An Odyssey Of Survival

This book describes how Michael Klein's faith and determination helped him to survive the concentration camps at age 15 and overcome bitterness, the trauma of the Holocaust, and all physical and spiritual obstacles, to become a happy and useful member of society. Dr. Klein portrays the Jews' spiritual resistance to the Germans and their struggle to retain their faith and humanity in the shadow of death. He then portrays his personal struggle back to a normal life, not only the struggle for health and an education, but also to reconcile the tension between the world of a Chassidic teenage boy and the experience of surviving the Nazi death camps. Dr. Klein writes about the events that led to his life being saved by a decision of Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist credited with saving the lives of many Jews, and reveals his Yom Kippur experience that prompted him to "breaking silence" and tell what happened in the camps. Dr. Klein was imprisoned in Auschwitz and Golleschau. After liberation, Dr. Klein spent years recovering from TB. In 1950, he made his way to the United States where he was able to earn a degree in Engineering-Physics at the University of Colorado. He earned his Ph.D in Theoretical Physics at Cornell University in 1962.