Mulik Krol was a young Polish-Jewish boy when his world was destroyed - and his entire family, his friends, and Jewish community, were massacred - in the hell of German-occupied Poland in the early 1940's. From living in a comfortable home, he and his family became fugitives, prey for bands of roving militia and civilian gangs, while the vicious sub-zero winters were yet another deadly enemy. His family were caught and killed - his mother just days before the Germans were driven out by Russian forces in July 1944. Somehow, Mulik evaded capture and survived; often with an element of the miraculous. But there's far more to this Holocaust autobiography than the account of a survivor. Mulik goes on to tell of the post-war upheaval and confusion, of the way in which thousands of traumatised children were shipped here and there as the pawns of political forces, how the little that was left of their tormented identities was in some cases eroded yet further by having to discard their names, and he makes trenchant observations which are still pertinent today. The account goes on: political manoeuvrings in the newly-reborn state of Israel, growing up on a kibbutz, entering adult life with literally nothing except the clothes he wore, menial labour, girlfriends, war, army experiences, out-of-the blue contact with a cousin in Cape Town, South Africa, and then a disastrous marriage which ends in him being jailed for shooting his wife's lover. A Presidential decree expedites his early release from prison. Soon after, he moves to Cape Town and starts a new life in a new country (and yet another language to learn!). Struggling and kicking, he at last begins to make good, begins to put down roots and enjoy some of the fruits of success. Yet the narrative does not flag in the twists and turns which Fate seems to have decreed for this streetwise yet sensitive survivor. He writes of events in his personal and business life that are eye-openers to how one can be abused and stolen from, lied to and deceived, by the very people who had most cause to be grateful to him.
Softcover. English. Shmuel Keren-Krol. 2004. ISBN: 9780620321051. 232 pp. Good. Book No: 2505053
