What They Didn't Burn: Uncovering My Father's Holocaust Secrets

by Mel Laytner

What if you uncovered a Nazi paper trail that revealed your father to be a man very different from the quiet, introspective dad you knew . . . or thought you knew? Growing up, author Mel Laytner saw his father as a quintessential Type passive and conventional. As he uncovered documents the Nazis didn’t burn, however, another man emerged—a black market ringleader and wily camp survivor who made his own luck. The tattered papers also shed light on painful secrets his father took to his grave. Melding the intimacy of personal memoir with the rigors of investigative journalism, What They Didn’t Burn is a heartwarming, inspiring story of resilience and redemption. A story of how desperate survivors turned hopeful refugees rebuilt their shattered lives in America, all the while struggling with the lingering trauma that has impacted their children to this day.

Genres: Memoir, History, Holocaust, Nonfiction, Biography, Historical, World War II

306 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2021

About the author

Mel Laytner is the author of What They Didn't Burn, an acclaimed investigative memoir.

He was a reporter and editor of hard news for some twenty years, much of it as a foreign correspondent covering the Middle East for NBC News and United Press International.

His first full-time reporting job was with UPI covering all manner of urban mayhem in New York City, his hometown.

After a stint as a one-person suburban bureau chief, he moved to the General Desk and became the “slot man” editor, responsible for selecting and final editing the day’s top stories for UPI’s 400 afternoon newspaper clients.
His first foreign assignment was London. A year later, UPI moved him to Tel Aviv and a year after that, he was named Jerusalem Correspondent. NBC News recruited Mel as its Middle East Radio Correspondent.

After eight grinding years overseas, Mel was awarded a prestigious Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Business and Economic Journalism, which included a year’s residency at Columbia’s Graduate School of Business.
Mel received his BA in Political Science from the City College of New York, and holds a Masters degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and a second Masters from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

He lives in New York City with his wife, an artist and teacher, and is the father of three daughters.

Reviews

[Stacey B · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.0

Accuracy First
It was about two years ago when I began reading Mel Laytner's comments and reviews in some of the groups on GR's. I didn't necessarily agree with everything he wrote, but what he wrote- I read .
He consistently repeated the importance of accuracy in print over this time period.
Mel wouldn't know he taught me an invaluable lesson on the importance of why be accurate. He also wouldn't know I took it to heart for the application of most everything today.
In the land of authors, assumptions are not substitutes for documentation.
One can see clearly the humility of this author.

The Book
UPDATE 2-6-2022 // but edited way too many times to get it right.
What They Didn't Burn...."
How would you react if you were to find out your father wasn't the Dad you thought you knew. Our author had been an investigative reporter which gave him knowledge of how to investigate a personal mission of his own. Although this book is non-fiction; it reads as a mystery. I had no idea what I was about to learn in the life Joseph Lajitner. We are told he shared few war stories with his family, but I could have never guessed the answers.
Mel's search for all the records that were not burned or missing was like hunting for a needles in haystacks or a puzzle, if you will. Each piece uncovers another part of a picture of what Mel would tell. That became quite evident when interviewing survivors of the Holocaust who did know his father; except these stories didn't seem to fit the character of the man he knew as his father.
Mel takes his readers with him on trips to DC, and Europe- ones very few experience. I could feel his anticipation and exhaustion but he never quit. Even I was exhausted from traveling back and forth, b and I never got further than my house. :)
As a journalist Mel doubled down, making sure each piece of his new found history was accurate and documented -or he wouldn't print it.
In finishing the book I know... Joseph like so many others, did what he had to do to survive the war.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josef “Dolek” Lajtner was a 32 year old Jew in Upper Silesia (Poland) when he was taken by Nazi’s into their forced labor/ethnic cleansing system early in World War II. The rest of his relatives in Poland at the time did not survive the horror.

I try to read at least one Holocaust story every year. It’s good to remember what is possible in the realm of human behavior. In my lifetime this is an extreme and egregious example of man’s capacity for evil.

Mel Laytner, American son of Josef, talks about researching his father’s time in multiple work camps and his experiences on several forced death marches towards war’s end. He does a lot of paper chasing research, talks to people remaining from his dad’s time in Poland and makes multiple trips to Auschwitz, Poland and Israel. The camp stories are compelling of course but not a lot is new. The author is driven by guilt and frustration having not asked enough questions while his dad was alive. Actually, I’d say his dad shared quite a lot with him. As a kid he may have gotten an incomplete picture or didn’t think enough about what it took for Josef to survive. Mel’s wake up began when it was pointed out to him that his dad had been a smart “tough bastard” and perhaps a black marketeer in Blechammer, the sub-camp of Auschwitz where he spent most of the war as a welder. He discovers that the job protected him somewhat and between that and his other “skills” he foraged enough food to keep himself alive. Most Jews lasted no longer than nine months.

This was all a revelation to his son who always saw the old man as rather unimpressive, a passive man and a bit of a failure. Children are not famous for getting enough information about their parents when it is still possible to do so.

I prefer the first hand memoirs of survivors, but at this date we probably won’t get many more of those. I appreciate the work and accuracy of the work Laytner did.

[Katarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is meticulously researched and incredibly well-written. It is not easy to read due to the content, but easy to read due to fantastic writing. I find it difficult to describe how the book left me feeling after finishing reading...It reads like a good memoir: enough detail and description where warranted, brief mentions or skipping of irrelevant information. I can only describe it as it feels 'light' to read. I started the book and time flew by, I was absorbed a bubble of images created in my mind by the words I read. When I say it felt 'light' to read, it's the only word I can find to describe how I experience the best written books. I don't read words on a page anymore, instead I am transported into a movie created by my mind. I am in a bubble,and the real world fades.
There is nothing light about this book though. The content is dark, disturbing, frightening, horrific, and 100% true. It's factual, but evokes strong emotions. It's not dry and dusty, instead reads like fiction through good writing. It doesn't dramatize or become hyper emotional for effect. It's just so real. So frighteningly real and true.

This is one of those really important books that everyone should read. Let these stories never be forgotten. I admire the author for the years of work and effort put into this project and produce this truly important testament of the strength, endurance and resilience of surviving unimaginable cruelty inflicted by people onto people.
This book will stay with me forever, same as "Prisoner 88", who guest lectured once when I was in university.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC for review purposes. I am grateful for the opportunity.

[Karla Huebner]

This is a fascinating and in some ways unusual book, although the overarching subject matter of the Holocaust is certainly familiar territory. Mel Laytner knew growing up that his parents had survived the concentration camp system, but--as is so often the case when we listen to parental stories as children or young adults--his parents didn't provide a tremendous amount of information and he didn't ask the questions that later occurred to him as important. However, Laytner is an investigative journalist and eventually began to research his father's life, collecting anecdotes from other survivors but also carefully assessing and fact-checking the information. We need to remember, after all, that while oral history is important to gather, even people with good memories misremember details or misunderstand what they saw or heard; and of course people also lie or embellish or pretend to have forgotten information that they in fact do remember. Laytner's father was both skilled and clever, so despite being Jewish, he was more useful to the Nazi war effort alive than dead. He spent much of his time working at a labor camp. (Here we need to remember that the Nazis had various kinds of internment camps--not every camp was a death camp, although deaths occurred in all camps.) The careful way in which Mel Laytner was ultimately able to pursue his father's steps illumines not just the once-elegant, once-daring man that his father had been, but also reveals a broader story somewhat different than the typical survivor account.

[Sandra Salmans · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a terrific book. Mel Laytner has done heroic investigative work, researching his father's personal history in the camps, then casting the net wider to place it within the context of the Holocaust in general, particularly in Poland. He does this with a reporter's eye (and notebook). He also does a fine job remembering the father he knew, and the strong and loving relationship they shared. A smart and moving memoir.

[Gabrielle Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mel Laytner’s What They Didn’t Burn offers the reader both an emotional account of a son retracing his father’s traumatic experiences under Nazi persecution, and a gripping detective story of a savvy journalist uncovering “what they didn’t burn.” This beautifully written and deeply felt book, a powerful tribute to his father’s fortitude, also serves as a reminder that the long shadow of the Nazi past stretches over generations.
Gabrielle Robinson, Author of Api’s Berlin Diaries

[David Kerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

The provocative title exposes Hitler’s attempt to destroy evidence of the profound evil he perpetrated against the Jews.

The author’s forensic research into ‘the remains’ creates an image of his father, hidden from his family. Like a master detective, the author collects pieces of the jigsaw scattered across the world, constructing a darker and different picture of his father. The search uncovers stories of his father’s companions, confirming and enriching the integrity of the narrative.

Original documents are cited. Numbers have faces; lists come alive. A son’s pursuit of the truth of his father adds warmth and power to the script. The author’s style carried me through darkness and light, despair and hope. I found it difficult to put down.

‘What They Didn’t Burn’ rests easily beside the works of Primo Levi, Elie Weisel and Eddie Jaku. An extraordinary book – 5 stars.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

What they didn't burn is really a fitting name for the journey tell in this book. As a complete outsider from the events narrated, was very interesting to see the POV from a son of an holocaust surviver specially about how difficult can be to navigate the topic when it brings such hard memories to their loved ones, and about how they identify their parents story effect or lack of in their life. It was a very powerful thing to be able to go through this journey with the author and one that we all can learn about how generally speaking, we as younger generations often forget to appreciate the life's and stories of our parents and grandparents and I shared the sentiment of regret of not listening enough of my grandma's stories even worse not caring enough.

[Louise Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating perspective on a time of our history which must keep being discussed so we can continue to learn from the past. Reminiscent of some aspects of the Tattooist of Auschwitz, this book calls the reader to consider the perspectives of people who did what they must to survive against all odds.

[Jennifer Dicenzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing and inspiring! I was drawn in from the first page and couldn’t stop. There are certain times in life and history that shouldn’t be erased or forgotten and this is one of them. I cannot imagine finding out things the author did about someone you thought you knew. But really he was so much more!!

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

What They Didn’t Burn: Uncovering My Father’s Holocaust Secrets is by Mel Laytner. This book takes the reader into the story of Josef “Dolek” Lajtner’s journey of “survival and escape from Hitler-and-the-Nazis” (Laytner, Kindle Location 80) during World War II. Mel’s years as a journalist gave him the investigative skills to delve into the archives of various museums to locate primary sources with which to validate and prove his father’s stories were authentic. His emotional connection to the stories and the documents he found, makes the reader feel those connections too. This book is more than an account of Joseff’s life under Hitler; but a detective story, a story of change, discovery, and a project of love.
Mel learned some stories of his father’s life while sitting with his father in a favorite chair. When he tried to replicate those stories to his own children, he found himself questioning some of those stories. Could they be validated? Mel used his investigative skills to find that proof and found himself uncovering the life of a man he just thought he knew.
The reader goes with Mel on this journey and feels the emotional changes that Mel went through in his effort to keep his emotions out of the story. It is through his words and emotions that the reader gets a glimpse into the dirty world of life under Hitler for the Polish Jews.
As Mel began his search for proof that some of his father’s stories actually occurred, he had no idea that he would find actual proof but also a different man than the one he had known all his life. This search led him through many survivors, many museums, and visits to Poland. It changed his view of his own father as well as his view of the Nazi camps.
In spite of the horror of the camps, the book is really good. It is easy to read and gives the reader a greater knowledge of the vastness of the materials available to document this horrible event. He personalizes the numbers.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Josef Lajtner rarely spoke of what happened to him between 1940 and 1945. His son, journalist Mel and author of What They Didn’t Burn, only knew a few things. He knew that Josef had been imprisoned at Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, and Buchenwald. He knew that his father had survived partly because he knew how to weld, but there were hints of strange stories and bits of luck that the elder Lajtner never really spoke about. Later, when Mel interviews another Holocaust survivor and asks why the survivor never recorded his testimony, the survivor says, “Why should I?…I don’t have to justify my survival.” Although he never said, I wonder if Josef rarely spoke about the Holocaust because he also didn’t want to discuss why he lived and so many other didn’t. What They Didn’t Burn is the fruit Mel Laytner’s efforts to fill in the blanks. He doesn’t “justify” his father’s survival; he treats it like the extraordinary occurrence that it was...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.

[Degenerate Chemist · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What They Didn't Burn" is a well researched memoir of Mel Laytner's journey to track down his father's history during the holocaust. As the title suggests it focuses on Laytner's struggle to find documented evidence of his father's experiences due to the Nazi's destroying evidence of their crimes.

Laytner suggests that he was prompted to write this memoir by the rise in Holocaust denial, specifically by the Iranian presidents announcing his disbelief publicly back in 2005. I have to agree with his concern and his need to document this period of his father's life.

Laytner writes about his father's time in Blechhamer. I have to say this is the second book on the Holocaust that I have read that explicitly acknowledges that the Jewish people were a slave labor force (the first was KL: A History Of the Nazi Concentration Camps by Nikolaus Wachsmann). I think it is an aspect that gets brushed under the rug far too often when talking about about the Holocaust.

This is an important addition to our understanding of the Holocaust and a harrowing read.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is only the third book I've ever read about the Holocaust. I had previously read Anne Frank's diary in my youth & Elie Wiesel's book," Night" about 20 years ago. Mr. Wiesel's book really got to me & so I just decided I didn't want to read anymore for a time. Of course, I've watched numerous documentaries about the Holocaust & WW2 & the movie, "Schindler's List" so I'm fully aware of what took place.

Now after stating the above, I highly recommend this book, "What They Didn't Burn". Mr. Laytner writes about what his father went through during the Holocaust. Mr. Laytner is a reporter & has investigated & written his father's story starting with the stories his father used to tell him as a child which were very limited & then after much investigative journalism, the fully fleshed out stories of his father's life through the Holocaust. It's a very good story. I highly recommend this book.

[Ellen Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

We never know where inspiration plants its seed. I’m guessing that when Mr. Laytner, son of two holocaust survivors, met with a friend of his parents, Walter Spritzer, he had no way of knowing where the conversation would lead.

Walter knew his dad, Josef “Dolek” Lajtner, before, during, and after the war. When asked how his father survived, Walter replied, “He was a tough bastard.” From this passing comment, the seed was planted and the author of What They Didn’t Burn, began a comprehensive unraveling of his father’s past. He brought his nearly twenty years’ experience as a reporter to the task.

The father Mr. Laytner knew as a child was nothing like the tough bastard that survived the Holocaust. He was quiet and cerebral. He rarely spoke about his Holocaust experiences. We journey with the author to the countries and camps his father knew. Through his tenacity, we follow clue after clue as he discovers answers. We join in his triumphs and disappointments.

This is a most important book on many levels. It is a book about survival. It is a book about hope. It is a book about selflessness. It is also an instructive book about a process that could help others answer questions about how their loved ones survived.

At the end of the book, Mr. Laytner says he regretted not having done an oral history with his dad. This is something we should all think about if we are still lucky to have someone to interview.

[Hiram Reisner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many Children of the Holocaust had parents who seldom shared the horrors they suffered. Having a father who rarely spoke of the atrocities, and then in the vaguest of terms, a determined Mel Laytner sets out to trace his father’s true Holocaust experiences in the superbly written “What They Didn’t Burn: Uncovering My Father's Holocaust Secrets.” With his impeccable skills as an investigative reporter, and his fervent desire to find out details of his father’s story, Laytner travels to Washington, Germany, Poland and Israel — and speaks to aging Holocaust survivors on the way — to retrieve obscure documents and flesh out the truth. His work is remarkable and his detective work and love for his father gives many of us a better sense of the secrets held close by Holocaust survivors. You’ll never forget Laytner’s efforts.

[Larry Stybel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This well-written book intertwines two powerful stories of persistence. One story is about one man's persistence to survive in the face of horrible obstacles. The second story is about this man's son and his attempt to unravel the truth decades later.

If you look at this book as a holocost story, it properly should be shelved under "History." If you look at this book as a story of human persistence in the face of obstacles, it belongs in "Psychology." The truth is both are valid categories.

[Ashe (mylittlelibrarylife) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book :) sometimes it went to detailed for me but I can appreciate the research that went into creating this book :) adding in the photos of evidence and facts was a beautiful touch and nice to reference to :) also adding in ‘where everyone ended up’ was great too, knowing where their lives took them was good to know . Loved this book and learning more about history :)

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, a son explores his father's past of wartime survival.

Being a Holocaust survivor, the son describes his father , Josef Dolek Lajtner's life pre-war to his survival in the concentration camps and eventual immigration yo the USA.

Written from the heart, this book is an important piece of history. There are certain times in history that shouldn't be forgotten, and this inspirational book is a testament to that fact. The life of Dolek Lajtner won't be forgotten thanks to his son.

[Dale Slongwhite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mel Laytner's father didn't talk much about his youth and younger years in a concentration camp in Poland so he decides to investigate. This is a well-researched book as the author takes numerous trips to where his father lived and to the camp where he was imprisoned. Along the way, he finds and interviews people who knew his father or were imprisoned in the same camp.

The book is heart wrenching, to say the least. It is very detailed and includes the author's feelings all along the way. Some of it was hard to hear, but so it should be considering the material being covered.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Holocaust and to someone considering writing a memoir for a relative.

[Shelley Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all interested in the Holocaust

A brilliantly researched and written book by the author searching for his father’s past during the Holocaust. The time spent has served their memories well.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving and well researched book about his father‘s time in a force labour camp and how he survived the Holocaust. Reading about that death March I’m thinking the war was lost but yet they were killing them until the last minute. Especially today with antisemitism on the rise, I think everyone needs to be aware of the past.

[Jillm · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you discover your father isn't the person you thought you knew it can be a good or bad surprise. In the case of author Mel Laytner, that discovery took him through his father's years as a Jewish prisoner who lived through the most awful times in the most awful places of World War II. Using his skills as a journalist, Laytner researches and checks what he finds to draw a portrait of a survivor and deepens his understanding of his father. This is a moving, well-written account that deserves to be read.

Full disclosure, the author is a friend and former colleague but I do mean the above.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve always been drawn to books around this period in time, and while I have read numerous accounts of the atrocities that took place, I continue to shake my head at how something so awful could have ever happened. While many of the stories we hear tell a similar tale, no two stories are truly the same and each deserves to be told. What They Didn’t Burn is a beautiful, emotional and powerful tribute to the authors father, Josef Lajtner, an ordinary man that exhibited such extraordinary bravery, resilience, perseverance and a desire to survive this very dark time.

Thank you to @NetGalley, @SparkPress and the author, @MelLaytner for the opportunity to read this digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts are my own.

Happy release day 🎉🍾

[Sylvia Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mel Laytner has used his skills as an investigative reporter to bring us not only a beautiful memoir, recounting his father’s resilience and strength in surviving “Hitler-and-the-Nazis” but also a meticulously researched time-line of that part of history. Being a child of survivors this was a very emotional trip for me but necessary to read. “Let us never forget.”

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laytner's book is a beautifully written piece of investigative journalism and family history. This book was outstanding.

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Must Read

Wow, what an incredible book, tremendous research by the author brought his Dad and Family to life.
This is one of the best of the hundreds of Holocaust books I've read, a must read!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

“‘It stank everywhere, sometimes almost unbearably, of burnt hair,’ a resident of a town six miles from Auschwitz recalled. ‘And if the weather was right and you forgot to close the windows, a kind of fatty-slimy soot settled on the furniture, the dishes, and the floor, and got stuck in your hair.’
An SS officer wrote in his diary: ‘The great pyres were spreading such a stench that the whole countryside, many kilometers in width, had been infected. At night, the red sky above Auschwitz was visible for many miles.’
….Only after the war did the Big Lie emerge that the crematoria were a carefully kept secret, unknown to the surrounding German population or to the Nazi bureaucrats who rounded up the Jews for deportation.” (Laytner, p96)

This is more than a biography, and more than another Holocaust story.

Mel Laytner is the child of survivors and like many of their peers, they chose simply not to discuss much of what they experienced during the toppling of the European Jewish world and its subsequent annihilation, so although he knew a few anecdotes, he had no concept of their full story. It was many years after his father’s death when he decided to learn more.

So began a multi-year exploration that took him to Poland and Israel; to survivors living in Florida, California, and Paris; and to museums and archives around the world. This book is as much about his father as it is about the process of discovery. Imagine trying to reconstruct a life from the rubble that remained of European Jewry - and doing it with survivors in their eighties. He was on borrowed time, with documents that were beginning to disintegrate and people who sometimes remembered and sometimes didn’t. Laytner used his journalistic skills to painstakingly decode the evidence to answer questions about not just his father but other Nazi victims as well. The sheer scope of the Nazi’s murderous regime plus the shocking overall loss of life in World War II leads to a certain anonymity: even with records, it seems impossible to determine an individual’s fate. Did he die in a ditch? Shot in the head? Survived, but under a new name? This is perhaps the most incredible thing about Laytner’s book: that with the help of documents, interviews, tour guides and translators, plus multiple historians, he was able to trace much of his father’s life before and during the war.

Laytner paints a picture of a world long gone: a rich Jewish world in Poland, with schools, shuls, shops and a bustling community. Yiddish papers and entertainment. It was a place where poverty may actually have saved people. His grandmother’s family emigrated to the US long before the war for this reason. (Incidentally, so did my husband’s family - his Polish Jewish grandmother recalled being so poor she slept on two chairs pushed together- along with my entire family.) Then, as life became more difficult for Polish Jews, and this world disintegrated, he was able to discover what his father - and his family - experienced. I found the discoveries - and his research- fascinating.

Full disclosure is that I read this book long ago, but it has changed significantly since that first version I read at Sarah Lawrence. I loved it then, but it was a more emotional book - the story slightly fictionalized, and there was a pervasive question of whether or not to revise it to be fully nonfiction. This version reads much less like a novel - I didn’t cry this time!! - but it is a much richer book. The facts and history made for an engrossing story, and even though I really try not read too many Holocaust books, this one is really worth it. The only thing I would have liked to have learned more about is his mother, Henci. And I really wanted more pictures!

Read this! You won’t be sorry. And if you wonder if anything remains of your family abroad - if there are still records that your family lived in a small town in Russia or Poland or anyplace else, this book will show you that you can, in fact, find out where you are from and what your history is. As an American Jew whose family left Russia and Poland more than a hundred years ago, I always figured there was nothing left; that our history began at Ellis Island. That there was no way to know anything more. I am not sure I will ever take a trip like Laytner- go digging for information about the people who made up my past - but at least now I know it is possible.

[Twinkletoes · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was like a memoir written in a memoir. We listened to the audiobook on a road trip. The narrator did voices in ways I didn't really like, but the story was very moving. And by the end, I felt like I knew who his dad was.

[Stewart Kampel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can there ever be enough books about the Holocaust? No, because new disclosures emerge day after day, all bearing the message Never Forget. Recently I reviewed books like “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz,” about the 25 young women who put together fashionable attire for the wives of Nazi generals, and “Plunder,” an attempt by a young American to find out what happened to property belonging to his family in Poland before World War II.
But Mel Laytner’s “What They Didn’t Burn, Uncovering My Father’s Holocaust Secrets,”
reveals the uncanny and largely unknown accomplishments of his father as he secretly carried out activities that helped save the lives of countless concentration camp inmates, despite mortal dangers at every turn.
Laytner, a long-time correspondent for UPI and NBC, combined many interviews with his father and his own investigative talents to uncover a life rarely spoken of — eye-opening tales of his father’s bravery and courage in the most trying of circumstances.
Some revelations are not pretty but Laytner discovered, in documents that the Nazis failed to incinerate, that his father was a ringleader of a black market operation within the camps, a subject he had never discussed while Laytner was growing up.
Using the skills he acquired as a journalist, Laytner provides clear writing with memorable incidents to remind today’s readers that the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust should never be repeated.

Stewart Kampel, book reviewer, Hadassa Magazine