The 23rd Psalm: A Holocaust Memoir

by George Lucius Salton and Anna Salton Eisen

Book Overview

In September, 1939, George Lucius Salton's boyhood in Tyczyn, Poland, was shattered by escalating violence and terror under German occupation. His father, a lawyer, was forbidden to work, but... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299179745
• ISBN13: 9780299179748
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.7" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Survivor Skills Then, Courage Now

It must have taken the author a great deal of inner strength and pain to come to terms with these horrible happenings and be able to put them down on paper to share with all those that read this book. It was amazing that one so young would be quick enough to call on survival skills at the right moment. Though some, of course, was luck, this author displayed a natural instinct to survive throughout his nightmare.

Personal and eye-witness accounts

The 23rd Psalm: A Holocaust Memoir is the chilling personal testimony and memoir of the daily life of George Lucius Salton, a Jewish man who survived the living hell of a Nazi concentration camp. An intense, gripping tale of hatred and power used as a brutal club to perpetrate atrocity, and the author's witness and narration of the unspeakable, The 23rd Psalm is an welcome and invaluable contribution to the growing library of Holocaust Studies. Providing powerful refutations of anti-semitic revisionist historians, these personal and eye-witness accounts are all the more significant in view of the holocaust generation now reaching an age where they are rapidly passing from among us.

Heartbreaker and history maker

An incredible, heartbreaking and courageous story of the struggle to survive the Nazi reign of terror. I couldn't put the book down as I read of the authors early years, suffering in 10 concentration camps and ultimate liberation by American soldiers! A must read for history buffs and anyone interested in the power of the human spirit to survive tragedy. The characters in the book will continue to live on in my memories.

an endearing, emotional and inspiring story

I really was touched by this book, it's the story of a boy who life is ripped apart, who faces tribulations that most of us can never imagine and who emerges as a testiment to our ability to survive and succeed. It was spellbinding, calling for constant attention in my waking hours and invading my dreams at night. The writing invokes intimations of our childhood -- the things we hold close, the family we take for granted all takes on a new significant meaning. The authors idyllic childhood life is displaced with feelings of helplessness, frustration and despair. The inability to change the course of the his life, and the profound sense of loss he feels is one we can all relate to, a kind of existentialist nightmare. But his ability to retain his connection with what is human and good remains a beacon of life that transcends the darkness and transforms this story into one of great emotional beauty. This is a must read for everyone...

A moving tale

This book captures you, your heart and mind, in its honesty and realism. It brings you through the dark passage of a young teenager from a small village in Poland, through the ghetto, into the concentration camps and to light of liberation. This book brings you into the storm, not as a mere observer of history; it engages your heart in its complete honesty. George Salton does not portray this path with the hindsight of history, rather throughout his journey he maintains his perspective as he experienced the coming storm. Neither he nor his family knows that they have entered into the valley of death. They hold onto hope of an end to their suffering like a life raft. The reader's own knowledge of the unfolding Holocaust makes the innocence and naivety of Salton and his fellow inmates so much more heartbreaking. Most important, Salton recalls the fragments of his fellow Jews' humanity that survive the fire of the terrible hell that was the camps. Here are tales that illuminate the power of the human spirit in the face of the worst human evil. For me there are several such incidents in this book that will never leave me and I have gone back to read them again. In the end Salton has achieved his goal, for this book and his story is one I will never forget.