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The Last Train: A Family History of the Final Solution
The story of one Jewish family’s fate in the Holocaust, following the thread from Germany to Latvia and to Britain.
It was only by accident that Peter as a child discovered that his father, Fred Bradley, was in fact born Fritz Brandes. And it was only after his father’s death in 2004 that Peter was able to begin to piece together the family’s story and set out on the journey – literally and figuratively – that forms the basis of his book.
Peter’s family were German Jews. In 1938, his father was imprisoned in Buchenwald in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. He was released the following spring when he was granted a visa to settle temporarily in the UK. He arrived in London in May 1939, aged 24, penniless and alone. But when the Nazis invaded France and the Low Countries in May 1940, he was arrested by the British as an ‘enemy alien’ and shipped to an internment camp in Canada. His parents’ fate was to be very different: they were deported by train from their home in Bavaria to Latvia, to the Riga ghetto and nearby camps, where they were murdered.
Peter felt a growing need not only to find out what had happened, but also to try to understand why his grandparents’ fellow citizens had come to put them on that train. Of course antisemitism was at the root. But where did it come from? And why did it continue virtually unabated after WW2 despite such graphic evidence of the horrors it had caused? Why is it resurgent today?
Such questions led Peter to the forests of Latvia where his grandparents died and to dig deeply into the ancient roots of this prejudice. This book tells the story of what he learned.
It was only by accident that Peter as a child discovered that his father, Fred Bradley, was in fact born Fritz Brandes. And it was only after his father’s death in 2004 that Peter was able to begin to piece together the family’s story and set out on the journey – literally and figuratively – that forms the basis of his book.
Peter’s family were German Jews. In 1938, his father was imprisoned in Buchenwald in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. He was released the following spring when he was granted a visa to settle temporarily in the UK. He arrived in London in May 1939, aged 24, penniless and alone. But when the Nazis invaded France and the Low Countries in May 1940, he was arrested by the British as an ‘enemy alien’ and shipped to an internment camp in Canada. His parents’ fate was to be very different: they were deported by train from their home in Bavaria to Latvia, to the Riga ghetto and nearby camps, where they were murdered.
Peter felt a growing need not only to find out what had happened, but also to try to understand why his grandparents’ fellow citizens had come to put them on that train. Of course antisemitism was at the root. But where did it come from? And why did it continue virtually unabated after WW2 despite such graphic evidence of the horrors it had caused? Why is it resurgent today?
Such questions led Peter to the forests of Latvia where his grandparents died and to dig deeply into the ancient roots of this prejudice. This book tells the story of what he learned.
416 pages, Hardcover
Published November 15, 2022
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296 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 8, 2022
An extraordinary account of one extended family's devastation by the Holocaust; starting with a historical account of Jewish persecution in Europe from the early middle ages till the modern times, followed by a history of the author's extended family in the small German town of Bamberg where both branches of his family lived in and around (varying with the persecution climate of the corresponding times) for centuries until the 1930's generations (tens of people) either fled (some, the lucky ones including the author's father and mother - who later met as refugees in England) or were exterminated (most, including the author's grandparents, uncles, aunts etc)
Truly moving and haunting
Truly moving and haunting
January 20, 2024
This was a very heavy read. I had to take it chapter by chapter and give myself time to process what I had read before moving on. I learned a lot more about the Holocaust and about the persecution of the Jewish people throughout history. I have given this novel 5 stars because how could I not? It was a highly educational, emotional and thought provoking novel about a terrible time in our history. The more we know about it, the better prepared we will be to prevent it from happening again.
August 10, 2022
Bradley's parents were born in Bavaria. His father served in the British army in India during the later stages of World War II. Bradley was a Labour member of the British Parliament between 1997 and 2005. More recently he has undertaken extensive research into the fate of both sets of grandparents as well as that of their siblings, cousins and neighbours. He was able to access records which enabled him to trace in considerable detail the lives of Bavarian Jews from the rise of Nazism in the early 1930s until the implementation of the 'Final Solution' a decade later.
To me, references to the holocaust conjure visions of gas chambers and concentration camps. Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald are among the most frequently referenced places where the mass murder of Jews, Gypsies and others was implemented on an industrial scale. I was also aware of instances when the victims of Nazism were shot and buried in mass graves. I confess I was less cognisant of the extent of this practice or the forced labour camps from which it was organised in Latvia. I now know that I must add Bikernieki, Rumbula and Daugavgriva to the gazetteer of place names associated with mass murder.
I also need to redefine the word 'Ghetto'. I had supposed that it referred to an enclave where Jews traditionally made their homes. I now know that it was an area where Gentiles were evicted to make room for Jews who had been dispossessed of their traditional homes. Surrounded by barbed wire these over-crowded places provided short-term homes for able-bodied individuals who were daily herded to places where they were put to work on heavy labouring tasks in the bitter cold of a Baltic winter. Some, told they were going to work in a cannery, discovered too late that their real destination was a pit in the forest where they were summarily shot and buried, the authorities no longer having a use for them.
Others were forced to dig the very pits into which their bodies were to be deposited. One survivor of such an event records a conversation in which a fellow worker remarks 'What a big air-raid shelter this is going to be'. (Despite the Nazis well documented efficiency there were survivors - which is as well, for without them we would know nothing of these horrors).
Many died of hunger, cold, exhaustion or suicide.
The book is peppered throughout with the testimony of survivors but also with extracts from correspondence between German officials. Correspondence which leaves no doubt about the enthusiasm with which the officers in charge of the occupation viewed their task - the elimination of Jews from Europe.
There is, too, an exploration of the thousand year history of anti-Semitism in Britain and Europe. Bradley reminds us that Jews were banned from the British Isles for 300 years in the Middle Ages. Arriving in England as a refugee in 1938, Bradley's father was interred with other Germans at the outbreak of war and transported to Canada, running the gauntlet of U-boats in unescorted and over-crowded passenger ships. In due course he was able to return and immediately signed up for army service. In later life, musing on the reasons for the acquiescence of ordinary Germans to the ostracisation and ultimate murder of Jews, he posed the question: 'If Hitler had persecuted only Gypsies, how many of us would have stuck our necks out to show kindness to them?'
For Bradley, part of the answer is that 'In the events of our own time, we are all perpetrators, or bystanders, or victims or resisters, or perhaps more than one at once. The question is which of these roles do we choose for ourselves? This is a choice we have to make.' He concludes that "From beneath the indifferent pines of Latvia, my grandfather and grandmother and all those buried with them cry out: choose reason, choose justice, choose humanity.'
To me, references to the holocaust conjure visions of gas chambers and concentration camps. Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald are among the most frequently referenced places where the mass murder of Jews, Gypsies and others was implemented on an industrial scale. I was also aware of instances when the victims of Nazism were shot and buried in mass graves. I confess I was less cognisant of the extent of this practice or the forced labour camps from which it was organised in Latvia. I now know that I must add Bikernieki, Rumbula and Daugavgriva to the gazetteer of place names associated with mass murder.
I also need to redefine the word 'Ghetto'. I had supposed that it referred to an enclave where Jews traditionally made their homes. I now know that it was an area where Gentiles were evicted to make room for Jews who had been dispossessed of their traditional homes. Surrounded by barbed wire these over-crowded places provided short-term homes for able-bodied individuals who were daily herded to places where they were put to work on heavy labouring tasks in the bitter cold of a Baltic winter. Some, told they were going to work in a cannery, discovered too late that their real destination was a pit in the forest where they were summarily shot and buried, the authorities no longer having a use for them.
Others were forced to dig the very pits into which their bodies were to be deposited. One survivor of such an event records a conversation in which a fellow worker remarks 'What a big air-raid shelter this is going to be'. (Despite the Nazis well documented efficiency there were survivors - which is as well, for without them we would know nothing of these horrors).
Many died of hunger, cold, exhaustion or suicide.
The book is peppered throughout with the testimony of survivors but also with extracts from correspondence between German officials. Correspondence which leaves no doubt about the enthusiasm with which the officers in charge of the occupation viewed their task - the elimination of Jews from Europe.
There is, too, an exploration of the thousand year history of anti-Semitism in Britain and Europe. Bradley reminds us that Jews were banned from the British Isles for 300 years in the Middle Ages. Arriving in England as a refugee in 1938, Bradley's father was interred with other Germans at the outbreak of war and transported to Canada, running the gauntlet of U-boats in unescorted and over-crowded passenger ships. In due course he was able to return and immediately signed up for army service. In later life, musing on the reasons for the acquiescence of ordinary Germans to the ostracisation and ultimate murder of Jews, he posed the question: 'If Hitler had persecuted only Gypsies, how many of us would have stuck our necks out to show kindness to them?'
For Bradley, part of the answer is that 'In the events of our own time, we are all perpetrators, or bystanders, or victims or resisters, or perhaps more than one at once. The question is which of these roles do we choose for ourselves? This is a choice we have to make.' He concludes that "From beneath the indifferent pines of Latvia, my grandfather and grandmother and all those buried with them cry out: choose reason, choose justice, choose humanity.'
August 29, 2025
A tough and very moving book to read.
April 25, 2023
‘The story of one Jewish family’s fate in the Holocaust, following the thread from Germany to Latvia and to Britain.
It was only by accident that Peter as a child discovered that his father, Fred Bradley, was in fact born Fritz Brandes. And it was only after his father’s death in 2004 that Peter was able to begin to piece together the family’s story and set out on the journey – literally and figuratively – that forms the basis of his book.
Peter’s family were German Jews. In 1938, his father was imprisoned in Buchenwald in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. He was released the following spring when he was granted a visa to settle temporarily in the UK. He arrived in London in May 1939, aged 24, penniless and alone. But when the Nazis invaded France and the Low Countries in May 1940, he was arrested by the British as an ‘enemy alien’ and shipped to an internment camp in Canada. His parents’ fate was to be very different: they were deported by train from their home in Bavaria to Latvia, to the Riga ghetto and nearby camps, where they were murdered.
Peter felt a growing need not only to find out what had happened but also to try to understand why his grandparents’ fellow citizens had come to put them on that train. Of course, antisemitism was at the root. But where did it come from? And why did it continue virtually unabated after WW2 despite such graphic evidence of the horrors it had caused? Why is it resurgent today?
Such questions led Peter to the forests of Latvia where his grandparents died and to dig deeply into the ancient roots of this prejudice. This book tells the story of what he learned.’
This book was deeply moving.
I have a real interest in the Holocaust so as soon as I saw this book I knew I had to read it and thankfully it didn’t disappoint.
As I have read many books about the Holocaust I wasn’t expecting to be surprised by this book but I was. I am not used to having an author trace their family ancestry back so many generations in a story about the Holocaust. This history of Jewish persecution and suffering was something I hadn’t ever studied in depth; even though I knew it had happened, the detail that was included in this book was fantastic.
Reading about the aspects of political pressure and government policies; both in Nazi Germany and abroad was also something that I found really interesting. Getting a more in-depth look at all of the obstacles that were put in place globally to stop Jewish immigration from Germany was really heartbreaking. This is the sort of information that needs to be more known and spoken about.
Peter Bradley has done an amazing job with this book. It was equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking which made for a truly compelling reading experience. The writing was easy to follow and it radiated emotion from the pages. The detail he included in this book was perfectly woven into the deeply personal story of his family’s journey and suffering. And the inclusion of photographs gave faces, histories, and lives to the people and places that are the core of this story.
I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about this book.
The Last Train by Peter Bradley is a must-read for everyone.
Geramie Kate Barker
gemsbooknook.wordpress.com
It was only by accident that Peter as a child discovered that his father, Fred Bradley, was in fact born Fritz Brandes. And it was only after his father’s death in 2004 that Peter was able to begin to piece together the family’s story and set out on the journey – literally and figuratively – that forms the basis of his book.
Peter’s family were German Jews. In 1938, his father was imprisoned in Buchenwald in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. He was released the following spring when he was granted a visa to settle temporarily in the UK. He arrived in London in May 1939, aged 24, penniless and alone. But when the Nazis invaded France and the Low Countries in May 1940, he was arrested by the British as an ‘enemy alien’ and shipped to an internment camp in Canada. His parents’ fate was to be very different: they were deported by train from their home in Bavaria to Latvia, to the Riga ghetto and nearby camps, where they were murdered.
Peter felt a growing need not only to find out what had happened but also to try to understand why his grandparents’ fellow citizens had come to put them on that train. Of course, antisemitism was at the root. But where did it come from? And why did it continue virtually unabated after WW2 despite such graphic evidence of the horrors it had caused? Why is it resurgent today?
Such questions led Peter to the forests of Latvia where his grandparents died and to dig deeply into the ancient roots of this prejudice. This book tells the story of what he learned.’
This book was deeply moving.
I have a real interest in the Holocaust so as soon as I saw this book I knew I had to read it and thankfully it didn’t disappoint.
As I have read many books about the Holocaust I wasn’t expecting to be surprised by this book but I was. I am not used to having an author trace their family ancestry back so many generations in a story about the Holocaust. This history of Jewish persecution and suffering was something I hadn’t ever studied in depth; even though I knew it had happened, the detail that was included in this book was fantastic.
Reading about the aspects of political pressure and government policies; both in Nazi Germany and abroad was also something that I found really interesting. Getting a more in-depth look at all of the obstacles that were put in place globally to stop Jewish immigration from Germany was really heartbreaking. This is the sort of information that needs to be more known and spoken about.
Peter Bradley has done an amazing job with this book. It was equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking which made for a truly compelling reading experience. The writing was easy to follow and it radiated emotion from the pages. The detail he included in this book was perfectly woven into the deeply personal story of his family’s journey and suffering. And the inclusion of photographs gave faces, histories, and lives to the people and places that are the core of this story.
I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about this book.
The Last Train by Peter Bradley is a must-read for everyone.
Geramie Kate Barker
gemsbooknook.wordpress.com
June 29, 2025
This is one of the best books I have read recently. it tells the story of Peter's grandparents, German Jews, who were transported to Riga and killed there during WW2. It not only deals with the holocaust but examines anti-semitism over the centuries and to the present. Why were Jews hated and persecuted; how did the holocaust happen; why is anti-semitism on the rise again? This book doesn't have all the answers but it will ask you some questions that will make you think about your own beliefs and prejudices.
June 18, 2022
One family ‘s story tells so much
The telling of this history of one Jewish family ‘s experiences in Europe from the Middle Ages to the present day is done in a beautifully, haunting way.
History and the present day dangers of old conspiracy tales re-emerging- really bring home the lessons we should have learnt by now. It increases my ability and determination to challenge some of the current dangerous ideas I see people regurgitating. I think listening to it reading this will help anyone realise the dangers and inform themselves today.
But the main thing that I get from this book- is the resilience of people- as displayed though Peter’s family over centuries. Despite pogroms, de-possession and numerous humiliations- their spirits have stayed strong and the hope of things improving for the next generations has led them to keep going onwards- with hope and investment in life.
Truly inspiring and beautifully written as history and recent family experiences weave together.
The telling of this history of one Jewish family ‘s experiences in Europe from the Middle Ages to the present day is done in a beautifully, haunting way.
History and the present day dangers of old conspiracy tales re-emerging- really bring home the lessons we should have learnt by now. It increases my ability and determination to challenge some of the current dangerous ideas I see people regurgitating. I think listening to it reading this will help anyone realise the dangers and inform themselves today.
But the main thing that I get from this book- is the resilience of people- as displayed though Peter’s family over centuries. Despite pogroms, de-possession and numerous humiliations- their spirits have stayed strong and the hope of things improving for the next generations has led them to keep going onwards- with hope and investment in life.
Truly inspiring and beautifully written as history and recent family experiences weave together.
October 22, 2023
Extraordinary, understated in its delivery, powerful in its impact. It will linger in me.
January 28, 2023
Like most curious children who come upon closed trunks, Peter Bradley opened his father’s to look inside. It was a shock to learn that his father wasn’t born Fred Bradley; he’d been born Fritz Brandes. What other secrets were there? Bradley didn’t discover them until after his father died and the need to know grew.
Fred Bradley didn’t speak much of his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, his escape to England, and the disappearance of his parents. Peter Bradley was able to interview survivors who’d known his grandparents and father. In addition, there were documents that helped him trace the torturous journey of his grandparents from Germany to their final resting place. He tried to follow the route the train took which carried his grandparents and other relatives away.
I’ve read other books about the Holocaust, several by survivors like Elie Wiesel. The detailed brutality and inhumane treatment at the hands of Nazi oppressors made me sick. I thought this book was a little easier to read because Bradley was a generation removed and not a direct victim. He began the book with a history of antisemitism. He explained he might not have written the story but for the fact that he sees similarities to early 1930s Germany reappearing.
It's not an easy read but, for me, a necessary one.
Fred Bradley didn’t speak much of his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, his escape to England, and the disappearance of his parents. Peter Bradley was able to interview survivors who’d known his grandparents and father. In addition, there were documents that helped him trace the torturous journey of his grandparents from Germany to their final resting place. He tried to follow the route the train took which carried his grandparents and other relatives away.
I’ve read other books about the Holocaust, several by survivors like Elie Wiesel. The detailed brutality and inhumane treatment at the hands of Nazi oppressors made me sick. I thought this book was a little easier to read because Bradley was a generation removed and not a direct victim. He began the book with a history of antisemitism. He explained he might not have written the story but for the fact that he sees similarities to early 1930s Germany reappearing.
It's not an easy read but, for me, a necessary one.
January 13, 2023
This is a well-written history of the horror, degradation, murder, and dispersal of one German Jewish family due to the Nazi regime. Most is (sadly) familiar ground--the part that is not, and is compelling and horrifying, are the parts about what the average non-Jewish citizen knew or should have known about the Final Solution, despite all the claims to the contrary. The author makes it clear, in no uncertain terms, the enormous complicity and even outright participation, in the exile and murder of their Jewish countrymen and -women, as well as the theft of their possessions. Such a frightening book.
September 9, 2025
While heavily detailed at the beginning section of the book I had difficulty following the multitude of family names and connections. Perhaps you might do better
Once in the late 19th and 20th century section of the book, I found the reading less challenging due as much to my prior knowledge of the era as the content.
The author's following the footsteps of his family's journey during the holocaust was harrowing, but a rewarding read.
The author asks the question, how would one react if faced with a similar consequences of a racist situation. One would not really know till that time arrived I think, as does he.
Once in the late 19th and 20th century section of the book, I found the reading less challenging due as much to my prior knowledge of the era as the content.
The author's following the footsteps of his family's journey during the holocaust was harrowing, but a rewarding read.
The author asks the question, how would one react if faced with a similar consequences of a racist situation. One would not really know till that time arrived I think, as does he.
January 14, 2023
I don't often read a non fiction book but this one fascinated me. Having read it and learnt so much I strongly feel this book should be read by all adults.
I'm glad I read it even though in some places it felt too close to home and somehow too relevant to the current social make up of the human race. Basically, we are never more than one step away from another genocide. We all need to learn a lesson from this book.
I'm glad I read it even though in some places it felt too close to home and somehow too relevant to the current social make up of the human race. Basically, we are never more than one step away from another genocide. We all need to learn a lesson from this book.
April 20, 2023
I get it now. I often wonder how the Nazi were able to carry out their awful deeds. They were all in on it too. All the other European countries that the Nazi’s invades. Incredible. Well written. Like I was walking along with the author on his journey
January 11, 2023
This was an educational read. However it felt like I was reading a textbook for a history class, or the family tree off of Ancestry.
June 14, 2023
Astounding research; horrific facts.
April 25, 2024
A read part of this book but didn’t complete it.
October 8, 2024
Incredible
To follow this story of a family through terrible times is unputdownable. I was invited by it and will long remember these people and events
To follow this story of a family through terrible times is unputdownable. I was invited by it and will long remember these people and events
September 27, 2025
A well researched, heart wrenching account of the Holocaust and the prevalence of anti-Semitism in word history.
September 2, 2025
This book hit me like a freight train—I came in expecting a family memoir, but what I found was a seismic reckoning with history, faith, and moral choice.
Bradley peels back the layers not just of his grandparents’ fate, but of the haunting complacency and cruelty that let it happen. It’s deeply personal, weaving archival research with inherited grief—especially the silence that his father carried so long after survival. 
What cuts deepest is the way Bradley confronts the “why”: Why did neighbors turn a blind eye? Why did governments condemn hate in words, but deny sanctuary in deeds? And why, when his father finally escaped to Britain, was he treated like the enemy? 
This isn’t just memoir or history—it’s a challenge. Bradley leaves us with one brutal question: in today’s world, are we perpetrators, bystanders, or resisters? And how loudly are we choosing to act?
If you want a Holocaust book that holds your heart while demanding justice, this is essential reading. It lingers long after the last page.
Bradley peels back the layers not just of his grandparents’ fate, but of the haunting complacency and cruelty that let it happen. It’s deeply personal, weaving archival research with inherited grief—especially the silence that his father carried so long after survival. 
What cuts deepest is the way Bradley confronts the “why”: Why did neighbors turn a blind eye? Why did governments condemn hate in words, but deny sanctuary in deeds? And why, when his father finally escaped to Britain, was he treated like the enemy? 
This isn’t just memoir or history—it’s a challenge. Bradley leaves us with one brutal question: in today’s world, are we perpetrators, bystanders, or resisters? And how loudly are we choosing to act?
If you want a Holocaust book that holds your heart while demanding justice, this is essential reading. It lingers long after the last page.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews