Cudmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an emotional journey, told by the son of an Auschwitz survivor.

From being ripped from his family and his home, to the journey to and from a horrible place during the early 1940s, to life after returning from Hell - this story covers it all and does it excellently. The writing is creative and gripping and, most of all, it is REAL.

I can't even imagine living such a life, but through the words of Goran, I feel some of the emotion and heartbreak and fear that was obviously so prevalent in that time.

It's so obvious that the pain didn't stop when WWII did. The hard times continued for many years for Jewish survivors and this book shows just how hard that road was. I recommend reading this book - you will feel sad, but you will also learn so much.

Thank you for telling your father's story, Goran.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terribly sad book, as I expected - but so much more. As the author states, less has been written abut life after the concentration camp than life in the camps, or even before the camps. Although I consider myself to be well informed, there was a lot I didn't know about when different ghettos were annihilated, the number of camp inmates who became slave laborers at the very end of the war - or the fact that some were sent to Sweden to "recover" and then sent on their way. Obviously, the author's parents had no place to go to but, his father especially, never settled in to life in Sweden, or life after the camps. I found Rosenberg's observations on the loss of language and native tongue particularly touching.

[Carra · Rating 5 out of 5]

No words can describe how touched I was by this loving memoir of a father, a survival of the horrors of Auschwitz trying to build a new life in Sweden, haunted by "the shadows" (as Rosenberg calls it) of his past. But how to build a future when there is literally no past (home, family, history) left to call your own to build upon?

"I believe that homelessness is an underestimated hell for people like you. Homelessness and the confusion of languages. One is linked to the other. Being at home is to be understood without having to say much." (Loose translation)