Boy from Buchenwald [Hardcover]

It was 1945 and Romek Wajsman had just been liberated from Buchenwald, a brutal concentration camp where more than 60,000 people were killed. He was starving, tortured, and had no idea where his family was-let alone if they were alive. Along with 472 other boys, including Elie Wiesel, these teens were dubbed The Buchenwald Boys. They were angry at the world for their abuse, and turned to violence: stealing, fighting, and struggling for power. Everything changed for Romek and the other boys when Albert Einstein and Rabbi Herschel Schacter brought them to a home for rehabilitation
Romek Wajsman, now Robbie Waisman, humanitarian and Canadian governor general award recipient, shares his remarkable story of transforming pain into resiliency and overcoming incredible loss to find incredible joy.

Finalist for the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction
Winner of the 2022 the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize

Romek Wajsman,who changed his name to Robbie Waisman when he moved to Canada in 1949, is an accountant by training, a successful businessman, father, grandfather, and beloved international speaker on topics of the holocaust, healing, reconciliation, and forgiveness. He is particularly a powerful motivator of at-risk youth, with regular visits to First Nation reserves. Robbie, however, told no one about his past until the 1980s. At that time, Holocaust denier, James Keegstra, said that Jews were treacherous, subversive, and sadistic&and that they created the Holocaust to gain worldwide sympathy. Robbie felt it was his duty to speak up. Robbie has won numerous awards from universities, human rights organizations, community and Jewish groups around the world, and has been recognized by the German, American, and Canadian governments for his act