Why is a book on the Holocaust being sold through our publishing company? To begin with, this is a book that was being written as I grew up. My dad is the Holocaust survivor described in this book, and his story of coming to terms with it is really in part a major story of my life. My mom was a writer; my dad had been out of "the camps," as we called them at home, about 11 years when he met my mom. They fell in love and married quickly. Little did my 1950s mom realize that she was going to "raising her husband" out of the camp experience and the related loss of his entire family, while she was also raising us three kids.

Our childhood was filled with stories about the Holocaust; unlike some Holocaust survivors who refused to talk about their memories, my dad, with my mom's encouragement would tell us not only the experience of having his family stripped away from him as the Nazis came through Amsterdam, but also about his harrowing ordeal and lucky breaks as a person surviving living in four concentration camps over two years. The longest time he spent in any one camp was Auschwitz. Ironically, this was the camp no one was supposed to survive.

My mom was not only a writer, but also a counselor and historian. She took great interest in what my dad had to say and encouraged him to share more. Every Sunday of my young adolescence was filled with my mom sitting with my dad in the living room, notepad in hand and tape recorder on. My mom later took these notes and wrote this book, which was published through a small press in 1979 under the title As Long As I Remain Alive. As a daughter having lived through reliving this ordeal with my dad, it was actually nice to have a book, beautifully written by my mom, about not only my dad's experiences as a child, a Holocaust survivor and then as a person who had to move on and create a life for himself without any support systems. I could have my friends read the book to help them understand not only my dad, but also a bit of me. This is my family history. These are the stories of my childhood. This is what I grew up with. The Holocaust, Vietnam and Watergate. A pretty unsettling childhood; ironically, also one filled with love and support. My dad was very focused on our achievements; he wanted us to do well in the world to try and make sense of the loss of his family. At least if we did well, then there was a reason he lived. No pressure there!

My dad was liberated by the U. S. Army's 3rd Cavalry in Austria from the concentration camp, Ebensee. My mom and dad established a tie to the survivors of the "3rd Cav" after mom and dad's book was published. That became the second chapter in their lives, not the one about the Holocaust but the one about how the American's were there to help with the liberation. My mom and dad arranged a reunion with many of the American GI Liberators, taking them back to the concentration camps and having a special ceremony for them at Ebensee. As the years passed, my dad also became involved in the international Holocaust committee. He became a representative for one of the camps he was in (Mauthausen). While mom and dad's book was never widely received, it slowly went out of print. At the same time both had realized they should update the book with more information they had learned about dad's experience from their association with the 3rd Cav and other groups. Unfortunately by now, my mom was dying of colon cancer. My mom agreed that my dad should write an update to the book. My mom passed away in June, 2002. My dad continued on with the book.

While my dad had a many more things to write about in the intervening years, my dad is not a writer. Once he finished his edits, my mom's sister and brother-in-law, Helen and Bob Buttel (both retired English professors), agreed to take on the project of integrating my dad's writing into my mom's book while maintaining the artful writing style my mom developed. My dad had hoped to get this book published by a publisher in Europe, but those plans fell through. Since I have my own publishing company, I offered. I had missed having the book available to my family and friends. Most importantly I wanted the family story to be passed down through my children's children, etc. After all, we don't really have any other possessions from my dad's family to pass down.

The final writing of this book was more than any of us could have hoped for, thanks to my sister and brother, my daughters and nephews, who all wrote passages at the end of the book to explain how dad's life has carried on through their life. My aunt and uncle did a beautful job editing it and Beth Blacker did an amazing job laying it out.

So if you are interested in learning about a remarkable man who became a very successful architect and family man, you may want to put aside your books on Social Thinking and read about the historical moments that allowed the rest of this website to come about!

© Michelle Garcia Winner 2011
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