הילד: מסע בעקבות תצלום

by Dan Porat, דן פורת

חייל. רובה. ידיים מורמות. רגע שנלכד בעין המצלמה. אך מהו הסיפור שמאחורי התצלום המוכר כל כך, אולי המוכר ביותר, מימי השואה? בספר הילד -- מסע בעקבות תצלום חוקר ההיסטוריון דן פורת את הרגע שהונצח על סרט הצילום וחושף את סיפורי האנשים - יהודים ונאצים - השותפים לו.

הילד מציג את סיפוריהם של שלושה פושעי מלחמה משלושה מעמדות: סמל, קצין זוטר וגנרל, ומגולל גם את קורותיהם של שני יהודים
צעירים - נערה בת־עשרה וילד, שנתקלו בנאצים הללו בעיר ורשה באביב 1943. זה סיפור המשתרע על פני שנים רבות: סיפור על חייהם של גיבוריו בשנים שלפני מלחמת העולם הראשונה, בשנות מלחמת העולם השנייה - ועד ליום מותם. אחד מהנאצים גיבורי הסיפור הצליח לחיות חופשי עוד עשרים ושתיים שנים לאחר המלחמה. גם שני הניצולים היהודים חיו תקופת זמן ארוכה לאחר המלחמה. ניצולה אחת איבדה את בנה במלחמת יום הכיפורים.

זהו ספר המבוסס על מחקר יסודי ממושך, על ראיונות אישיים, על נבירה בארכיונים ועל ביקור באתרים המתוארים. ספר הפורש את היריעה ההיסטורית בסגנון סיפורי, בליווי כשישים תצלומים המאיירים את חייהם של גיבורי הספר. ספר שנחרת בזיכרון.

Genres: Holocaust, History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Historical, Judaism

285 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Dan Porat is the author of The Boy: A Holocaust Story, which the New York Times called “a gripping, harrowing Holocaust story” and Elie Wiesel praised as “a poignant and riveting investigation.” Porat is a teacher and researcher at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Reviews

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photo on the cover of this book is probably the most recognizable Holocaust photo in the world, and arguably one of the most recognizable photos in history. The child's terrified little face has captivated many people, not the least author Dan Porat, who became obsessed with uncovering the identities of the people in the picture and the stories of their lives.

I had heard that the boy lived: that he survived the war, became a doctor in Boston, and had that picture framed and on display in his office. The day before I started The Boy, I showed the book and its photo to a man I knew and told him what I'd heard. Then I read the book and had to come back to my acquaintance to say, "Um, yeah, I was wrong. There's a doctor in Massachusetts who thought he was the boy, but he almost certainly was not. The photo was taken in the Warsaw Ghetto, see, and he was never in the Warsaw Ghetto. Also, he remembers the picture being taken in July, and the picture shows people wearing heavy coats. This boy in the picture was probably killed." Porat was never able to determine who he was, only who he was not.

"I liked the first story better," my acquaintance replied sadly.

So did I.

But this book has much more to offer than mere soul-crushing mythbusting. The author covers the life of Zvi Nussbaum -- the young Holocaust survivor who thought he was The Boy -- as well as the lives of the two Nazis standing in the background of the photo AND the Nazi holding the camera. (All three were captured and executed after the war, one of them more than two decades later.) I admire the author's research and his ability to put us right there in these people's lives, in the blood and tragedy and chaos.

If only The Boy had lived.

[Andrew Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving story of the search for a Jewish boy from the Warsaw ghetto liquidated in 1943. He is shown on one of the photographs in a report made by Jürgen Stroop, the SS chief in charge of removing all the Jews still remaining in the Warsaw ghetto. Having already sent about 250 thousand Jews to the extermination camps, Nazis decided to liquidate the ghetto and remove all the remaining, over 50 thousand, people still left there. With hardly any weapons and with home made explosives some of the young people decided to fight their oppressors. In response, Germans started burning houses, one by one to force the people out. The Jews went into hiding in the specially prepared bunkers but at the end were no match to gas, smoke and SS explosives. Only few managed to escape to the Arian side of the town and find refuge there. Most perished. During the action Jürgen Stroop prepared a report on his activities to his boss Krüger, to be provided to Himmler.

One of the photographs attached to the report contained a group of people, mainly women and children, being extracted from a bunker. At the front of the group is a terrified young boy, a subject of the author's enquiry to find out what had happened to him. Despite that some people stated to know the boy and even a person identified as one, the boy remains unknown and serves as a symbol of all innocent children killed by the Nazi monsters. Only two SS men on that picture have been identified and were served justice. Also, all of the main instigators of this crime were chased and found. Some committed suicide to avoid justice and the rest was convicted and executed. The book follows their attempts to hide and avoid punishment.

The book is worth learning about the perpetrators and their victims. It is written in an engaging style. It took me a couple days only to get through. Highly recommended.

The following are my short notes about the main perpetrators:
- Josef Blösche (1912–1969)He was born in Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. Left school at age of 14 to work on his father’s fields and his inn. He was photographed with SS forces that suppressed the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as published in the Stroop Report. During the Warsaw Uprising, he earned a reputation as a "brutal sadist, murderer, and rapist", being nicknamed "Frankenstein". He was arrested in East Germany in 1967, sentenced to death and executed in Leipzig in 1969.
- Hermann Fegelein (1906–1945) was a high-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany. He was a member of Adolf Hitler’s entourage and brother in-law to Eva Braun through his marriage to her sister Gretl. He arranged for Franz Konrad to be removed from the Eastern Front to Warsaw. Fegelein as an opportunist who ingratiated himself with Himmler, who in return granted him the best assignments—mostly related to cavalry—and rapid promotion through
the ranks. Shot for desertion for Hitler’s bunker.
- Ludwig Fischer (1905–1947) was a German Nazi Party lawyer. In 1939 Fischer became Chief Administrator (and in 1941 Governor) of the Warsaw District in the occupied General Government. He held this position until the withdrawal of the German forces from Warsaw in January 1945. After the war, Fischer hid in the town of Bad Neustadt an der Saale in Bavaria. He was arrested by U.S.
soldiers on 10 May 1945. On 30 March 1946, Fischer was extradited to Poland, where he was put on trial for crimes against humanity, sentenced to death and executed.
- Heinrich Klaustermeyer (1914-1976) was a German Nazi Party official who served in the Gestapo. During World War II, he was stationed in the Warsaw Ghetto, where he personally murdered multiple Jewish civilians and participated in the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. After the war, he settled down in West Germany. Klaustermeyer was investigated by German prosecutors and arrested in the early 1960s. In 1965, he was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to life in prison.
- Franz Konrad (1906–1952) A son of a miner. After school, Konrad obtained a business degree. He worked with various export firms as bookkeeper. In 1932, was caught stealing money from his employer. He joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and participated in the July Putsch in 1934. He was arrested and released. In 1935, Konrad fled to Nazi Germany. In November 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, Franz Konrad was convened as a full-time administrative officer of the SS responsible for the "recording of valuables" in theWarsaw Ghetto. He earned the nickname "the King of the Warsaw Ghetto". After war he was arrested and convicted in a joint trial with Jürgen Stroop for participating in the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto.In March 1952, Konrad was executed by hanging in Warsaw
- Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger (1894–1945) was a German paramilitary commander in charge of, and personally involved in progressive annihilation of the Polish nation. Between 1939 and 1943 he was the Higher SS and Police Leader in the General Government, giving him command of all police and security forces in German-occupied Poland. During the first months of the war in Poland, he was
one of the coordinators of Action AB - the mass murder by shooting of Polish intelligentsia. In November 1939, Krüger had fulfilled Hitler’s personal order, and 184 professors of Jagiellonian University were arrested in the Sonderaktion Krakau action and deported on a cattle train to Sachsenhausen concentration camp; fewer than 50 of the professors survived the war. At the end of the war Krüger committed suicide in Upper Austria.
- Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg (1897–1944)was anAustrian SS functionary. He served as SS and Police Leader of the Warsaw area in German-occupied Poland from 1941 until 1943. Sammern-Frankeneggwas in charge of the Großaktion Warschau, which entailed sending between 254,000 and 265,000 men, women and children to the extermination camp in Treblinka. His first offensive operation in the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on 19 April 1943 was unsuccessful and he was replaced by Jürgen Stroop, and court-martialed by SS leader Heinrich Himmler for his alleged ineptitude. He was transferred to Serbia where in September 1944 was killed by Yugoslav partisans.
- Leon Skosowski A Jewish collaborator with Gestapo, involved in the Hotel Polski
affair. Liquidated by the Polish Underground.
- Jürgen Stroop (1895–1952)A son of a policeman. Completed the elementary school. worked in the Land Registry. After the German invasion of Poland, Stroop served as commander of the SS section in Gnesen (Gniezno). During the occupation of Poland, Stroop was transferred to Poznań as head of Selbstschutz, the notorious "self-defense" formation of the local ethnic Germans. He led the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. On 10 May 1945, Stroop surrendered to the American forces. In late May 1947, Stroop was extradited to Poland. Spent 255 days in a cell with Kazimierz Mocarski, an AK fighter, who later wrote a book about that. Sentenced to death he was hang in 1952.
- Adam Żurawin (1919-1992) – Polish Jew, an agent of Gestapo, one of the key characters involved in the Polish Hotel affair. Survived the war and emigrated to the USA. The hotel was used by Germans as bait for Jews hiding in Warsaw. There the German agents and their Jewish collaborators pretended Jews could buy foreign passports and other documents, and then as foreign citizens, leave territories occupied by Nazi Germany. Approximately 2,500 Jews fell for this trap, with most subsequently arrested, moved to Nazi concentration camps, and perishing in The Holocaust.

[Patricia O'Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of all the photos taken of the Holocaust, none was more haunting to historian Dan Porat than one taken by a Nazi photographer during the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto. At the center of the photo is a young boy with his hands raised in surrender. Nazi officers stand behind the boy. On the other side of the boy is a group of people also with their hands in the air. Professor Porat kept seeing the photo at Holocaust museums and heard from several curators how the young boy in the photo survived and settled in New York after the war. It is a good story, but Professor Porat wanted to know more.

In writing The Boy, Professor Porat relied primarily on research and explains that he filled in gaps in the story by drawing on “a priori imagination” rather than speculation. It is an interesting approach to history, but makes the book difficult to categorize. The Boy consists of the five overlapping stories of three Nazi officers and two Warsaw ghetto inhabitants. The individual stories are compelling and seek to explain how each person got to the moment in the photo and what happened after the photo was taken. However, Professor Porat maintains the most important question is not what happened? but rather, “how one set of men saw in that photograph heroic soldiers combating humanity’s dregs while the vast majority of mankind sees here the gross inhumanity of man.”

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book, but the title is somewhat misleading, or at least the jacket description is misleading.

The book is mostly concerned with tracing three people who were in the Warsaw Ghetto during the uprising. One Jewish woman and two Nazis. Porat does a good job of showing the history.

The only reason why I am giving it three stars is my personal bias aganist the use of imgination in history. I don't like it. But it is my hang up, not Mr. Porat's.

The book is worth reading simply for the story of the woman who is brave enough to jump out of a transport train.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is based around an iconic photo of a group of Jews being rounded up by the Nazis in Warsaw. The story follows three Nazis, the boy and a couple of young Jewish people, breaking down their lives into 1913-1938, 1939-1945, and 1945-1982. It in not a terribly in depth book, being only just over 200 pages, but the stories of evading capture and escapes are very exciting. Lot of accompanying photographs are a bonus too.

[Daniel Meek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fascinating novel keeps the reader on the edge of their seat from beginning to end. As a World War II fanatic, I was intrigued by this book the moment I started reading it. It gave me a different perspective on the terrifying journeys taken by Jews during the era of religious persecution. I felt that this book well demonstrated the terrors of World War II. Porat did a outstanding job writing this story from different viewpoints. Having been told from different views, the story allows the reader to have different insight on the opinions of people.

The cover of the book shows a photograph of a young jewish boy taken by Jurgen Stroop. Stroop was a Nazi officer at the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. His assignment was to photograph the torture and events occurring in Warsaw for his commanding officer Heinrich Himmler. This story focuses on two Jewish victims, a teenage girl and a young boy, who encounter these Nazis in Warsaw in the Spring of 1943. The lives and experiences of Tsvi Nussbaum and Rivkah Trapkovits are told in parallel throughout the book. Tsvi and Rivkah don't know each other, and don't come into contact with each other during the story, but the reader sees that they are having the same experiences living in the Ghetto. They are both terrified of the chaos that surrounds them. They both had to leave their homes and were relocated to the ghetto. This inspirational Historical Non-Fiction story has over 60 photographs of the Warsaw Ghetto before and after its liquidation. After being stationed at the Warsaw Ghetto, Josef Stroop, (who later becomes Jurgen Stroop) Franz Conrad, and Josef Blösche are convicted of mass murder in Nuremberg, Germany.

I could connect with this historical fiction story. Having read other Holocaust related books, this one definitely stood out of the others. By presenting two intertwined stories with two protagonists -- a teenaged girl and a younger boy -- the reader can choose to identify with both protagonists, or with just one. I felt a deeper connection between with Rivkah Trapkovits. Rivkah being a teenager I knew she would be the perfect person to connect with. Rivkah befriends people after escaping a concentration camp. I as well try to make friends with people who look like they need one. Rivkah and I have much in common.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Boy” is much more a historical novel than it is historical non-fiction. I say this simply because, though filled with a lot of historical information that seems well documented, the author takes a lot of liberty in presenting personal character narratives that may or may not be accurate. We can well understand the fear and terror that enveloped so many people during that time but unless actual thoughts and words are coming from the diary of someone the author has written about, we can never be sure of what was actually going through their mind.

Having said that, this book is haunting and can only be read with a lot of sadness over what happened in the Warsaw Ghetto. The evil that overtook a few men and affected thousands is overwhelming and incomprehensible to most of us. I continue to read about the events and impacts of the Holocaust only because these are events that can’t be forgotten. We can’t just turn a cheek and relegate what happened to the past. Memory. It needs to be remembered.

Though certainly not the best book I’ve read about the Holocaust, “The Boy” is interesting, well written, and thought provoking. The accompanying photographs throughout the book bring a lot of reality and humanity to the book and left me with a haunting feeling that is hard to shake off.

[Connor G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Boy: A Holocaust Story" by Dan Porat provides an in-depth look into the harsh holocaust times in Germany. Through authentic language, photos, and Porat's imagination, it book is very informational yet intriguing. There is a continuing theme of hope, redemption, and love that is portrayed through the book. The documentation of the hard times and struggles of those in Germany during the time triggered me, as the reader, to be constantly hoping for solutions to their many problems. Perhaps, the thing that inspired me the most throughout the reading process, was the fact the story was inspired by a single photograph. The photograph (as depicted on the front cover) is perhaps the most well known symbol of Holocaust. It was great reading the story, knowing that it was more than just a fictional novel. However, there was one downfall. The frequent use of authentic German, provided a difficult time in understanding the book. Not having any previous German knowledge, having to stop and look up certain words or phrases in order to understand the plot was distracting at times. I feel even that though the use of German was needed to keep the authentic feel intact, it often took that feeling away and broke up the understanding of the true meaning. Overall, it was a fantastic read and I would recommend it to any historical fiction lover.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will have to join other reviewers in calling the title of this book a bit of a cheat. It is only about the boy in the photo in an abstract way; the bulk of the book deals with the lives of people on both sides of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. On one hand, we follow the experiences of a Jewish woman who survived the ghetto and narrowly escaped ending up in Treblinka. On the other hand is Jürgen Stroop, who oversaw the liquidation of the ghetto, and Josef Blösche, one of the soldiers in the iconic photo. As a Holocaust story it is suitably riveting and depressing. Although I was disappointed that it did not deal more with the boy in the photo, I found some interesting nuggets of information, namely Blösche's biographical information (I knew the Jews of the ghetto nicknamed him "Frankenstein" but didn't know much about why), and the tip that helped the Allies recover Eva Braun's photo albums and other effects.

The author also includes a chapter on the misleading nature of photographs and their misleading depiction of reality, which I felt was his attempt to write himself out of the hole the title of the book created.

[Debbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

A real disappointment, this book. The author reconstructs the story and lives of the people in a famous photograph of the Warsaw Ghetto. What could have been a very compelling book is marred by authorial overreaching. Porat acknowledges that he has ascribed words and thoughts to people that they never said or had, but assures the reader that it's still history, not historical fiction. Most disturbing, the reader wouldn't even know about the liberties he's taken unless they carefully read the footnotes at the back of the book like I did. Judging by his afterword, where he acknowledges having arguments with editors over his methods, I'm not alone in feeling cheated by this book. He should have been honest and upfront about what he chose to do.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The boy?? It should have been titled "the girl in the picture", because the boy has nothing to do with it until the very end when someone thinks they are the boy in the picture, that they could be, may be, but ultimately they aren't.
The book follows the life of the girl-the most interesting of which is when she escapes the train to the concentration camp-and another boy, not the one in the picture. What is the point?

This could have been a very good book if it had been written about what it was supposed to be about. Very disappointing. And the made up conversations were deceptive. He doesn't say until the end that it was the 'style' of writing. Basically historical fiction. Thumbs down.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like another reviewer, I think the title is a bit misleading. The book isn't really about The Boy, but about one Jewish woman and several SS officers. Some of the details were horrific. However, I felt like the book was rather dry. Yes, I cried. But the facts were presented as more of a list than a story. The author tried to fill in details when presented with holes in the historical accounts but it is not clear what exactly was fiction and what was fact.

I don't know how to review this book. I guess that's all I can say.

[Christopher Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly the story I was anticipating, but still a worth while account and investigation into the lives of several Jewish residents of the Warsaw Ghetto and some of the Nazi officers who worked to liquidate it.

[Judy Chessin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in the story of the people, but didn't feel that the boy "story" was tied together. Also, PLEASE label the pictures.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seemed to be a mix of historic facts and the author's ideas of how the characters would have or may have responded in the very real event of the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto. It is written through pictures so perhaps that gives the author some indulgence in weaving the story. The primary focus is the boy in the picture on the book jacket with his hands in the air. There are several photographs though, and they bring the heartache of that time period into a stark reality. Overall, a good read.

[Arianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a difficult time reading this book. Not due to content but the flow. The whole book seemed off in flow. I have seen the photo of The Boy many times in my life and have always been interested in what had happened to him. I'm happy for the opportunity Mr. Porat gave to delve deeper into the subject however his writing style is not for me.

[Mathieu Dehoorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This title is very general but the story is very interesting. The photo on he cover is a memorable photo from the Holocaust. The story takes place during WWII while three people are in a Warsaw ghetto. It tells the story of a teenage boy and girl who encounter Nazis in Warsaw. The Five lives of the victims were very well described. I was wanting to know more about the conditions and way of life they lived especially in Europe durning that time. To hear the people's stories and struggles was special. Some of the pictures of Jewish victims were difficult to look at because of how sad they were. I felt like the book was rather dry. Though certainly not the best book I’ve read about the Holocaust, but the author did a good job interviewing I can imagine. In the beginning the author talks about why he wanted to write this book which was not very interesting to read. Also flashes back on some of the main characters and how they felt about killing Jews. In the middle of the book he introduces the victims. SPOILER ALERT! They were sent to a death camp. Someone managed to escape and traveled all over Europe till the war was over. Most of the victims were Jewish but some were also communists. I came up with a theme for this book "life is worth everything." I wish this book had more interesting moments so I would not want to put the book down. I liked how it talked about the Holocaust from a 1st person point of view which is what I like to look for when I read a book. Overall the book was a good read. It was very interesting to hear all the amazing stories, and that is why I gave it four stars.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superbly written and moving account of the background of one of the most iconic war photos of all time. The suffering of the Jewish people described is difficult to read and the horror of the Holocaust does not diminish no matter how many accounts of it are read.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting history of the iconic photo of a young boy in the Warsaw Ghetto. The author reviews the backgrounds of people in the photo, both Nazis and Jews, while telling the story of the ghetto uprising and how some were able to escape and survive to tell the story.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

While looking at a photo, it is discovered that the young boy in a photo survived world war 2. Then the author describes 3 different men who murdered Jewish people. But I never really understood how the men were connected to each other.

[Goshen Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

True story of the boy in the famous photo.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was interesting but it jumped around covering the main protagonists of the book and went back and forth in time which made it somewhat difficult to follow. Overall it was interesting.

[Diane]

This book was not at all what I expected so I gave up on reading it.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another account of Holocaust surviors. Interesting link to the Jewish Boy in the famous photo raising his little arms in front of Nazi solder. A fast read.

[Diane Matts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this story. Cried almost all the way through it. How can people do that to others??

[Ginger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book about a supposedly iconic Nazi era photograph and the story of some of the people in the photo. I am by no means a WW II or Holocaust expert, but I do consider myself somewhat knowledgeable on the subject and do not recall ever seeing the photograph before. the photo shows a young boy, 4 or 5 years old, with his hands raised, standing next to a long line of people, also with their hands raised. Close-ups show the fear on his face. Also in the photograph are several Nazi soldiers, one in particular with his rifle pointed in the boy's direction. the book tells the story of the boy, the soldier with the gun, and other characters not shown in the photo. What the book explains is that these people were being led from a bunker hideout in the Warsaw Ghetto under the direction of General Jurgen Stroop, one of the non-pictured characters whose story is told. The most interesting story, in my opinion, was of Rivkah, who was equivalent to a modern day freedom fighter, who escaped from one of the concentration camp bound trains and through cunning and bravery, always escaped the Nazis. Generally, however, I believe the author could have done a better job weaving the different narratives together. The author is obviously a dedicated historian, and a good, but not compelling author. With that said, this book was interesting and for people unfamiliar with the intoxicating stories that came from the Warsaw Ghetto, very informative.

[Mike Clinton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dan Porat uses a famous picture of a boy during the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943 as the catalyst for a narrative that weaves together the personal stories of victims and perpetrators meant to prompt reflection about the Holocaust and the complexities of historical memory. The author roots the book in substantial historical sources but admittedly employs historical imagination - sometimes inventing interior reflections, for example, or filling in blank spaces with composite historical information taken from other sources. He provides a final chapter that explains this method and those choices, which I consider sufficient notice to the reader in processing the book critically. The book would be just another - albeit compelling and well-written - historical account of the Holocaust, but its self-conscious attempt to explore history not simply as a process of gathering detailed factual information but as a human way of seeking to understand the world adds to its interest and value. I'd use this in my course on the history of the Nazi era precisely because it would force students to discuss the merits and pitfalls of that approach - in short, because it would teach them about history as a way of thinking.

[Mary Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in WWII or the Holocaust, you will want to read this book. No it is not an easy book to read. But it moves quickly and is well-writing. I highly recommend it.

From the publisher:
The Boy presents the stories of three Nazi criminals, ranging in status from SS sergeant to low-ranking SS officer to SS general. It is also the story of two Jewish victims, a teenage girl and a young boy, who encounter these Nazis in Warsaw in the spring of 1943. The book is remarkable in its scope, picking up the lives of these participants in the years preceding World War I and following them to their deaths. One of the Nazis managed to stay at large for twenty-two years. One of the survivors lived long enough to lose a son in the Yom Kippur War. Nearly sixty photographs dispersed throughout help narrate these five lives. And, in keeping with the emotional immediacy of those photographs, Porat has deliberately used a narrative style that, drawing upon extensive research, experience, and oral interviews, places the reader in the middle of unfolding events.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another reviewer said that the title was misleading. Maybe, but the story comes full circle to the boy in the iconic holocaust photograph. This is really a recounting of the events leading to the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and it's inhabitants. It is not as dramatic as Uris' Mila 18 or John Hershey's The Wall but it is riveting in it's own way. Rather unique, I thought, in that it presented a good deal of biographical information on several of the SS thugs who were participants in this atrocity. Even this did not help me understand what it is in the makeup of our species that allows "civilized" human beings to perform the acts described.

[Gayle Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title does tend to mislead somewhat, because this book is not strictly about the boy in the photograph, although it does include some really fascinating stories. Only one of the people in the photograph is a main character in the book. The others include someone who thought he was the boy, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, and two other Nazis that were close associates of the one in the photo.
I gave the book four stars because it was very well-written and I got caught up in the lives of the 5 people that the book follows through the war years. I have to admit that my favorite parts were near the end, when the perpetrators finally faced justice.