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WORK TITLE: Survivors Club
WORK NOTES: with father, Michael Bornstein
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.debbieholinstat.com/
CITY: North Caldwell
STATE: NJ
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.debbieholinstat.com/about.html * 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; children: Jack, Katie, Ellie.
EDUCATION:Washington University, St. Louis, MO (graduated).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, television news producer, journalist, corporate media coach, educator, and public speaker. Producer for NBC and MSNBC. Speaker at schools. Freelance corporate media coach.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Debbie Bornstein Holinstat is a writer, news producer, media coach, and journalist. She has served as a producer for both NBC and MSNBC. She has been a writer and producer for noted journalists such as Lester Hold, Ashleigh Banfield, Suzanne Malveaux, and Natalie Morales. She has covered such stories as the 2000 presidential election, the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, and the military response to the terrorist attacks.
In addition to her work in journalism, she is also an educator who works with her father, Michael Bornstein, to tell his story of surviving the Nazi concentration Auschwitz. She frequently travels with him to schools and other locations for speaking engagements and educational workshops.
Michael Bornstein 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 Michael Bornstein and 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.
“Those survivors are passing on, and my dad has suddenly become acutely aware that he is left with this huge responsibility to ensure [that] the next generation understands the atrocities of the Holocaust—and never forgets,” Holinstat commented in an interview in School Library Journal.
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: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz, p. 34.
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 12, 2017, Della Farrell, “Debbie Bornstein Holinstat on Holocaust Survivor’s Club; 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
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, http://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.my/ (April 13, 2017), “Q&A with Debbie Bornstein Holinstat.
Debbie Bornstein Holinstat Website, http://www.debbieholinstat.com (October 16, 2017).
Debbie Bornstein Holinstat is Michael’s third of four children. A producer for NBC and MSNBC News, she lives in North Caldwell, New Jersey. She also visits schools with her father, and has been working with him for two years, helping him research and write his memoir, although she has grown up hearing many of these stories her entire life.
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.
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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
Debbie Bornstein Holinstat is Michael Bornstein’s third of four children. A producer for NBC and MSNBC News, she lives in North Caldwell, New Jersey. She also visits schools with her father, and has been working with him for two years, helping him research and write his memoir, Survivors Club, although she has grown up hearing many of the stories in the book her entire life.
Debbie Bornstein Holinstat on Holocaust “Survivors Club”
By Della Farrell on January 12, 2017 1 Comment
Photo courtesy of FSG Books for
Young Readers
See SLJ‘s review of Survivors Club
A little over a year ago, Debbie Bornstein Holinstat sat down with her father, Michael Bornstein, determined to chronicle the incredible story of his experiences living in Nazi-occupied Poland and surviving the Holocaust as a young child. The result: Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz (Farrar; Gr 6-8). SLJ chatted with Holinstat about her book, an SLJ January Popular Pick, and what students can gain from learning about the Holocaust.
How did this book come together?
I have wanted to help my dad [coauthor Michael Bornstein] write down his story for as long as I can remember. He always resisted talking about the Holocaust, though. He preferred to let survivors older than him, who remembered more details, carry the burden. Those survivors are passing on, and my dad has suddenly become acutely aware that he is left with this huge responsibility to ensure [that] the next generation understands the atrocities of the Holocaust—and never forgets.
I think being a grandfather to 11 grandchildren made the responsibility all the more real. His kids and grandchildren pushed and pressed and finally convinced him to talk.
The final push, though, came as we learned new information about his survival, via several Holocaust museums. We didn’t know how he managed to survive for half a year inside a death camp (Auschwitz) where the average lifespan of a child was just two weeks. When old paperwork was shared with us, the importance of telling his story suddenly seemed undeniable.
What was it like researching your family history?
As a TV news producer for MSNBC, I’m accustomed to researching people’s backgrounds, but digging up information on your own family history is a whole different ball game. We [listened] to old audio recordings and videotaped testimony. We were [also] granted access to a private diary written by one survivor who knew my dad and his family well. My mother and sister worked tirelessly to help research, and I spent weeks interviewing relatives and family friends. How can I describe what it felt like to tell my own dad that I had learned his father was a true hero who courageously saved dozens, if not hundreds, of lives?
It’s an incredibly moving account. What do you hope students will take away from your father’s experiences?
I have three kids, and my gut is always to be overprotective, but when it comes to learning about the Holocaust, honestly, I think students should feel horrified and shocked by historical accounts. I think readers should always remember the first Holocaust book they’ve read. No one should ever forget.
But we didn’t write Survivors Club to leave readers in fear—just the opposite. The book has a really uplifting ending, and I hope the [prevailing] message of optimism reminds students that even in the face of the most awful circumstances, hope can carry them a long way. My father’s family always clung to the saying, “This too shall pass.” Whether it’s bullying or academic struggles or anything students may face in their life, staying positive can legitimately help.
How can librarians and educators better educate students about the Holocaust?
I think it’s really important for students to understand that the Holocaust isn’t “ancient history.” The systematic killing of six million Jews happened just last century…some victims, like my father, still walk the earth today. Before the war his family lived a very happy, prosperous life like so many kids do today. His family worked, had parties, studied, and spent holidays together; they never imagined that what started as just hateful talk about Jews, could turn into a real-life effort to “exterminate” every Jew from an entire continent.
I also think it’s important to see the Holocaust through today’s lens. There is a rise of anti-Semitism, according to the American Defamation League. The ACLU points to an increasing tolerance for hate crimes against black people, Jewish people, gay people, and Muslim people. It doesn’t mean we’re headed straight for another Holocaust, of course. But it’s something for students to think about.
This article was published in School Library Journal's January 2017 issue. Subscribe today and save up to 35% off the regular subscription rate.
Debbie Holinstat has spent her career writing for some of the biggest names in broadcast news, including Lester Holt of NBC Nightly News, CNN's Ashleigh Banfield and the Today Show's Natalie Morales. She is also a freelance corporate media coach. But her greatest professional reward has come from writing alongside her own father, Michael Bornstein, as they collaborated on Survivors Club. When her dad gave her the go-ahead to share his history publicly, neither of them knew how many surprises remained to be learned about his survival. Debbie and her entire family take comfort in knowing that as firsthand Holocaust accounts from aging survivors fade away fast – this story will not.
Debbie did most of her writing in the middle of the night when her busy house filled with three kids, a husband and an adopted dog all slumbered. During the day, she spends much of her time freelancing at NBC and MSNBC news where she has been a producer for 17 years. Hired to cover the 2000 presidential election, Debbie spent her early years at MSNBC field-producing with Lester Holt and Suzanne Malveaux. When the election ended in a virtual tie, she raced to West Palm Beach to witness an historic “hanging chads” recount.
When the World Trade Center was struck by planes in New York City, Debbie sprinted downtown to meet a camera crew just as the towers collapsed. She spent months covering the terror attacks and the military deployment that followed. Field producing with Natalie Morales and other top NBC talent, she produced news packages that would air on NBC Nightly news, The Today Show and MSNBC rolling coverage.
Debbie currently lives in New Jersey and is a media coach. She also freelances part-time at Rockefeller Plaza, helping produce political news shows and juggling her unofficial role as “operations manager” for her children, Jack, Katie and Ellie. Once an education major at Washington University in St. Louis, Debbie now spends time in schools again, speaking regularly with her father about the Holocaust. They remind listeners to always look forward, but never forget.
Q. WHEN DID YOU AND YOUR FATHER BEGIN TO WRITE SURVIVORS CLUB?
A. When a well-known children’s book author named Sarah Mlynowski visited my children’s school in late 2014, I had the chance to speak with her one-on-one. In fact, Sarah is my sister’s cousin so we took her out to lunch while she was in town. I still remember my proud, big sister Lori saying, “Debbie is a great writer! She is going to help my dad document his history.” I was embarrassed – because I still hadn’t started working on the book I had promised myself, and my family, I would write. Survivors Club was still just an idea in our minds. Sarah encouraged me to dive in and get started. A few weeks later, in early 2015 – I set my New Year’s resolution and sat down with my father to officially begin writing Survivors Club.
Plans and research though, started earlier. When my nephew Jake was 13 and preparing for his Bar Mitzvah, he decided to make his "Mitzvah Project" about Holocaust education. He nudged his Papa to join him, speaking to peers and suddenly - my dad began to open up a bit. As a family, we started researching more and asking more questions. The genesis of this project - has been a slow evolution.
Q. WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO COLLABORATE WITH YOUR DAD ON THIS PROJECT?
A. Amazing. This journey has been incredible from start to finish. And it wasn’t just a “dad-daughter” project. My older sister helped track down leads on new information. My mom is a gifted researcher (aside from being my hero in every other way), my little sister is the cheerleader who listened when the project hit roadblocks and my big brother set up a massive speaking engagement in 2015– my father’s first event with an adult audience. My husband, a talented writer and lawyer, kept me honest when it came to grammar and my 11-year-old son screened chapters for me as I wrote them.
Q. DO YOU THINK THAT YOU AND YOUR SIBLINGS WERE AFFECTED IN ANY WAY, BEING THE CHILDREN OF A SURVIVOR?
A. From my perspective, no. My dad (alongside my incredible mom) – has gone out of his way to create a world for his children that has been filled with joy. There is, amazingly, no dark side. He never even liked us to see scary movies, and never enjoyed them himself. When I was traveling Europe for a month after college, I called home to say I would be visiting Auschwitz. My father begged me not to go. He was careful to shield us from such awful details our whole lives. I listened to him, but years later – my parents visited Auschwitz together. I guess my dad was finally ready to acknowledge that terrible, awful past – even as he continues to always focus on a happy future.
My older sister, however, says she always saw small markings of his past and it did have an impact. She remembers a time when she, as a moody teenager, didn't want my father to take her somewhere with her friends. My dad was devastated and felt as though she was embarrassed of him. Our mom explained that he had been through a lot in his life and was more sensitive than some dads. He was brutally bullied and treated as a second-class citizen during his early childhood and some of that never left him.
My sister also pointed out - my father is ever-careful with money and was ever-determined to seek the highest education for his children. "They can't take your education away from you," she recalls him saying over and over again. I guess I always saw him as a conservative dad. It didn't occur to me as a child, that the root of it came from my dad's dark past.
Q. WAS IT DIFFICULT TO WRITE ABOUT SUCH A TRAGIC TOPIC?
A. It was incredibly hard. My friends know I don’t even like to read sad books, let alone write them. Fortunately, Survivors Club has a pretty amazing ending.
I will admit I cried more than once during the writing process. As a mom, writing about the final farewells between parents and children was the hardest part. It was such a tragic time in history and yet, I tried really hard to make sure readers feel the thread of optimism that runs throughout my family’s history.
Q. WHY DID YOU WRITE TO A MIDDLE-GRADE AUDIENCE?
A. I have three kids of my own and when we began working on Survivors Club my oldest was ten. It was time to start talking about the Holocaust. My father has eleven grandkids, in all. We both wanted exactly the right tool to help kids fully grasp the horror, but also know the miracles that happened - large and small. In my family, there was no better story than that of their Papa. All of the grandkids encouraged him to talk at their schools and just - talk out loud about what happened to him as a child. We are very proud of him for being so willing to share this story with others.
Q. DO YOU PLAN TO WRITE MORE BOOKS?
A. Yes! I am already working on a second book, but this time – I am trying my hand at a novel. I cover so many interesting stories as a journalist and a combination of news stories has inspired this next book idea. It will have a lot of twists and turns, just like all those unbelievable accounts that haunt me after I leave the news station. But I can promise this much – it will have a very important moral. I am writing this next book so that my kids understand the power of the internet and the permanence of the online world.
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Q&A with Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
Debbie Bornstein Holinstat is the author, with her father, Michael Bornstein, of a new book for readers age 10 and up, Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz. She is a producer for NBC and MSNBC News, and she lives in New Jersey.
Q: Why did you and your father decide to write this book about his experiences during the Holocaust?
A: I've wanted to write this book for as long as I can remember. My dad was the holdout. He just didn't want to think about his past and he certainly didn't want to talk about it with his kids. He preferred that we grow up seeing the world through rose-colored glasses.
But recently something shifted in him. My dad started to realize that older survivors aren't here anymore to tell the stories of the Holocaust. He started getting pressure from his grandkids who pushed to hear their Papa's story (He really can't say “no” to the grandkids. They've got him wrapped around their fingers).
And there was something else. We found a Holocaust deniers' website that was using a photo of him at liberation to imply that Jews lied when they said children were killed on arrival at Auschwitz. Another photo of him was captioned: Pretty healthy kids for a "death camp."
That was an important reminder that it was time for my dad to talk.
Michael Bornstein, photo by Tania Michel Photographie
Q: Had he told you very much about his childhood before you started working on the book?
A: I've always known my dad was a survivor. He's my father. It's not like I could miss the blue tattoo on his arm. But did he talk to me about it? Not really. I knew he was in Auschwitz and that my grandmother would sneak bread to him to keep him alive.
When I was a teenager, my grandma Sophie (his mother) moved up to New Jersey. She was sick and elderly and at that stage, but she was very willing to share. I learned some stories then, even if my father didn't know we were talking about his past. I knew bits and pieces from other relatives too, but it was scattered information. I didn't have a cohesive picture of the past.
Q: What type of research did you need to do to write this?
A: Museums from Washington, D.C. to Jerusalem were incredibly helpful in providing documentation and photos. We found a collection of essays from survivors who knew my family that were printed in Hebrew. We had those translated and that provided incredible support.
I listened to countless hours of Shoah testimony from survivors who were in the Pionki Labor Camp at the same time as my father and his family and we accessed a diary shared by a relative who was in hiding after their hometown was liquidated.
Perhaps the most critical information, though, was shared with us by a family friend from Zarki, Poland named Marvin Zborowski. His brother Eli Zborowski (who founded Yad Vashem International) also wrote a book that supplied us with significant detail.
Q: What was it like for the two of you to collaborate on this book?
A: This has been the most incredible journey. There were some tough days. It's not easy to listen to your father talk about a childhood filled with starvation, degradation, malnutrition, sexual assault, bullying and loss. My heart broke a hundred times along the way.
But I'll never forget the day I first found research showing that Israel Bornstein was credited with saving many inside the Zarki ghetto. I got to tell my father that HIS father was a hero. That was an incredible day.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Shortly before the release of Survivors Club, I started working on a novel for middle grade readers that I hope will highlight the importance of using the internet responsibly. I hope it serves as a cautionary tale to students my own kids' ages.
I'll be honest though. Ever since the release of Survivors Club a few weeks ago, there hasn't been time for anything but book talks and TV, radio and print interviews. It's a wonderful problem to have! For now, new writing is on the back burner. I hope to return to that work soon.
I'm also hoping to get back to my freelance work at MSNBC news where I produce segments for live news shows a few days each week. It's a job I love!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: When we first wrote Survivors Club, we didn't know if it would just be something we kept for the grandkids. We were on the verge of self-publishing when we decided to send out just a few emails to potential agents. Within a week we had an agent (the incomparable Irene Goodman), and a bidding war between three mega publishing houses. It was such a crazy ride.
Looking back, I think the whole project was just fated. My dad stayed silent for 70 years and I always wondered why. Then he finally agrees to co-write this book and it finds an incredible publisher (FSG/Macmillan) and is released at a time when the country faces rising anti-semitism and signs of new discrimination everywhere.
It no longer seems like an accident that any of it happened now, or happened this way. We are reaching so many readers - from middle grade on up to adults - and my dad has closure.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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