City of Life, City of Death
Subtitle: Memories of Riga
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Published: May 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 171
ISBN-13: 9780870816420
Subjects: Biography: general; The Holocaust; Latvia; History: American; Jewish Holocaust Personal Narratives; Personal narratives; History; Biography / Autobiography; Jews; Holocaust; Eastern Europe - General; Historical - Holocaust; Michelson, Max,; Riga; Råiga; 1924-; Biography; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Description: "City of Life, City of Death: Memories of Riga is Max Michelson's personal account of the Soviet and German occupations of Latvia and the Holocaust. Michelson had a serene boyhood in an upper middle-class Jewish family in Riga, Latvia - at least until 1940, when the fifteen-year-old Michelson witnessed the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union. Private properties were nationalized, and Stalin's terror spread to Soviet Latvia.

Soon after, Michelson's family was torn apart by the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. He quickly lost his entire family, and witnessed the unspeakable brutalities of war and genocide.".

"Michelson's memoir is an ode to his lost family; it is the speech of their muted voices and a thank you for their love. Although badly scarred by his experiences, like many other survivors he was able to rebuild his life and gain a new sense of what it means to be alive. His experiences will be of interest to scholars of both the Holocaust and Eastern European history, as well as the general reader."--BOOK JACKET.