Silent Screams Of A Survivor: A Polish-American Boy's Holocaust

by Mitchell Garwolinski, Bob Hoffman

Mitch Garwolinski was seven when the Nazis invaded his village of Baranowo in the old country of Poland. Over the next six years, his experiences stretch far beyond what any of us might imagine one child could survive. Abducted from his family, he was starved, tortured, and left for dead three times. This is the remarkable story of how a young boy managed to work with the Underground. He escaped from terrible places of extreme degradation only to be incarcerated in even worse camps. Later in the war, he was even placed in the Nazi Experimental Hospital for children. Mitch’s story is an authentic documentation of what happened in these most heinous facilities. Through a child’s eyes and a man’s indelible memories, the devastating impact of the Third Reich on Poland is exposed in the pages of Silent Screams of a Survivor. In war years that took six million Jewish lives in unthinkable atrocities, this book reveals how Poland and her people were also caught in the path of the Nazi war machine. Mitch's perspective is his family was not Jewish, but Catholic. He was not a Polish citizen, but an American. History is starkly personal, a reality we don’t always grasp through academic means. Here, the experiences of one family offer us a broader perspective on the evil of the Nazi regime. Would we be strong enough to survive? Would we risk our lives to help our Jewish friends? After turning these pages, you may never see the Holocaust in the same way.The book is a strong affirmation of the best of human beings. Instead of being sad, this true story exults in the commonality and will to survive that all humans have somewhere deep within them. In the final analysis, hope and freedom are more compelling than even depravity or suffering. Regardless of age, nationality, or religion, readers will treasure Silent Screams of a Survivor as a classic story that challenges all of us to think again about the critical importance of history and the lessons it dares us to embrace.

228 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2004

Reviews

[Jennifer]

Reading for book club. The author will be at our meeting in June.

This was a hard one to star.

The writing is passable, but not much more. It's very repetitive. For a beautiful, tragic, and transcendent book about the Holocaust and its evils read Elie Weisel's "Night."

However, the story of this book is powerful and disturbing and heartbreaking. It's hard to remember that so much evil was destroying so much humanity just 70 or so years ago. Books like these from Holocaust survivors are absolutely necessary, so that we remember, so that we don't devolve like this again.

Has humanity learned anything from its past?

. . . I hope so.

I look forward to book club, and hearing more about what Mr. Garwolinski has to say and how he has healed some of his wounds.

"First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me."

-Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

[kazure007]

My friend Doreen is the publisher for this book and I read it to learn more about him and his story so that I could help promote it. Mitch travels around and visits schools and churches and does talks for students and anyone who wants to learn about his story and about the holocaust in general. It was a tough book to read because it's very emotionally charged. I had to stop in more than a couple of places because I was crying. I think that this is a tough book, but one that ought to be read by everyone. It's absolutely unbelievable the atrocities that man can commit against man, and women and children too! If you ever think you're having a tough time at work, at home, with your significant other, with your finances or health, read this book and gain some much needed perspective.

[Olivia Reynolds]

Please don't get me wrong, I've read numerous books about this era, and I certainly believe what happened regarding the holocaust. But, my mind just couldn't get around the fact about how many times Mitch Garwolinski and his father escaped from the prison camps. Once, I may have believed, but two, three and more times, just was too much to believe. What happened in those camps is just too much for any human to bear.

[Stephanie]

I love reading about survivors from the holocaust. I'm not sure why...probably because they found something inside them to survive. While I was reading this book I HATED my German heritage. I've always enjoyed knowing that I was German and Hungarian. But reading this book literally made me hate my heritage because I was part German. Then my mom told me that my German relatives left before the second world war and I felt better about my heritage again. I can't believe how cruel the German soldiers were!!! I mean we all know they were...but I don't think I literally knew everything they did to Jewish people, Polish people, and basically anyone who wasn't a Nazi! Very cruel people- especially the ones who enjoyed hurting people. My only thought is if they weren't punished after the war, God will punish them someday.

I enjoyed the book overall because it made me feel something and those are the best books.

[Misslea007]

The book was profoundly written. It has incredibly vivid descriptions. It was hard to read due to how tremendously disturbing it is.