Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

The stone crusher : the true story of a father and son's fight for survival in Auschwitz / Jeremy Dronfield.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Chicago, Illinois : Chicago Review Press Incorporated, [2018]Copyright date: ©2018Edition: First editionDescription: x, 388 pages : illustration ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781613739631
  • 161373963X
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Part I: Vienna -- "When Jewish blood drips from the knife..." -- Traitors to the people -- Part II: Buchenwald -- Blood and stone: Konzentrationslager Buchenwald -- The stone crusher -- The road to life -- A favorable decision -- The new world -- Unworthy of life -- A thousand kisses -- A trip to death -- Part III: Auschwitz -- A town called Oświęcim -- Auschwitz-Monowitz -- The end of Gustav Kleinmann, Jew -- Resistance and collaboration: the death of Fritz Kleinmann -- The kindness of strangers -- Far from home -- Resistance and betrayal -- Part IV: Survival -- Death train -- Mauthausen -- The end of days -- The long way home -- Epilogue: Jewish blood.
Summary: "In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer in Vienna, was arrested by the Nazis. Along with his 16-year old son Fritz, he was sent to Buchenwald in Germany, where a new concentration camp was being built. It was the beginning of a six-year odyssey almost without parallel. They helped build Buchenwald, young Fritz learning construction skills which would help preserve him from extermination in the coming years. But it was his bond with his father that would ultimately keep them both alive. When the 50-year old Gustav was transferred to Auschwitz--a certain death sentence--Fritz was determined to go with him. His wiser friends tried to dissuade him--"If you want to keep living, you have to forget your father," they said. But that was impossible, and Fritz pleaded for a place on the Auschwitz transport. "He is a true comrade," Gustav wrote in his secret diary, "always at my side. The boy is my greatest joy. We are inseparable." Gustav kept his diary hidden throughout his six years in the death camps--even Fritz knew nothing of it. In it he recorded his story, a tale of survival and a father-son bond which proved stronger than the machine that sought to break them both"-- Provided by publisher.Summary: "Along with his 16-year old son Fritz, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer in Vienna, was sent to Buchenwald in Germany, where a new concentration camp was being built. Gustav kept his diary hidden throughout his six years in the death camps--even Fritz knew nothing of it"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 940.5318 D786 Available 33111009229622
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Sophie Brody Award Honorable Mention



In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer in Vienna, was arrested by the Nazis. Along with his sixteen-year-old son Fritz, he was sent to Buchenwald in Germany, where a new concentration camp was being built. It was the beginning of a six-year odyssey almost without parallel. They helped build Buchenwald, young Fritz learning construction skills which would help preserve him from extermination in the coming years. But it was his bond with his father that would ultimately keep them both alive. When the fifty-year-old Gustav was transferred to Auschwitz--a certain death sentence--Fritz was determined to go with him. His wiser friends tried to dissuade him--"If you want to keep living, you have to forget your father," one said. But that was impossible, and Fritz pleaded for a place on the Auschwitz transport. "He is a true comrade," Gustav wrote in his secret diary, "always at my side. The boy is my greatest joy. We are inseparable." Gustav kept his diary hidden throughout his six years in the death camps--even Fritz knew nothing of it. From this diary, Fritz's own accounts, and other eyewitness testimony, Jeremy Dronfield has constructed a riveting tale of a father-son bond that proved stronger than the machine that sought to break them both.

"In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer in Vienna, was arrested by the Nazis. Along with his 16-year old son Fritz, he was sent to Buchenwald in Germany, where a new concentration camp was being built. It was the beginning of a six-year odyssey almost without parallel. They helped build Buchenwald, young Fritz learning construction skills which would help preserve him from extermination in the coming years. But it was his bond with his father that would ultimately keep them both alive. When the 50-year old Gustav was transferred to Auschwitz--a certain death sentence--Fritz was determined to go with him. His wiser friends tried to dissuade him--"If you want to keep living, you have to forget your father," they said. But that was impossible, and Fritz pleaded for a place on the Auschwitz transport. "He is a true comrade," Gustav wrote in his secret diary, "always at my side. The boy is my greatest joy. We are inseparable." Gustav kept his diary hidden throughout his six years in the death camps--even Fritz knew nothing of it. In it he recorded his story, a tale of survival and a father-son bond which proved stronger than the machine that sought to break them both"-- Provided by publisher.

"Along with his 16-year old son Fritz, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer in Vienna, was sent to Buchenwald in Germany, where a new concentration camp was being built. Gustav kept his diary hidden throughout his six years in the death camps--even Fritz knew nothing of it"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-373) and index.

Part I: Vienna -- "When Jewish blood drips from the knife..." -- Traitors to the people -- Part II: Buchenwald -- Blood and stone: Konzentrationslager Buchenwald -- The stone crusher -- The road to life -- A favorable decision -- The new world -- Unworthy of life -- A thousand kisses -- A trip to death -- Part III: Auschwitz -- A town called Oświęcim -- Auschwitz-Monowitz -- The end of Gustav Kleinmann, Jew -- Resistance and collaboration: the death of Fritz Kleinmann -- The kindness of strangers -- Far from home -- Resistance and betrayal -- Part IV: Survival -- Death train -- Mauthausen -- The end of days -- The long way home -- Epilogue: Jewish blood.

Powered by Koha