"I had to start writing about the Holocaust" - remembering Holocaust survivor Bernard Gotfryd

''I had to start writing about the Holocaust. There was so much to tell that I didn't know where to begin, so I just sat down and tried to form the words" - Holocaust survivor Bernard Gotfryd (1924 - June 3, 2016).
Bernard Gotfryd's experiences during the Holocaust, which he began writing about one night in a Washington hotel room, after covering ceremonies at the White House honoring survivors of the Holocaust for Newsweek, form the basis of ''Anton the Dove Fancier and Other Tales of the Holocaust,'' a collection of 21 true stories.
Via @kirkusreviews: "From the theft of his family's hand-carved, finely crafted table before the war ("Theft of a Table") to his worshipful, unconsummated love for his contact in the Polish underground ("Alexandra");
from the unlooked-for protection of a Kapo at Majdanek ("Hans Burger #15252") to the heartrending loss of his mother during a deportation ("On Guilt");
from the terrifying hospitality of an SS man's family after his liberation ("An Encounter in Linz") to the painful, miraculous reunions with his brother and sister ("Reunions"),
Gotfryd allows the facts to speak for themselves.
Admitting the impossible nature of his task, he defines the edge of the abyss separating survivors from the rest of humanity. No overt artistry protects us from the relentless reality of events, and yet these tales have an austere beauty.
Gotfryd manages, through telling details, to remind us that heroes and villains, victims and victimizers, were, after all, flawed, imperfect human beings.
Gotfryd's unique point of view and unashamed passion for the truth of unadorned facts are a tribute to his integrity. A worthy contribution to the literature of witness.
#HolocuastEducation #PledgeToRemember