Mendelevski's Box

by Roger Swindells

September 1945. Auschwitz survivor Simon Mendelevski, penniless and unkempt, returns to Amsterdam in a desperate search for his family, friends and neighbours. Simon meets two Dutch women, both of whom have also suffered. One, known to him before the war, is anxious to make amends for what she perceives as a failure by her fellow citizens to protect the Jewish population while easing the pain of her own loss. The other arrived in the city after the bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940 during which she lost a limb. He searches for the address where he and his Jewish family were hidden prior to their arrest by the Nazis   for anything tangible connected to his family, and for whoever betrayed them. Only after finding answers can he start to rebuild his life.  

312 pages, Hardcover

Published May 15, 2020

About the author

Roger Swindells was born and brought up in Grimsby in Lincolnshire moving to Ipswich Suffolk with his job as an officer of H.M.Customs and Excise before retiring after 37 years service.
Married to Lyn, a retired nurse, they have a son Matthew and two grand-daughters. He is an accomplished philatelist and life long fan of Grimsby Town FC , 'The Mariners'.
An avid student of 20th century Dutch history he always flirted with the idea of writing a Dutch based novel.
Following endless encouragement from his sister-in-law Sandra, a forty year love affair with The Netherlands in general and Amsterdam in particular and the discovery in the Dutch press of a story about a box of personal possessions found hidden in an Amsterdam house since WWII, he was inspired to write his first book, Mendelevski's Box winner of the bronze medal in the historical fiction genre in the prestigeous Readers Favourite 2020 competition