Holocaust Holiday: One Family's Descent into Genocide Memory Hell

by Shmuley Boteach

In this alternately humorous and horrifying memoir, a Jewish father shleps his reluctant children around Europe on a hard-charging tour of Holocaust sites and memorials in order to impress on them the profound evil of Hitler’s war against the Jews and the importance of combatting genocide.

In 2017, renowned author and celebrity rabbi, Shmuley Boteach, decided to take his family on a European holiday. But instead of seeing the sights of London or Paris, he took his reluctant—and at times complaining—children on a harrowing journey though Auschwitz, Treblinka, Warsaw, and many other sites associated with Hitler’s genocidal war against the Jews. His purpose was to impress upon them the full horror of the Holocaust so they would know and remember it deep in their bones. In the process, he and his children learn a great deal about the scope and nature of the European genocide and the continuing effects of global hatred and anti-Semitism. The resulting memoir is an utterly unique blend of travelogue, memoir and history—alternately fascinating, terrifying, frustrating, humorous, and tragic.

“It is my honor to contribute a foreword to his important book, in which Rabbi Shmuley Boteach details the excruciating journey he took with his wife and children in the summer of 2017 to the killing fields of Europe, a pilgrimage which every person of conscience should attempt at least once in their lifetime. It is our universal obligation to dedicate ourselves to the memory of the martyred six million, just as it is our obligation to confront and defeat genocide wherever it rises.”

—From the foreword by Amb. Georgette Mosbacher

Genres: Holocaust, Nonfiction

368 pages, Hardcover

Published May 18, 2021

About the author

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, named by Talkers Magazine as one of the 100 most important radio hosts in America, is a nationally syndicated talk show host, the international best-selling author of 15 books, and an acclaimed syndicated columnist.

A winner of the London Times highly prestigious "Preacher of the Year" award, Rabbi Shmuley has lectured and appeared in print, radio, and TV all over the globe. His radio show, "Rabbi Shmuley's Passion," airs daily on Bonneville Broadcasting in afternoon drive-time.

He is the author of a number of books, including "Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy," "Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments," "Why Can't I Fall in Love," "Judaism for Everyone: Renewing your Life through the Vibrant Lessons of the Jewish Faith," and most recently, "Hating Women: America's Hostile Campaign Against the Fairer Sex." A winner of the annual "preacher of the year" contest sponsored by the Times of London, he was formerly rabbi of Oxford University.


Shmuley—he is known universally by his first name, has marketed himself as a rabbi to the stars and an expert on Jewish attitudes toward relationships and marriage. ("Dr. Ruth with a yarmulke," the Washington Post called him.)

Reviews

[Umar Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I remember following Rabbi Shmuley on social media as he was taking his large family throughout Europe showing them places associated with the Holocaust. This book is part popular history of European Jewry and the Holocaust, part family vacation memoir, and the end looks at current forms of violent antisemitism (including from Muslims) ,and the role a strong Jewish State with a modern army plays into the equation. I particularly enjoyed Shmuley sharing the difficult theological conversations he had with his kids over how a loving and just G-d could allow the Holocaust to occur. Shmuley rejects, as I do, the Evangelical-Oprah-pop New Age psychology-woke teaching that one must free themselves from hate and toxicity by forgiving and loving the murderer, the rapist, the terrorist, the genocidal maniac, etc. . Shmuley correctly asserts that we must hate Hitler, his vast army of willing executioners and accomplices, seek both justice and vengeance, prepare for the next Hitler and the current mini Hitlers, and first and foremost our sympathies and love must always be with victims- not the perpetrators. WWI was tough? Too bad- not an excuse for supporting Hitler. Your childhood was rough? Too bad- not an excuse to be a murderer and car jacker. You don't like Israel and feel you've been negatively impacted? Too bad- you don't get to walk around knifing, killing, and assaulting random Jews.

I read this book in preparation for my own upcoming travel to Poland and while there I plan to visit Auschwitz and other sites associated with the Holocaust. I'll then visit Israel, where I've been before on a few occasions, and visit Yad Vashem. As a father I have to take my hat off to Shmuley; because I could've never pulled off this trip without a rebellion.

[Somer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read. It's not focused on WWII. It is more a history of Jewish strife and exile in Europe. The author gives a unique view of his Jewish family visiting sights of terror during the war, which accounts for about half of the book. The other half of the book is an account of the history of Jewish people in the areas that his family had visited, covering hundreds of years. None of the facts or books he refers to list sources or have citations. Not what I was expecting.