Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

As a person, whose relatives passed in front of Mengele in a concentration camp I have a hard time reading this article, in which a retired Israeli Mossad officer in his eighties, recounts how they had a chance to capture Mengele, but opted not to do so. On one hand, I can understand his reasoning that it would have jeopardized taking Adolf Eichmann, who was personally responsible for the execution of the “final solution”. On the other hand, my emotional side cannot get over the fact that there was a chance to capture, set trial for and punish Mengele, the infamous, sadist “doctor.” I cannot imagine appropriate punishment for him, but I still think he should not have let go.

To learn more about Mengele’s antics I recommend today 80629: A Mengele experiment by Gene Church. There are two other reasons for recommending this book. First it is well written. Second , it is triumphant.

This is the true story of Jack Oran, who survived the inhuman experimental surgeries of Dr. Josef Mengele, Auschwitz’ infamous Doctor of Death. It was a cold December morning in 1942 when Jack, then known a Yakoff Skurnik, and his family were loaded onto a “resettlement train,” in Mlawa, Poland. When the train stopped, Jack found himself at Auschwitz. For an interminable time, he survived the horrors of the camp. Using his wits, cunning, and inordinate will to live, he escaped from the Nazis during the Auschwitz death march in which the Nazis marched 58,000 prisoners from the camp before its liberation by the Russians on January 27, 1945. Overcoming incredible odds, Jack built himself a new life filled with success and accomplishment. This is the story of a man who is living proof that with persistence, determination, and belief in oneself, all things are possible.