THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

Henry Orenstein was born on October 23, 1923 to Golda and Lejb Orenstein.  Henry had three older brothers, Fred, Felek and Sam, and a younger sister, Hanek.  The Orenstein’s lived in the town of Hrubieszow, first designated a town by the King of Poland, in 1440, with Jewish references since 1444.  By 1897, half of the population of Hrubieszow, were Jews.  Henry’s father, an educated and successful businessman, held the respect of Jews as well as Gentiles.  In Poland, the Constitution of 1919 made Jews almost full citizens for the first time in centuries.

In September, 1939, the Germans invade Poland and occupy western Poland; the Russians invade Poland and occupy eastern Poland. The Orenstein family debates escape to the Russian side; the women prefer to manage in Hrubieszow; the men decide to leave for the Russian side, trusting the German commanders, to keep order.

Life goes on as usual under the Russians, the boys attend school, but life was full of deprivation.  Hitler attacks Russia on June 22, 1941.  Life changes for everyone.  Food becomes more scarce; the Russians suffer severe military losses, the German’s move into eastern Poland subjugating the Jewish populations immediately.  The German enter the town of Wlodzimierz; Jews look on as the Ukrainians offer the soldiers flowers and bread.  The Orenstein men decide to return home to Hrubieszow, afraid the women were no longer safe alone.

Reports began to filter into the towns of atrocities committed against Jews.  Lucky Jews escape to tell the tale of horror that befell the Jews in their towns.  But most Jews, including the Orenstein’s, refuse to believe the terrifying rumors.  Some Jews, however, begin to hide from the Germans rather than show up for registration.

The Orenstein parents are captured; the siblings spend months in hiding, but are eventually rounded up and shipped to extermination camps.  The brothers, determined to survive, help one another, through the ordeals of roll calls, starvation, beatings, filth, disease, games of torture, and endless, horrific, cruelties; the brothers are transported from camp to camp.  Henry describes his ordeal when he was forced to work on the death squad, his duties, to gather and burn the dead bodies of his fellow Jews.

The three brothers, Fred, Henry and Sam, survive the war and finally join their Uncle Orenstein in New York on October 2, 1947.  Henry married, had children and became a successful businessman.

 

Clearly written, well described memoir of the horror of Nazi Germany.