Gone To Pitchipoi A Boy's Desperate Fight For Survival In Wartime [Hardcover]

This vivid and moving memoir describes the survival of a Jewish child in the hell of Nazi occupied Poland. Rubin Katz was born in Ostrowiec Zwitokrzyskie, Poland, in 1931. This town, located in the picturesque countryside of central Poland 42 miles south of Radom, had in 1931 a population of nearly 30,000, of whom more than a third were Jews. The persistence of traditional ways of life and the importance of the local hasidic rebbe, Yechiel-Meier (Halevi) Halsztok, as well as the introduction of such modernities as bubble gum, are clearly and effectively described here. This memoir is remarkable for the ability of its author to recall so many events in detail and for the way he is able to be fair to all those caught up in the tragic dilemmas of those years. It is a major contribution to our understanding of the fate of Jews in smaller Polish towns during the Second World War and the conditions which made it possible for some of them, like Rubin, to survive. This memoir is remarkable for the ability of its author to recall so many events in detail and for the way he is able to be fair to all those caught up in the tragic dilemmas of those years. It is a major contribution to our understanding of the fate of Jews in smaller Polish towns during the Second World War. . . . This is a gripping, dramatic tale, more riveting than the most powerfully vivid novel, since it is truth and not fiction. The author has a photographic memory, and the amazing details from his youthages 8 to 13are related in great pathos, anguish and eloquence. . . . Every Jew and every human being who wants to appreciate the bestiality of the Shoah must read this very important book. Katz, who now lives in London, was just eight when his education was interrupted and he embarked on a scarcely believable flight to survive, helped by extremely brave members of his family. . . . Few children would be capable, having been catapulted from [an idyllic childhood] into a life on the run, of living on theil3.