Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Survivors Club
WORK NOTES: with daughter, Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1940
WEBSITE: http://www.mbornstein.com/
CITY: New York
STATE: NY
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://us.macmillan.com/author/michaelbornstein/ * https://lectures.uiowa.edu/lectures/michael-bornstein/ * https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/72906-four-questions-for-michael-bornstein-and-debbie-bornstein-holinstat.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; wife’s name Judy; children: Lori, Scott, Debbie, Lisa.
EDUCATION:Fordham University (graduated); University of Iowa, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, memoirist, scientist, chemist, consultant, public speaker, educator, and researcher. Scientist and researcher in the pharmaceutical and life sciences field working for companies such as Dow Chemical, Eli Lilly & Co., and Johnson & Johnson; worked as director of technical operations; retired. Consultant in the pharmaceutical industry. Speaker at schools, synagogues, and businesses.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Michael Bornstein is a writer, memoirist, and retired researcher in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry. He worked as a scientist and researcher for major biotechnology companies such as Eli Lilly, Johnson and Johnson, and Dow Chemical. He served as director of technical operations with the central focus of his work on helping to develop life-saving antibiotics, growth hormone, and cancer treatments. Bornstein graduated from Fordham University and holds a Ph.D. in pharmaceutics and analytical chemistry from the University of Iowa.
Apart from his personal and professional accomplishments, Bornstein is noted as being among the few remaining survivors of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. He was only four years old when he was interned in the notorious death camp, along with his mother and other family members. He managed to survive for more than seven months in a place where the typical life expectancy of a child was about two weeks. His mother regularly shared her meager allotment of bread and soup with him, even though she was beaten for doing so. With her help, Bornstein managed to withstand the inhuman conditions of Auschwitz until the camp was liberated by Soviet soldiers in January, 1945.
In Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz, written by Bornstein and his daughter, Debbie Bornstein Holinstat, Bornstein recounts what he recalls of his time in Auschwitz, the liberation of the camp, and his long life in the years following his horrendous experience.
“I really never planned on talking about my experiences at Auschwitz,” Bornstein stated on the Michael Bornstein Website. However, a number of events finally compelled him to write the book. For example, he discovered that other members of his family had also had terrible experiences during the war. His children and grandchildren had been encouraging him to tell his story. Bornstein himself realized that he was part of a swiftly vanishing generation, and that the opportunity to tell an authentic account of what happened in Auschwitz was going to be gone soon. The final trigger, Bornstein revealed in a Publishers Weekly interview, was the use by a Holocaust denial site of a photograph was taken of Bornstein during the 1945 liberation. The deniers were using the photograph to discredit those who said that children didn’t survive for long, or at best were severely mistreated, in Auschwitz.
In the book, the authors describe Bornstein’s early life in the Polish village of Zarki. They recount how the family managed to live under Nazi occupation, but that eventually, the entire Jewish population was rounded up and sent to Auschwitz. They include recollections and stories of what happened to Bornstein and his family while they were in the camp and how they managed to survive. They also explain what happened after the war in Europe and around the world.
Bornstein’s “first-person narrative is a tenderly wrought tribute to family, to hope, and to the miracles both can bring,” commented Booklist contributor Briana Shemroske. Meghann Meeusen, writing in Voice of Youth Advocates, remarked that Bornstein’s “memoir is inspirational, with exceptional detail offering great insight into history and about the individuals who overcame so much to survive it.” In Publishers Weekly, a writer called the book a “moving memoir, an important witness to the capacity for human evil and resilience.” A Kirkus Reviews writer concluded: “In today’s world, it remains more important than ever to remember these survivors.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Bornstein, Michael and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat, Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz (memoir), Farrar, Straus and Giroux (New York, NY), 2017.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 1, 2017, Briana Shemroske, review of Survivors Club, p. 34.
Esquire, April 10, 2017, Zak Kostro, “One of the Last Living Holocaust Survivors Shares His Stories from Auschwitz,” interview with Michael Bornstein.
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2017, review of Survivor’s Club.
Publishers Weekly, January 16, 2017, review of Survivor’s Club, p. 63; February 28, 2017, Emma Kantor, “Four Questions for Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat,” interview with Michael Bornstein.
School Library Journal, January, 2017, Esther Keller, review of Survivor’s Club, p. 116.
Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2017, Meghann Meeusen, review of Survivors Club, p. 74
ONLINE
Michael Bornstein Website, http://www.mbornstein.com (October 16, 2017).*
Michael is one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz death camp. At the age of four, he managed to stay hidden and evade murder in the most notorious death camp in world history. Photos of Michael being liberated by Soviet soldiers at the camp have been spotted on museum walls, book covers and film clips around the world and yet he waited more than seventy years to step forward and share his story in the New York Times Bestselling Book, Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz.
He co-wrote Survivors Club alongside his third of four children, Debbie, who is a broadcast news journalist and a writer. Along the way, he and his family were stunned to uncover shocking new details about his survival that included a bribery scheme, untold acts of kindness by a German leader, and one perfectly-timed brush with illness.
Michael is a graduate of Fordham University in New York and holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics and Analytical Chemistry from the University of Iowa.
That’s where Mike met his wife of nearly fifty years, Judy. Together, they have raised four children and welcomed eleven grandchildren to their ever-growing family.
Michael is now retired after working for more than four decades as a scientist and researcher in a career that took him from Dow Chemical and Eli Lilly & Co. in Indianapolis to Biotech divisions of Johnson & Johnson in New Jersey. He rose to the rank of director of technical operations and focused the majority of his work on helping to develop life-saving antibiotics, growth hormone and cancer treatments.
In addition to occasional pharmaceutical consulting work, Michael now spends much of his time shuttling between New York and New Jersey alongside his wife as they visit grandkids’ science fairs, dance recitals and soccer games. He also speaks regularly at schools, synagogues and business institutions, sharing his experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust.
Four Questions for Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
By Emma Kantor | Feb 28, 2017
Comments
Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat.
For many years, Michael Bornstein, one of the youngest prisoners liberated from Auschwitz, at age four, was reticent about telling his survival story, even among his immediate family. But the discovery of a photograph of himself as a boy distorted in the hands of Holocaust deniers spurred Bornstein and daughter Debbie Bornstein Holinstat to set the record straight. Their middle grade memoir, Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz, brings together Michael’s first-person recollections and interviews with fellow survivors. The Bornsteins spoke with PW about the process of remembering and reconstructing a traumatic past, and the urgency of documenting the Holocaust for future generations.
Why did you feel compelled to share your story at this time?
Michael: Holocaust survivors are getting older and I think the story needs to be told. My daughter Debbie and I were searching for my photo and found a message from the Deniers Club.
Debbie: The Holocaust Revisionist Forum used my father’s photo to imply that Jews were liars when they said that children were killed on arrival [at Auschwitz]. They used the photo to show how healthy kids were at liberation.
Michael: When I saw that, I slammed my hand down. It’s ridiculous to make comments like that. Over one million people were killed in Auschwitz alone. But I guess they have an audience. The other reason is that my children and grandchildren implored me to talk about it more. When I came to the U.S., I could hardly speak English, and I had a tattoo, and I looked odd. Now my kids want to know more. I have four kids and 11 grandkids, and they all encouraged me to go on.
Debbie: He didn’t talk about it when he got here. He could’ve spoken about it when my siblings and I were growing up. I think he wanted to shelter me from the world’s atrocities. I think in some ways it was easier to forget.
Michael: My mother had a saying, “gam zeh ya’avor,” this too shall pass. Whenever things are bad we look forward to the future.
What was it like collaborating as father and daughter on such a personal and painful testimony?
Michael: Debbie is a fantastic writer. Between Debbie and my wife Judy and me, we found things from diaries, and translations in Hebrew, from relatives and friends. And it was a very good experience. One of the important things I found was information about my father. My father was president of the Judenrat—and was selected by the Nazis and the Jewish people to represent them. Though it was sometimes a very negative position, my father used it to save people. He set up soup kitchens. He was a very good man.
Debbie: It was very difficult to have these conversations with my dad and to see him struggle to find the words, and sometimes the memories. At the end, we’re both very happy we did this. At some moments, he had concerns—that putting out a book like this would make us a target for Holocaust deniers and anti-Semitism. But now the story is added to the record permanently. And we can’t forget, or history is bound to repeat.
RELATED STORIES:
More in Children's -> Authors
More in Authors -> Interviews
Want to reprint? Get permissions.
FREE E-NEWSLETTERS
PW Daily Tip Sheet
More Newsletters
How did the limitations of memory color your writing?
Debbie: There were places where I had to take some license to imagine how a conversation happened. Luckily we had enough pieces to put together the story of my father’s survival. My father had filmed my grandmother at the very end of her life talking about her experience. And we found writings, Hebrew essays, of what happened in the town of Żarki [in Poland] where they lived. We had them translated. They gave incredible detail of what happened to my father’s family—his family was prominent in the community. My father missed the death march because he was too sick to march. It was difficult. Sometimes it was me telling my father what had happened to him. Then he was able to fill in the gaps.
Michael: My mother told a story of what happened at Auschwitz. The normal survival rate for children was about two weeks. But I managed to survive. One reason was my mother. In the children’s bunk, the older children were also starving. They took my bread away. My mother came into my bunk, giving me some of her bread and soup. But she was beaten over the head. She showed us the marks on her forehead. There were other instances. When the Nazis came into Żarki, they had a whole family dig a grave. Then they had them huddle together and shot them and put them in the grave. It’s startling to imagine, but it happened.
Is there an appropriate age to introduce the history of the Holocaust to young people?
Debbie: I’m the mother of three kids. And this is the first time I’ve written a book. I had to trust Macmillan and the incredible people at FSG. And they felt it was suitable for middle grade readers. Kids need to hear about this when they’re young. They should be shocked and horrified, and it should be incomprehensible to a certain extent. They should never forget. I’ve since encouraged friends to show the book to their kids. It opens up difficult but important conversations. My son was 10 when I started writing. I used him as a sounding board to make sure the words were digestible for middle grade readers, but also that the concepts were digestible. That also makes it a quick, fluid, and digestible read for adults.
Michael: Especially with the current politics going on, and the alternative right, the book is very timely. Adults seem as interested as children in the message and the information.
Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz by Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99 Mar. ISBN 978-0-374-30571-0
Michael Bornstein survived for seven months inside Auschwitz, where the average lifespan of a child was just two weeks. Six years after his liberation, he immigrated to the United States. Michael graduated from Fordham University, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, and worked in pharmaceutical research and development for more than forty years. Now retired, Michael lives with his wife in New York City and speaks frequently to schools and other groups about his experiences in the Holocaust.
Michael is one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz death camp. At the age of four, he managed to stay hidden and evade murder in the most notorious death camp in world history. Photos of Michael being liberated by Soviet soldiers at the camp have been spotted on museum walls, book covers and film clips around the world and yet he waited more than seventy years to step forward and share his story.
He wrote Survivors Club alongside his third of four children, Debbie, who is a broadcast news journalist and a writer. Along the way, he and his family were stunned to uncover shocking new details about his survival that included a bribery scheme, untold acts of kindness by a German leader, and one perfectly-timed brush with illness.
Michael is a graduate of Fordham University in New York and holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics and Analytical Chemistry from the University of Iowa.
That’s where Mike met his wife of nearly fifty years, Judy. Together, they have raised four children (Lori, Scott, Debbie and Lisa) and welcomed eleven grandchildren to their ever-growing family.
Michael is now retired after working for more than four decades as a scientist and researcher in a career that took him from Dow Chemical and Eli Lilly & Co. in Indianapolis to Biotech divisions of Johnson & Johnson in New Jersey. He rose to the rank of director of technical operations and focused the majority of his work on helping to develop life-saving antibiotics, growth hormone and cancer treatments.
In addition to occasional consulting work, Michael now spends much of his time shuttling between New York and New Jersey alongside his wife as they visit grandkids’ science fairs, dance recitals and soccer games. He also speaks regularly at schools, synagogues and business institutions, sharing his experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust.
Q. WHY WRITE YOUR STORY NOW?
A. I really never planned on talking about my experiences at Auschwitz. I was only four years old when I arrived and I remember very little. That's a blessing, I'm sure. And I truly remember nothing of my life in the ghetto before Auschwitz. But about two years ago on a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Israel, an archivist showed us a document that really took my breath away. It had a surprising detail about my survival. I also gained access to a private diary and a collection of essays that specifically reference my family and I was even more stunned by what we found.
My kids and grandkids encouraged me to start sharing my memories and also, what I had learned. They are very persuasive. I guess I trained them well! Plus, each year there are fewer and fewer survivors who can share their stories firsthand. I now feel a responsibility to talk. I've found it not only rewarding, but also very cathartic. There is some closure.
Q. DO YOU EVER HAVE NIGHTMARES ABOUT THOSE DAYS?
A. When I was in grade school, I had one vivid nightmare that kept coming to me night after night for a very long time. I dreamed I was in a factory and I was being made into soap. I never knew why I had that specific nightmare, but I recently learned there was speculation that the Germans turned the fat from murdered Jews into soap in the camps. It must have been something I was aware of in some way. It's the only way I can explain the nightmare.
Every now and then as an adult, something will trigger other memories. When one of my kids took German in high school and I visited the class for "back to school night", the teacher's thick German accent triggered some memories and I got very upset. Recently, I saw the broadway musical "Fiddler on the Roof" with my wife and there was a scene where the Jewish characters had to pack up their homes in a rush and leave their community behind. I was surprised that bad memories rushed back in again.
Mostly though, I focus on the positive. I have a lot to be happy and grateful about - especially when I look at my family, I just feel lucky.
Q. YOU SPEAK REGULARLY AT MIDDLE-SCHOOLS AND HIGH SCHOOLS NOW. WHAT MESSAGE DO YOU TRY TO CONVEY?
A. Like all survivors, I hope that no one ever forgets what happened in 1939 Europe. I hope that no one ever forgets what can happen when evil goes unchecked. But I also think there are really important lessons to be learned, that can be applied even in small ways, to everyday life for students. I was bullied after the war because I had no hair from malnourishment. We had no money and no means. I learned to focus on the future and hold hope that things would get better. Hard days happen - especially for middle-grade children. But if you believe that everything will get better, then it will.
We got help from Jewish aid organizations and American charities and that help meant everything to us. The message is... have hope when you need help, and help other people when they need hope. I guess that's what students can really learn from my story.
Q. DO YOU PLAN TO WRITE ANY MORE BOOKS?
A. I'll probably leave the book-writing to my daughter and co-author Debbie from here on out. I had one important story to tell and I'm glad to have told it in print. Debbie's the real writer in the family. Did I mention she's an incredible writer? While I'm at it, did I mention that my daughter Lori and my son Scott are terrific attorneys? And my daughter Lisa is a star in the financial industry? My wife Judy and I are just a little bit proud. I guess you probably shouldn't ask me about my eleven grandkids. I've got a lot to say about them...
One of the Last Living Holocaust Survivors Shares His Stories From Auschwitz
Why it took Michael Bornstein 70 years to start talking about his childhood.
By Zak Kostro
Apr 10, 2017
342
More From Books
Book Covers Were a Lot Scarier in the '80s
The Best Books of 2017
How to Score to a 7-Figure Book Deal
For most of his life, Michael Bornstein preferred not to talk about how he managed to survive seven months as one of the youngest prisoners of Auschwitz, where the average child his age survived only two weeks. But 70 years later, after a series of stunning revelations—including a document he discovered at a museum in Israel and a rare piece of World War II footage used in the 1981 movie The Chosen, in which he recognized his own face—Bornstein changed his mind.
In Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz, Bornstein and his daughter Debbie Bornstein Holinstat shine light on what happened to one Polish village in the wake of the German invasion in 1939. Working from Bornstein's own memories, as well as meticulous archival research and extensive interviews with relatives and other survivors, they offer a wrenching, shocking, and ultimately inspiring memoir, a tale of unrelenting optimism and resilience that is no less than miraculous.
In light of a recent surge in anti-Semitic acts throughout the U.S., and at a moment when the country finds itself increasingly divided along lines of race, class, sexual orientation, religion and political leanings, the book is hauntingly timely. And while Debbie stresses that she and her father didn't write Survivors Club with a political agenda in mind, Michael hopes it will open readers' eyes to parallels between a grim past and chilling present and, as he says, cause them to "wake up."
Michael Bornstein was inspired to document his harrowing journey when he realized that history was at risk of being forgotten.
MICHAEL BORNSTEIN: There were a number of revelations. One of them is a [Holocaust] deniers' website that really made me mad, because they looked at my picture on the front of the book and they said, "This kid looks great; the Holocaust wasn't so bad." That's what they implied. The other one is that survivors are getting older, and it's time to make a stand and mention some of the things that I've been through. And the third thing is, I have eleven grandchildren and they wanted to know more, and they implored me to discuss that with them.
Most of Michael's memories from Auschwitz live most strongly in his senses; others he had to fill in through archival research and conversations with other survivors.
MB: I was four years old, so it's difficult to remember everything. I seem to remember the smell of the ovens and burning flesh. I seem to remember Nazis marching. And when I go into a subway in New York City and it's very crowded, I seem to remember being crowded in a cattle car, going to Auschwitz, and thinking how bad that was. Debbie tried to fill in some of the things from memories, from diaries, translations from Hebrew, and talking to other survivors. As one example, we have a family member who lived behind us in Żarki, Poland, the town I was born in, and he told us the story about being on a work crew. He was about 15 years old, and one day he was very sick, he couldn't get up to march and work, and the Nazis came in, put a pillow over his head, took him to jail, and they were ready to execute him, and my father came in, bribed the Nazis, and saved his life.
A perfectly timed illness saved him from a death march.
MB: One of the pieces of information that was available at [the World Holocaust Remembrance Center] Yad Vashem is my tattoo number and the fact that I was in the infirmary when the Nazis had a death march. The Nazis were losing the war and they wanted to get rid of "remnants." My grandmother took me to the infirmary—which was kind of a makeshift infirmary that the Nazis had in case the Red Cross came in—and she hid me there. And it's a miracle that we went there instead of going on the death march because we surely would have died… There are a number of other miracles. My mother came to the children's bunk—she was in Auschwitz at first—and I was four years old. There were older kids that were starving, too. They took my bread away, and my mother came in, daily, to the children's bunk—she was beaten over the head for doing it—and gave me some of her bread and smelly soup.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
More From Books
Sex, Drugs, and Disco at Studio 54
Karl Ove Knausgaard: 3 Books That Changed My Life
Patti Smith Remembers Sam Shepard
I should have been dead. I should have been dead a number of other times. We were in Żarki ghetto, we were in Pionki ghetto in Auschwitz, where the survival rate for young children is about two weeks, and I managed to survive Auschwitz for close to seven months.
Soviet soldiers captured this image of Bobeshi, Michael's grandmother Dora (center), carrying him out of Auschwitz in 1945.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
In the process of working on Survivors Club, Debbie learned that her father's liberation from Auschwitz was in no way the end of his struggles.
Debbie Bornstein Holinstat: When we got through the Auschwitz chapters, I thought the worst was over. I thought, OK, deep sigh, the war is over, we can start talking about the good years. I actually did not know how hard it was for my father when he got to Munich. I knew that he was malnourished, still—my grandmother talked about getting him medical care. She's told us all these stories about how skinny he was and he had no hair, and we've seen the photos. I had no idea how ruthlessly he was bullied. I did not know he was sexually assaulted. I didn't know that he cried himself to sleep at night because he thought that his mother would be arrested and would never come home, for selling goods on the black market. There was so much more to find out that was horrifying beyond what I already knew. It was a difficult journey.
"It's unbearable to know that your father is an important character in history—like, he has a piece of history, and yet you only know one tiny little portion of it."
Growing up, Debbie and her siblings had a burning desire to know about what her father had gone through. But for a very long time, he didn't want to think about such an awful past.
DBH: It's unbearable to know that your father is an important character in history—like, he has a piece of history, and yet you only know one tiny little portion of it. It was really frustrating, and there was a period where I kind of gave up. There were years where we asked questions, my siblings and I, and asked and asked and we would always get the same answer. "Well, I don't know what I remember and what I think I remember," which my father still says, and that's OK. But there was more to learn, and he really didn't want us digging. My father mentioned he didn't even want me to go visit the Auschwitz death camp when I was traveling in Europe. It was so important for me to go, but he doesn't usually put his foot down. I called him collect from a payphone—I was 18—and told him I was going to Auschwitz the next day, and he literally begged me, "Deborah, please—I don't ask for much. I'm asking you not to go." And I didn't. I respected that. But it was very frustrating to be shielded from something that I felt was important to know, and I'm really proud now to know that my father so readily speaks about it.
It's incredible now to see the journey he's come on. The other day we were in Washington, D.C., for a taping, and at a restaurant, the waiter said, "Oh, what are you doing in town?" and we told him we were there for, you know, "We have a book coming out," and my dad rolled up his shirt sleeve and showed his tattoo, and that's something that he wouldn't have done 10 years ago.
Debbie will never forget the day she heard that her grandfather—Michael's father, Israel Bornstein—saved many lives. And she hopes his choice to risk his life and help others resonates for modern readers.
DBH: The most incredible revelation to me was the day I heard the words, "Israel Bornstein saved many lives—many people alive today credit their survival to Israel Bornstein." I got to call my father, run to his house, and tell him that his father was a hero. That was an incredible moment and something that made the whole process worth it, all the hard conversations about Auschwitz and Munich, kind of worth it for me. When you put it into today's perspective, I just think it's a good reminder to be an "upstander," you know? To be not a bystander.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
More From Books
Errol Morris: 3 Books That Changed My Life
An Excerpt from Matthew Klam's 'Who Is Rich?'
Scaachi Koul In Conversation With Josh Gondelman
None of us know which character or which family member we'd be in the book, if we were there at that time, but I would like to think that I was somebody who took risks to save other people's lives. My grandfather could have only looked out for himself or his immediate family and he made a conscious choice—maybe unconscious choice—to help others, and I think it's important, maybe today more than ever, that people remember to stand up not just for themselves but for other people when they see discrimination or mistreatment.
Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
Tanie Michel Photographie
Michael and Debbie didn't write Survivors Club with any kind of agenda, but at the very least, they hope it will help people "wake up" and remember compassion.
MB: This is a good time to release Survivors Club, with the political situation, the anti-Semitism that's going on, desecration of cemeteries and so forth. It's time to make people understand that [survivors of the Holocaust are] normal people. We went through a lot, but we don't like discrimination, whether it's against Jews, whether it's against Muslims, Mexicans, whatever the case might be. They can be subjected to the same kind of discrimination that Jews were in Germany, in Poland, and other European countries, so I'm hoping that this book, being so timely, that people read it and understand that they need to wake up and do something about the discrimination that's ongoing in the world.
DBH: We didn't write it for that reason, ironically, and, yet, here we are, releasing it at a time when stories of discrimination make headlines every single day in the news. I am so hopeful that this book makes a difference, you know and, maybe, sometimes I think that these stories that weren't meant to preach or tell a story like that are the best ways—you just accidentally read a story about something that happened to a boy, and you realize, wake up. You cannot treat people, you cannot allow people to be treated the way, you know, Jews were treated before the war started, in 1939. And, as my father says all the time, where is the compassion? The world needs to remember compassion.
When Debbie and Michael started writing Survivors Club, they envisioned an endpoint. In a word, it was optimism. Or, as Michael says, "things can get better."
MB: What I'm hoping, and what I think we got out at the end of the book, is to show optimism—things can get better. "Gam zeh ya'avor." Continue to show optimism, and other groups, not just Jewish people, will learn from this and be better off from this.
DBH: When we sat down, it was important to both of us to make sure that there was a thread of optimism that ran throughout because there's a thread of optimism that runs throughout my dad's entire life. I think we stayed on course with that. I'm a little surprised by how hard it was and how many twists and turns there were to actually get to that ending. I knew what the ending was—you know, I know my family, now, today. I know my father. But, yeah, I think I learned a lot just by learning about the woman with the swastika necklace, for instance—I learned that you can't always take people at face value, or make snap judgments about people. I learned lessons along the way, again, about being an upstander. I learned lessons that I didn't anticipate I would learn.
Bornstein, Michael, and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz
Meghann Meeusen
40.1 (Apr. 2017): p74.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
4Q * 4P * M * J * S * NA
Bornstein, Michael, and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz. Farrar Straus Giroux/Macmillan, 2017. 352p. $16.99. 978-0-374-30571-0. Table of Contents. Photos. Glossary. Source Notes.
In this heartbreaking account, Holocaust survivor Michael Bornstein relates his harrowing experience trapped and persecuted by the Nazis in his Polish village of Zarki, from which he is taken to Auschwitz at only four years old. With the help of his daughter, Bornstein was inspired to speak out about the tragedy of his past when he saw those horrors--a photo of himself leaving Auschwitz--manipulated by a website claiming the Holocaust a lie. The result is a stunning memoir based on countless interviews and filled with unique perspectives. For example, Bornstein tells of his father, made village "Judenrat" and forced into a role of horrible responsibility to decide others' fates, and baby Ruth, hidden away so young that she struggles to recognize her parents when they return for her.
Yet the most memorable part of this extraordinary nonfiction work is the hope amidst tragedy and the ways individuals and families banded together despite unimaginable odds, including the challenges to rebuild after breaking free from the concentration camps only to find a world still filled with hatred and fear. Bornstein's story is also a tale of chance, highlighting that the difference between life and death was often the most unexpected sources, like the illness that kept Bornstein in the Auschwitz infirmary when most others were marched to their death. The memoir is inspirational, with exceptional detail offering great insight into history and about the individuals who overcame so much to survive it.--Meghann Meeusen.
QUALITY
5Q Hard to imagine it being better written.
4Q Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses.
3Q Readable, without serious defects.
2Q Better editing or work by the author might have warranted a 3Q.
1Q Hard to understand how it got published, except in relation to its P rating (and not even then sometimes).
POPULARITY
5P Every YA (who reads) was dying to read it yesterday.
4P Broad general or genre YA appeal.
3P Will appeal with pushing.
2P For the YA reader with a special interest in the subject.
1P No YA will read unless forced to for assignments.
GRADE LEVEL INTEREST
M Middle School (defined as grades 6-8).
J Junior High (defined as grades 7-9).
S Senior High (defined as grades 10-12).
A/YA Adult-marketed book recommended for YAs.
NA New Adult (defined as college-age).
R Reluctant readers (defined as particularly suited for reluctant readers).
(a) Highlighted Reviews Graphic Novel Format
(G) Graphic Novel Format
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Meeusen, Meghann. "Bornstein, Michael, and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz." Voice of Youth Advocates, Apr. 2017, p. 74+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA491949558&it=r&asid=3eca81f15819b9b1c7c129bb9837bd04. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491949558
Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz
Briana Shemroske
113.11 (Feb. 1, 2017): p34.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz.
By Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat.
Mar. 2017. 352p. Illus. Farrar, $16.99 (9780374305710). 940.53. Gr. 5-8.
In 1940, Michael Bornstein was born in Zarki, Poland--then a Nazi-occupied ghetto. In 1944, Michael and his family arrived at Auschwitz. Miraculously, in 1953, Michael celebrated his bar mitzvah in New York City. Here, with the help of his television news producer daughter, he recounts the spectacular story of his survival. The duo chronologically document the Germans' ruthless occupation--and eventual liquidation--of Zarki; the Bornsteins' compulsory stint at an ammunitions factory; their tragic trek to Auschwitz; and the aftermath of the war in a land ruptured by unconscionable brutality and bigotry. But this account is shaped less by events than it is people: Michael's father, Israel, with his dangerous devotion to a crumbling community; Michael's infinitely courageous Mamishuc; his ever-resilient grandmother; and his stubbornly spirited slew of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Sprinkled with Yiddish and appended by an informative afterword, captioned photos, and brief glossary, the first-person narrative is a tenderly wrought tribute to family, to hope, and to the miracles both can bring. A powerful memoir for the middle-grade set.--Briana Shemroske
Shemroske, Briana
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Shemroske, Briana. "Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz." Booklist, 1 Feb. 2017, p. 34. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA481244842&it=r&asid=b41f5457a7b66f59ef18ea2eb7400d0c. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A481244842
Bornstein, Michael: SURVIVORS CLUB
(Jan. 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Bornstein, Michael SURVIVORS CLUB Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Children's Nonfiction) $16.99 3, 7 ISBN: 978-0-374-30571-0
Michael was only 4 when he miraculously survived the liberation of Auschwitz in January 1945.Filmed by Soviets liberating the camp, he saw his image years later, but he was not ready to tell his story until he saw his picture on a Holocaust-denial website. He enlisted his daughter, a TV journalist, to help him uncover further information and to co-author this book. In the preface, Holinstat writes: "we tried to keep the book as honest as possible. While the underlying events are entirely factual, there is fiction here." The father-daughter pair found documents, diaries, and survivors' essays to supplement the limited memories of a very young child, and they write about this process in the preface. The first-person narrative begins with the events of September 1939, even though Michael was not born until May 1940, which feels artificial. Horrific as the experience was, the Auschwitz chapters are just part of Michael's journey. Living in an open "ghetto" in his hometown, moving to a forced-labor camp, then to the extermination camp where his older brother and father die, returning home where Jews are not welcomed, and then living in Munich as a displaced person for six years until he can emigrate to the United States with his mother, the chronicle of Bornstein's first 11 years parallels the experiences of many other surviving victims of the Final Solution. In today's world, it remains more important than ever to remember these survivors. (afterword, photos, characters, glossary) (Memoir. 11-14)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Bornstein, Michael: SURVIVORS CLUB." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475357364&it=r&asid=2633c6bb4df67fd2d61eecf1d0f332f2. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A475357364
Bornstein, Michael & Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz
Esther Keller
63.1 (Jan. 2017): p116.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
BORNSTEIN, Michael & Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz. 352p. ebook available, glossary, photos. Farrar. Mar. 2017. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780374305710. POP
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Gr 6-8--Middle schoolers will be engrossed by Bomstein's account (written with the help of his daughter) of his and his family's survival during the Holocaust. Bornstein was born in the town of Zarki, Poland, which had largely become a Jewish ghetto after the Nazi invasion. For years, his parents survived through bribery and good fortune, but ultimately they, along with the entire Jewish population of the town, were sent to concentration camps (the Bornsteins to Auschwitz, specifically). When the Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz, Bornstein was four years old and accompanied only by his grandmother. (His father and brother were dead, and his mother was presumed dead.) Tire remaining Bornstein clan would eventually immigrate to the United States. The book is written in a soothing tone, which helps balance some of the grim details of Jewish life under the Nazi regime. In the preface, Bornstein explains why he chose to finally chronicle his experiences (a picture of him during the camp's liberation was being used by Holocaust deniers). The storytelling is fast-paced, and readers will be fascinated by this family's survival and endurance. VERDICT Few Holocaust survivors are still alive; Bornstein's account is an excellent addition to middle school collections.--Esther Keller, I.S. 278, Brooklyn
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Keller, Esther. "Bornstein, Michael & Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz." School Library Journal, Jan. 2017, p. 116+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA476559710&it=r&asid=5aadc72e685c47ec7f3452e43a8660c5. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A476559710
Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz
264.3 (Jan. 16, 2017): p63.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz
Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-374-30571-0
After Bornstein discovered an image of himself as a child and other young Auschwitz survivors being used as Holocaust-denying propaganda, he resolved to research his history and share his memories. Assisted by his daughter Debbie, a news producer, he learned that out of 3,400 Jews living in Zarki, Poland, before the Holocaust, fewer than 30 survived, almost all from his family. Enhanced by meticulous archival research, Bornstein's story unfolds in novelistic form, beginning with the arrival of Nazi soldiers in Zarki in 1939-Through the retelling of harrowing eyewitness stories, the authors recount the increasing degradation, deprivation, and terror of Zarki's Jewish citizens, and the courageous attempts of Bornstein's father to save many neighbors from death. Bornstein's family's fight for survival included his aunt and uncle leaving their three-year-old daughter at a Catholic orphanage while hiding in a neighbor's attic; in Auschwitz, Bornstein's mother hid him in her barracks. The story of a silver kiddush cup, which Bornstein's father buried and his mother recovered after the war, bookends this moving memoir, an important witness to the capacity for human evil and resilience. Ages 10-14. Agent: Irene Goodman, Irene Goodman Literary. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz." Publishers Weekly, 16 Jan. 2017, p. 63. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA478405356&it=r&asid=5995897e89b9bb11b78ab5217679b22e. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A478405356