Portrait of a Young Forger: An Incredible True Story of Triumph over the Third Reich

By Marian M. Pretzel

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1877961604
• ISBN13: 9781877961601
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Knightsbridge Pub Co Trade
• Length: 343 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.9" x 3.9" x 3.9"

Customer Reviews

sobering read of Polish Jew and his wartime escape

Marian Pretzel was a young jew living in Lvov in Poland when war broke out in 1939. This is his story, and that of his family told with simplicity and without indulging in over-emotion. The bleakness of the observations make it extremely powerful and moving story. Pretzel tells of his life in Poland prior to the war, of the Russian invasion and his suddenly increased opportunities, and then the invasion of the Nazi's and the sudden increase in nastiness from the Polish who were once his friends and neighbours. Of bribery, blackmail, violence and the slow descent which eventually led the Jewish population to the concentration camps. Marian Pretzel got transported to a concentration camp nearby, but managed through luck and the interference of Simon Wiesenthal, to escape. On the run he realised that he could pass as an aryan and his forging skills and knowledge of the right stamps for various things allowed him to be fed, clothed and housed by the Nazis. This is the story of his wartime survival, but it is also tempered with the realisation at the time that despite his survival, thousands, if not millions of other Jews were suffering, starving, dying in cities and concentration camps. He says that the worst thing was the slow death which was wreaked on many, rather than a fast end. His story makes sobering reading. The guilt of survival has pursued him over the decades, that at times he has had to let his friends, and family go, simply because their will to survive was not greater than their will to remain where they were, or to do rash and idiotic acts which led to their demise. His sister Giza refused to accompany him into flight and did not survive, as many of his friends. Despite their parents already being shipped off to certain death. A well written memoir which makes disturbing reading. At the end of this I wonder how people can be so cruel - how could so many people act so inhumanly - and with people they already knew. I hope that the experiences from WWII remain with us, that everyone should learn and know what can be, that it never happens again.