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The 23rd Psalm: A Holocaust Memoir
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 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, Ravensbruck, 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."
232 pages, Paperback
First published September 4, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
April 7, 2018
Amazing story written by a remarkable man. George Salton was a twelve year old boy and lived in a small Polish town called Tyczyn when the Nazis arrived. I lost count of how many camps he was interned in. Every other month he seemed to be back in a boxcar heading for another unknown destination - these included camps in Poland, France and Germany. What made this an especially riveting read was his narrative skill. It's perhaps less intellectual or philosophical than most Holocaust memoirs. He simply holds fast to the story of his suffering.
Some memorable images included arriving in France and being applauded by the local residents who shouted "shame" at the SS guards. He was so moved by the compassion of these people after the vitriol or indifference of his native Poles that it returned to him his will to live at a point when his morale was at its lowest ebb. A bizarre incident was when an elderly Jew who had earlier helped him was dragged away at a rollcall because he had a hernia. No one, of course, ever expected to see him again. However he returned a week later. The Germans had operated successfully on his hernia. When you think of the colossal resources the Nazis put into killing Jews it's astonishing that they went out of their way to heal one. Also tremendously moving was how well the surviving prisoners were treated by the American and British soldiers. "The respect, decency and kindness that I received from the British felt like the miracle of a new dawn." That made me prouder of my countrymen than I've felt for some while. On the other hand, all the Polish Jews in the holding station were detained long after other nationalities had been repatriated because in Poland Poles were killing returning Jews, even with full knowledge of what the Nazis had done. Frankly, it's disgraceful that the present Polish government is trying to rewrite history where the Holocaust is concerned. Of course there were many brave and generous Poles but on the whole anti-semitism was clearly the prevailing attitude in Poland throughout and even after the war. Escaping prisoners, for example, were often caught by Polish farmers and handed back to the Gestapo.
George Salton emigrated to America where he became a member of staff at the Pentagon, overseeing the development of satellite systems. Amazing considering his education was halted by the Nazis and he could barely write a letter at the end of the war.
Some memorable images included arriving in France and being applauded by the local residents who shouted "shame" at the SS guards. He was so moved by the compassion of these people after the vitriol or indifference of his native Poles that it returned to him his will to live at a point when his morale was at its lowest ebb. A bizarre incident was when an elderly Jew who had earlier helped him was dragged away at a rollcall because he had a hernia. No one, of course, ever expected to see him again. However he returned a week later. The Germans had operated successfully on his hernia. When you think of the colossal resources the Nazis put into killing Jews it's astonishing that they went out of their way to heal one. Also tremendously moving was how well the surviving prisoners were treated by the American and British soldiers. "The respect, decency and kindness that I received from the British felt like the miracle of a new dawn." That made me prouder of my countrymen than I've felt for some while. On the other hand, all the Polish Jews in the holding station were detained long after other nationalities had been repatriated because in Poland Poles were killing returning Jews, even with full knowledge of what the Nazis had done. Frankly, it's disgraceful that the present Polish government is trying to rewrite history where the Holocaust is concerned. Of course there were many brave and generous Poles but on the whole anti-semitism was clearly the prevailing attitude in Poland throughout and even after the war. Escaping prisoners, for example, were often caught by Polish farmers and handed back to the Gestapo.
George Salton emigrated to America where he became a member of staff at the Pentagon, overseeing the development of satellite systems. Amazing considering his education was halted by the Nazis and he could barely write a letter at the end of the war.
October 6, 2010
One of the best holocaust memoirs I have read, second only to the pianist. Honest, transparent, powerful. This man shows in a thousand different ways the horror of this time. Small events that add up to a great and encompassion picture. Often we don't think about the common man in this time, because very few memoirs relate any information about the populace in intimate ways like this book does. You see at once the triumph of humanity in the actions of this boy and the cheers of the French populace and the evil of people in the average polish indifference and the murderous insanity of the germans. I am grateful this man shared his past with us all.
October 31, 2013
Everytime I think things are going bad in my life I Just think of people like Mr. Salton here and what they've gone through. Good bio. Recommended for anyone whining about how hard things are.
April 19, 2021
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, so 11-yr-old George dug potatoes, split wood, and did all he could to help his family.
At age 14 he was forced to march to the Rzeszow ghetto, where he and his brother were sent to labor camps while their parents were deported in boxcars to be gassed in Belzec. For 3 years George was subjected to brutal slave labor and barely survived in 10 concentration camps: Rzeszow, Plaszow, Flossenburg, Colmar, Sachsenhausen, Braunschweig, Ravensbrück, and Wobbelin.
Please don't miss this newspaper article, which is an amazing story about what happened after his book was published: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-x...
At age 14 he was forced to march to the Rzeszow ghetto, where he and his brother were sent to labor camps while their parents were deported in boxcars to be gassed in Belzec. For 3 years George was subjected to brutal slave labor and barely survived in 10 concentration camps: Rzeszow, Plaszow, Flossenburg, Colmar, Sachsenhausen, Braunschweig, Ravensbrück, and Wobbelin.
Please don't miss this newspaper article, which is an amazing story about what happened after his book was published: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-x...
October 16, 2019
I listened to this book at bed time, and had to find my way back to the last places I had heard, so that I could go on listening. I was also reading a free historical novel on the holocaust during the same time period. The books that are memories of that awful time, are much more heart felt and satisfying than those with made up situations.
George was about 12 years old at the time he was taken into captivity by the German's. He was separated from his parents, who were killed. He was with his brother a good part of the time of the telling of the story. They were separated during one of the selections. George was only 17 when he was liberated. After the war he kept searching for his brother in hopes he had survived. He wrote to his aunt and uncle in the United States, and they brought him to live with them.
George changed his name when he came to the United States, to one that didn't sound Jewish. He kept the part of the holocaust from his children, so that he could give them a happy childhood. His children embraced their father's history when he finally brought it out in the open. They visited Poland with their father, and visited the places he was held, and they saw his childhood home. George was able to find a few living relatives as he searched his past.
George had only a few years of elementary education, but he studied hard when he came to the United States. He earned two college degrees, and had a successful career. He was drafted into the army, and learned about repairing radios.
George was about 12 years old at the time he was taken into captivity by the German's. He was separated from his parents, who were killed. He was with his brother a good part of the time of the telling of the story. They were separated during one of the selections. George was only 17 when he was liberated. After the war he kept searching for his brother in hopes he had survived. He wrote to his aunt and uncle in the United States, and they brought him to live with them.
George changed his name when he came to the United States, to one that didn't sound Jewish. He kept the part of the holocaust from his children, so that he could give them a happy childhood. His children embraced their father's history when he finally brought it out in the open. They visited Poland with their father, and visited the places he was held, and they saw his childhood home. George was able to find a few living relatives as he searched his past.
George had only a few years of elementary education, but he studied hard when he came to the United States. He earned two college degrees, and had a successful career. He was drafted into the army, and learned about repairing radios.
April 23, 2022
I don’t know that Lucek Salzman ever left the concentration camps. George Lucius Salton did, and built a life trying not to pass on the horror that he endured to his children. I am forever grateful that he did, and that he and his daughter, Anna, wrote this book. I pray that his soul has found peace.
November 25, 2012
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 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.
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 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.
August 28, 2008
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.
April 11, 2008
One of my favorite books about the holocaust.
August 13, 2010
A straight forward glimpse into the suffering of one young man and his many compatriots. Contains many facts that I had not read in previous Holocaust memoirs.
February 27, 2023
INCREDIBLE READ!!! George aka Lucek was imprisoned in TEN different concentration camps during the Holocaust. This book is heartbreaking to put it mildly—it’s wildly honest, brutally detailed, yet elegantly composed and simply narrated. You will feel the depths of loss down to your bones. As hard as this was to read, because it stirs up that red hot fire in me, I had a hard time letting Lucek go when I closed the final page. I felt as if I was reading a story of my own brother and so I rejoiced at his victories and I was crushed by his losses. Anna wrote this courageous book with her father and has her own book about how that happened (my next read). I would recommend this book to anyone. It truly reminds me of what I am fighting for and it reminds us all of how faithful God is and how we can’t take the smallest liberties for granted! BRAVO!!
March 30, 2023
This very personal, unbearably poignant account of a Jewish teenager who survived for three years in ten different concentration camps in Poland, France, and Germany is not an easy read, but it is incredibly important that we remember so that this can NEVER happen again. I purchased the book after hearing coauthor Anna Salton Eisen speak at our church so I knew what was coming, which made Lucjan's descriptions of his loving family even more heartbreaking. It is an incredible story of survival and overcoming the odds. Highly recommend.
January 17, 2018
Great reading
It was an honour to read this book, very well written would recommend to everyone. This type of story never gets old to me.
It was an honour to read this book, very well written would recommend to everyone. This type of story never gets old to me.
November 12, 2019
This book is a good read for people who love learning about the WWII-era and the life a person during the time. It’s very insightful and puts you into the narrator’s shoes.
February 6, 2020
Heartbreaking
Teach these lessons to your child’s and grandchildren. Speak of them often. Always remember that evil is around us and can destroy us if we allow it
Teach these lessons to your child’s and grandchildren. Speak of them often. Always remember that evil is around us and can destroy us if we allow it
July 10, 2023
Amazing. Heartbreaking.
October 7, 2023
Review is for audiobook. One of the most powerful Holocaust memoirs I’ve read. Excellent narrator. Did have to skip through a few spots because it was so awful what happened.
June 26, 2024
Such an important read. Wow. The experiences here have stayed with me long after I finished reading.
May 14, 2025
Any memoir of the Holocaust is going to be so sad, learning the many atrocities perpetuated by Hitler's goons.
October 3, 2020
Loaned to me by a neighbor, after finishing this book I realized it was signed by the author. I was so humbled and moved that in my hands was a book that had been held by a survivor of concentration camps. After all that he witnessed and experienced it is amazing that he survived to tell his story.
September 9, 2015
As an American, if you've ever doubted our duty as citizens of this privileged country to stand against evil in the world, even the places beyond our shores, immersing yourself in this memoir may remove your doubt. The story progressed with inevitability from fear to hopelessness to a despair I am certain I can't completely fathom. When I read of the soldiers in olive uniforms entering the camp and standing among the dead and those so close to death, as the prisoners summoned their strength to shout "Americans! Americans! The Americans are here!" the tears came. The author was 11 when his ordeal began and his story is told in a straightforward, simple way that paints a clear picture of the darkness humanity can sink into. You want to believe it couldn't happen again, and all the while you realize it can, if it isn't actively guarded against. Memoirs like this one, and like Elie Wiesel's "Night" are as invaluable to our future as they are painful to read.
April 8, 2016
"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 cal ended. I was Lucek Salzman, and I was free."
This book was incredibly compelling. George Lucius Salton, previously Lucek Salzman, gives an account of his experiences surviving WWII. His memoir brings insight to the day to day struggles of survival in ghettos and concentration camps.
This book was incredibly compelling. George Lucius Salton, previously Lucek Salzman, gives an account of his experiences surviving WWII. His memoir brings insight to the day to day struggles of survival in ghettos and concentration camps.
April 19, 2014
I sat and read this cover to cover this afternoon, and now I feel as if I need to go frolic in a warm, sunny field with some puppies in order to recover from the experience of sharing in Salton's devastation. How anyone ever survived surviving the Holocaust remains a mystery.
October 16, 2016
This is the memories of the Jewish Ghettos in Poland during WWII. The author was a boy and describes the series of events that he, his family and all Jews went through at the hands of the Nazis. Another testament to the atrocities perpetrated on the Jews by Hitler's reign of terror.
May 1, 2015
An interesting and graphic memoir of a Jewish boy during WWII and his experiences in several concentration camps. He sheds light on why some of prisoners who weren't murdered lived and some died.
February 3, 2015
A very well written memoir. Couldn't put it down.
July 19, 2014
A heartbreaking, beautiful memoir of the courage on one survivor. Thank you for sharing your life with us so we will never forget!
July 6, 2016
Most important and impactful book I have read to date.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews