Šlomo Breznic Knihy

Zwischen der Perspektive des Kindes und des Erwachsenen wechselnd, erzählt Shlomo Breznitz die ergreifende Geschichte seiner Kindheit. Von seinen Eltern getrennt, durchlebt er in einem katholischen Waisenhaus alle vorstellbaren Schrecken eines verlassenen Kindes: Die Machtspiele seiner Klassenkameraden, die Borniertheit seiner Lehrer, die Hysterie der Schwestern und die Bedrohlichkeit des Nazi-Offiziers, der gelegentlich nach dem Rechten sieht. „Shlomo Breznitz hat das unendlich Schwierige bravourös vollbracht. Als Sechzigjähriger hat er sich zurückversetzt in seine jüngste Kindheit. Er erzählt seine Geschichte bruchstückhaft und doch akribisch und zu jeder Zeit spannend.“ (Chuzpe Frankfurt) „Ein intensiver, mitreißender Lebensbericht, der den Leser gefangenhält, noch lange nachdem er das Buch wieder geschlossen hat.“ (DIG-Magazin)

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Moving artfully and easily from past to present, from a child's perspective to an adult's, Shlomo Breznitz's many voices relate this poignant, gripping, and often terrifying memoir. Caught in Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust, Breznitz and his family moved from village to village until it became clear that there was no escaping the Nazis. Before they were sent to Auschwitz, however, Breznitz's parents persuaded the Sisters of Saint Vincent to take their two recently converted children into the convent's orphanage. Shlomo - called Juri - was just six years old. Separated from his parents and from his sister, Judith (the nuns segregated the sexes, and communication between them was rarely allowed), Juri recounts his often devastating experiences with the other orphans, the nuns, his teacher and classmates at the village school, the prelate and the mother superior, and the Nazi officers who periodically visited the orphanage. He describes his overwhelming feelings of isolation and loneliness, his persistent dread of being found out as a "stinking Jew" (constantly hiding his circumcision), his earnest determination to be a good Catholic, and the crushing sense of danger that loomed over him at every moment. Memory Fields, however, goes beyond its recollections of childhood. It speaks also for Breznitz the psychologist, as he explores the nature of cruelty and kindness, of stifling fear and outstanding courage, of memory and the ways in which it shapes our lives. In the last chapter of the book, almost fifty years later Breznitz returns to Czechoslovakia and revisits the places so vivid in his memory, in hopes of finding the nuns who saved his and his sister's life. A stunning and evocative story, beautifully told

Una storia incredibile, rocambolesca, drammatica e commovente, tutta assolutamente vera. La salvezza di una famiglia di ebrei slovacchi ad opera delle suore di un convento, raccontata dall'autore, attualmente professore di psicologia a New York e a Haifa in Israele, tornato nel suo paese di origine, il paese della memoria, dopo mezzo secolo, per incontrare una delle sue salvatrici. Breznitz arricchisce la memoria indelebile di quell'infanzia con le sue attuali competenze di psicologo e studioso dello stress.