Never Forget Your Name: The Children of Auschwitz

by Alwin Meyer, Nick Somers (Translator)

The children of this is the darkest spot in the ocean of suffering that was the Holocaust. They were deported to the concentration camp with their families, with most being murdered in the gas chambers upon their arrival, or were born there under unimaginable circumstances. While 232,000 children and juveniles were deported to Auschwitz, only 750 were liberated in the death camp at the end of January 1945. Most of them were under 15 years of age. Alwin Meyer's masterwork is the culmination of decades of research and interviews with the children and their descendants, sensitively reconstructing their stories before, during and after Auschwitz. The camp would remain with them throughout their on their forearms, as a tattooed number, and in their minds, in the memory of heart-rending separation from parents and siblings, medical experiments, abject confusion, ceaseless hunger and a perpetual longing for home and security. Once the purported liberation came, there was no blueprint for piecing together personal biographies after the unthinkable had happened. Many of the children, often orphaned, had forgotten their names or ages, and had only fragmented understandings of where they came from. While some struggled to reconnect to the parents from whom they had been separated, others had known nothing other than the camp. Some children grew up without the ability to trust and to play. Survival is not yet life – it is an in-between stage which requires individuals to learn how to live. The liberated children had to learn how to be young again in order to grow into adults like others did. This remarkable book tells the stories of the most vulnerable victims of the Nazis’ systematic attempt to extinguish innocent lives, and rescues their voices from historical oblivion. It is a unique testimony to the horrific suffering endured by millions in humanity’s darkest hour.

Genres: History, World War II, Holocaust, Nonfiction

512 pages, Hardcover

Published January 31, 2022

Reviews

[Rene Boell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book cannot be recommended enough. It should become compulsory reading at least in all schools.
Alwin Meyer has worked on it for years, if not decades, he has succeeded through his tireless commitment in getting people who were in Auschwitz as children to talk about their experiences and their fate and to provide him with personal documents, often the only memories of their family for this publication. It is very important that these experiences, experiences of which very few survivors can still speak, not be forgotten.
The book is excellently equipped with very detailed notes.

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a great narrative, monument and memorial at the same time.
Alwin Meyer has dedicated a meticulously researched book to the children of Auschwitz, touching in its diversity. A book that will deeply move adult and adolescent readers alike.

[Alenka of Bohemia · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most grueling, horrifying, and poignant books about the Holocaust I have ever read (and I have read quite a few). The author begins rather dryly, with lots of statistics and not really going beyond listing names, occupations, and dates of the Jewish families he follows throughout the book, he also repeats some of the information over and over which results in the first few chapters feeling choppy and disjointed. But there is no denying the book is a powerful memorial to the children of the Holocaust and their suffering. As the book progresses and the author focuses more on the post-war experiences of the survivors, the aforementioned shortcomings disappear and nothing disturbs the profound sadness which flows the reader. After all this time, after all my studies, I still do not comprehend, I do not understand and I do not think I ever will.

[Bernhard Krane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book by Alwin Meyer is the most informative and impressive work I’ve ever read about the Children of Auschwitz. It’s text and carefully chosen photographs enable individual and sometimes intimate approaches to the life stories of Auschwitz survivors.

The author is my former colleague in Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste (Action Reconciliation Service for Peace), a German NGO that organizes voluntary services in countries whose population suffered and is still suffering from Nazi crimes. For more than 40 years Alwin has sought continuous encounters with survivors and Children of Auschwitz in various countries. With them and their families he managed to develop deep relationships.

This book allows us to share a little bit of his life's work. On more than 500 pages it presents experiences and memories of terrible childhood years in Auschwitz. From the perspective and in the innocent language of children it describes suffering and death and survival of camp inmates. Family stories about the "life before" are carefully reconstructed, masterfully placed into their historical context and supplemented by numerous notes and bibliographical references. We can also take insight in the survivors’ lives "afterwards", in their different paths of life, in their jobs, in their pride of their grandchildren and in their struggle about faith and hope, revenge and reconciliation.

The book gives shape and face to the children’s families. It allows us to get a bit closer to everyday reality in the death camp. With this work Alwin Meyer has created a monument for the murdered and the survivors - and given us a unique present.


Bernhard Krane, Oranienburg 20.7.2022

[A Ashill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I commend the author for tackling this subject, it’s a horrific account of the horrors that occurred. I struggled with it jumping around, I couldn’t follow who was who. I also found the first few chapters onerous. This is a horrific subject and the content is incredibly disturbing, so I have huge respect for this historical work.

[Candie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has me rethinking everything I was taught about the Holocaust in History class. The stuff we learned doesn't even come close to all the information in this book. I think this book is great for anyone who wants to know about how the Nazis treated everyone sent to camps.