Boy 30529: A Memoir
“Anyone who survived the extermination camps must have an untypical story to tell.” Furious at all the self-righteous, generic Holocaust stories, Weinberg looks back with no heroics at his experience as a young teen in the Prague roundups, the transports, the camps (including Auschwitz, Terezin, and Buchenwald), the death marches, the traumatic Allied bombing, and, finally, liberation. Now an eminent scientist in London, he is always haunted by those who did not survive, and readers will keep going back to the heartbreaking, small cover photo of his adoring little brother, who died in the gas chambers, as did their mother. Told with an honest, contemporary, sometimes wry viewpoint, Weinberg’s graphic memories are haunting, as he searches the Web and historical archives to find out now what he did not know then, while it was happening to him: where he was marching, how many died. The dual perspective, then and now, and the blend of family intimacy (including occasional photos) with the gripping, authoritative historical overview make this an essential title for discussion. --Hazel Rochman