By
– January 9, 2012
From childhood Nathan’s life has been filled with the anguish and sorrow visited on Jews by their Nazi captors. The twelveyear- old Dutch boy has escaped the “final solution” by losing his Jewish identity, joining his parents’ conversion to Catholicism and beginning to study for the priesthood.
Having failed in this effort and every other attempt to find contentment, including a hasty and ill-conceived marriage, Nathan flees his unhappy life and turns to Israel and Orthodox Judaism where he finally finds peace.
The painful, true story of this man’s fight for survival is the substance of this book, which begins with the near suicide of his wife and ends with his redemption in Israel. The frequent looks back to his earlier life are clearly established, and the events are narrated with conviction and simplicity.
Claire Rudin is a retired director of the New York City school library system and former librarian at the Holocaust Resource Center and Archives in Queens, NY. She is the author of The School Librarian’s Sourcebook and Children’s Books About the Holocaust.
