A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy - Softcover

A tour de force: simply narrated, at times almost naïve - and even more shocking as a result (Camilla Long Sunday Times News Review)

The detachment of distance, coupled with the author's gracious spirit ... is what makes this memoir so rewarding (Genevieve Fox Saturday Telegraph)

What Buergenthal has to say, both in bearing witness to the Holocaust and in describing his moral coming-to-adulthood, deserves our attention. He has serious things to tell us about forgiveness, justice and the curious effect of deep trauma on the mind. (Sam Leith Daily Mail)

A very life-affirming narrative ...positive and uplifting (New Books magazine)

A book that extends the boundaries of the genre ... Buergenthal demonstrates a great depth of compassion and humanity and this inspiring book becomes essentially a story of hope and a reaffirmation of the generosity of the human spirit (Stephen J. Mckinney Expository Times)

At the age of ten Thomas Buergenthal arrived at Auschwitz after surviving the Ghetto of Kielce and two labour camps, and was soon separated from his parents. Using his wits and some remarkable strokes of luck, he managed to survive until he was liberated from Sachsenhausen in 1945. After experiencing the turmoil of Europe's post-war years - from the Battle of Berlin, to a Jewish orphanage in Poland - Buergenthal went to America in the 1950s at the age of seventeen. He eventually became one of the world's leading experts on international law and human rights. His story of survival and his determination to use law and justice to prevent further genocide is an epic and inspirational journey through 20th Century history. His book is both a special historical document and a great literary achievement, comparable only to Primo Levi's masterpieces.