From Auschwitz with Love: The Inspiring Memoir of Two Sisters' Survival, Devotion and Triumph as told by Manci Grunberger Beran & Ruth Grunberger Mermelstein

by Daniel Seymour

Overview

Mukacevo, Czechoslovakia. Two young girls, Manci and Ruth Grunberger, are growing up in a loving Jewish family with their six siblings at the base of Carpathian Mountains, a peaceful region until Hungary annexes the territory in 1938.

As WWII engulfs Europe, the area gradually becomes the focus of the Nazi's Final Solution. The Grunberger family is sent to Auschwitz where Josef Mengele chooses who lives and who dies. Their father, mother, and six siblings are murdered in the gas chambers.

The two sisters survive seven months in Auschwitz and another five months marching through the Sudeten Mountains at the mercy of brutal SS guards before being rescued near the Danish border. The sisters are found by family in Philadelphia and become some of the first Jewish refugees brought to the United States.

From these traumatic beginnings, what emerges are two fulfilling life stories. The sisters have different beliefs, interests, and coping methods, and yet, their personal bond - the selfless, unconditional love between them - only grows stronger throughout the years.

Captured in two first-person memoirs-and presented along with added historical references-this is a remarkable story of resilience and survival that describes a resounding triumph of the human spirit spanning nine decades.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789493231887
Publisher:	Amsterdam Publishers
Publication date:	01/27/2022
Series:	Holocaust Survivor Memoirs WWII
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.48(d)

About the Author

Daniel Seymour is a tenured professor, administrator and consultant to many colleges and universities. He received his B.A. degree from Gettysburg College and his M.B.A and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Oregon. Dr. Seymour is the author of 18 books and lives in Palm Springs, California with his wife, Rhonda.

Editorial Reviews

From Auschwitz with Love is the story of the love between two sisters that emerged from a realm in which everything conspired against any such love. It is introspective and penetrating, taking the reader into the souls of the survivors of the Event and its aftermath, into the souls that were themselves the target of the Nazi evil. While the book's historical detail alone marks it as an invaluable contribution to Holocaust studies, its testimony to the dearness of human life threatened by the Holocaust makes it even more so. Indeed, with his elegance of style Daniel Seymour weaves a personal tale that transcends the history to take us into the depth dimension of the Shoah.

David Patterson, Hillel A. Feinberg Professor of Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas

From Auschwitz with Love is a fascinating book about the life stories of Manci and Ruth Grunberger. It is the story of the Holocaust, survival and rescue. At the same time, this is also the story of infinite love between two sisters. The love shapes who they become as individuals and gives them the strength to survive Auschwitz, cope with the rescue and temporary stay in Sweden, and with challenges of building new lives in the US. This well-written book is both captivating and insightful, and, as such, it is an important new contribution to Holocaust studies.

Roland Kostic, Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Research Senior Lecturer in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden

From Auschwitz with Love is written with and for two sisters loving care by Daniel Seymour. Written in the first-person voice, the reader is transcended to their locale, witnessing the horrors of the Holocaust through their young eyes. Interwoven between the juxtaposing chapters is accurate historical information, so that the reader can put their experiences in context. What unfolds is an immersive read, and a real page-turner as the reader relives their hopes, dreams and fears.

Millie Jasper, Executive Director, Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center, White Plains, NY.

This inspiring memoir of two sisters' survival, devotion, success, and love is an authentic and an important contribution to giving women their voices. Daniel Seymour used their own words to write this book, which also includes his own short but scholarly background texts that give the sisters' testimony historical context. From Auschwitz with Love is, indeed, a love story between Manci and Ruth Grunberger.

Rochelle Saidel, Founder and Executive Director, Remember the Women Institute and author of The Jewish Women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp

Daniel Seymour writes an eye-opening and painfully insightful book peering into the personal lives of Manci and Ruth Grunberger, two teenaged sisters, trapped in Hitler's death camps, who endured the horrors of the Holocaust and survived. This story will grip your heart, make you angry, and show you the true meaning of love. I highly recommend From Auschwitz with Love.

Denise George, co-author of The Secret Holocaust Diaries

From the Publisher

★ 2022-02-02
Two sisters recount their terrifying experience in Auschwitz and their extraordinary survival.

Ruth and Manci Grunberger were both born in the 1920s in Mukacevo, Czechoslovakia, a small city at the base of the Carpathian Mountains. They lived a quiet, happy life free from any visible antisemitism and in a community that was largely isolated from the gathering storms that threatened Europe. That life changed once their land was annexed by Hungary in 1938. As Jews, they were forced to wear yellow stars, their father’s store was confiscated, and they were ejected from their home and forced to live in the Jewish ghetto. When the Germans arrived, they were sent on cattle cars to Auschwitz; Manci ruefully remembers it as “my life’s black day.” The sisters’ experiences were gruesome. Ruth puts it poignantly: “All the horrors that had been told were true. These innocent people, just off the trains, were being gassed to death and their lifeless bodies taken to the ovens and burned—the flames, the thick smoke, the heavy dust particles and the putrid odors were from bodies. Somehow, I managed to get back to the barracks. I was in shock and was screaming, ‘I know! I know everything!’ ” Seymour, the son-in-law of Manci, intelligently facilities the telling of the sad but ultimately inspiring tale. The entire Grunberger family was sent to Auschwitz, and Ruth and Manci were the only survivors, but their book is not a lamentation—they both managed to make their way to the United States following the war and start afresh. Of course, this is ground well covered in scholarly and literary terms, though the perspectives of women, particularly those subjected to the “death marches” in 1945, aren’t widely represented. This is a profoundly moving story courageously told, one that reveals the heights and depths of human possibility.

A remarkable tale, dramatically affecting and historically significant.

Kirkus Reviews