Soaring Underground: A Young Fugitive's Life in Berlin

by Larry Orbach, Vivien O. Smith, Vivien Orbach-Smith

Book Overview

Now in book form, this is the intensely moving first-person account of "the Auschwitz Memoirist's extraordinary manuscript" described in Philip Roth's Patrimony: A True Story. This is the true story... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0233990011
• ISBN13: 9780233990019
• Release Date: May 1996
• Publisher: Andre Deutsch Ltd
• Length: 320 Pages

Customer Reviews

What a Great Book!

We had to read a book for school on the Holocaust and I picked this book! Although it's an autobiography, it reads like a story - I couldn't put it down! It's definitely worth buying!

A great story about survival under the Nazis

The story is facinating and causes one to think what they might have done if faced with the same danger. Larry tells how he learned his lessons of life from others and how he entered adulthood under such trying circumstances; how important food and shelter was and how he was able to cope while exposed to maximum danger. It will make a great film when someone takes it to Hollywood.

Surviving the holocaust

I recently read this extemely moving biography.The author, Larry Orbach and his daughter, wrote an inspiring story about the life of a young German-Jewish teenager struggling to survive in Berlin.The reader can feel the gradual isolation of Larry, or Lothar, his original name. He and his family were loyal Germans and his father said that he would never leave Germany. After Larry's father dies in a concentration camp, he devotes himself to looking after his mother. What I found inspiring was Larry's accounts of friendship with some Germans who reached out to help him. His mother finds shelter with a Communist family who become close friends.The reader can feel Larry's growing isolation. The few friends he had couldn't stop him from being deported to Auschwitz, but they gave him loyalty and companionship. Larry has to keep moving to avoid being caught, and lives in a variety of places,including a brothel. Larry is very honest and does not to hesitate to relate the incidents where he took part in robberies etc. Some of the events are terrifying, but the book is full of hope. The book shows the reader the effects of both evil and goodness. I will remember all of these characters for a long time. The author describes his friends and enemies very clearly. I would highly recommend this biography.

A truly different account and a unique perspective

The autobiographic story of the young jew Lothar Orbach living in hiding during 1933-1945 in Berlin kept me up for two days. This book has everything that a "good read" needs: humanity, hope and humour as well as love and a great appreciation of life. But above all it is an exciting, unique description and a very different view of his and his family's tragic fate during those dark and evil days in Berlin. I was impressed by the openness of Larry's accounts. It is an important addition to the many books related to the Holocaust.

This book was so suspenseful I just could not put it down.

There are many Holocaust related books in print but 'Soaring Underground' is very unique. The perspective that the author shares about life on the run as a Jewish fugitive in Nazi era Berlin is rivetting. His words paint a suspenseful picture as he struggles for survival, not knowing whom he can trust, where he can hide or what fate has in store. His devotion to his mother's welfare is honorable, especially in a time and place where the rules of the 10 commandments were abandoned. Mr. Orbach's observations, adventures and escapes make for a book that readers will find impossible to put down and hard to forget.