City of Life, City of Death Memories of Riga / Max Michelson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Michelson, Max, 1924-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Michelson, Max, 1924-.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Latvia--Rīga--Personal narratives.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Jews--Latvia--Rīga--Biography.

Jews.

Rīga (Latvia)--Biography.

Rīga (Latvia).

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 171 p. :) ports., maps, charts ;

Edition:

1st ed.

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2012

Place of Publication:

Boulder : University Press of Colorado, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

City of Life, City of Death: Memories of Riga is Max Michelson's stirring and haunting personal account of the Soviet and German occupations of Latvia and of the Holocaust. Michelson had a serene boyhood in an upper middle-class Jewish family in Riga, Latvia--at least until 1940, when the fifteen-year old Michelson witnessed the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union. Private properties were nationalized, and Stalin's terror spread to Soviet Latvia. Soon after, Michelson's family was torn apart by the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. He quickly lost his entire family, while witnessing the unspeakable brutalities of war and genocide. Michelson's memoir is an ode to his lost family; it is the speech of their muted voices and a thank you for their love. Although badly scarred by his experiences, like many other survivors he was able to rebuild his life and gain a new sense of what it means to be alive. His experiences will be of interest to scholars of both the Holocaust and Eastern European history, as well as the general reader.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I: Growing Up in Prewar Latvia

1. My Background

2. Grandmother Emma

3. The Jewish Community of Riga

4. My Father

5. My Mother and Our Home

6. Grandmother Sophie and the Griliches Family

7. Sylvia

8. My Aunts and Uncles

9. Thea, Arthur, and Manfred Peter

10. Summers at Jurmala

11. My Schools

12. Soviet Occupation of Latvia

Part II: The War and Postwar Years

13. Germany Attacks the Soviet Union

14. The Nazis Enter Riga

15. Riga Ghetto

16. Aktion: The Destruction of the Riga Ghetto

17. Little Ghetto

18. KZ Kaiserwald

19. KZ Stutthof

20. Polte-Werke-Magdeburg

21. Liberation

22. Human Again

23. Finding Relatives

24. A New Country, a New Beginning

25. Building a Life

The Michelson Family Tree

The Griliches Family Tree

Notes.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [169]-171).

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9786610500987

9781280500985

1280500980

9780870816925

0870816926

OCLC:

52338922