Wrestling with life : from Hungary to Auschwitz to Montreal / George Reinitz with Richard King.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reinitz, George, author.

King, Richard, author.

Series:

Footprints (Cheltenham, England) ; 25.

Footprints Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reinitz, George, 1932-.

Jews--Hungary--Biography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (223 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal, [Ontario] : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017.

Summary:

George Reinitz was twelve years old when he and his family were taken from Szikszó, Hungary, and deported to Auschwitz, where many of his family members were killed. As a boy on the brink of adolescence, he experienced the horrors of a Nazi death camp. Following his liberation he returned to his hometown where he remained for a few years before immigrating to Montreal in 1948 as part of the Canadian Jewish Congress’s War Orphans Project. In Wrestling with Life, George Reinitz recounts his vivid memories of childhood and his experiences in one of the worst places humans ever created. He recalls being tattooed with an unclean needle, eating raw potato skins to stave off hunger, watching his father get whipped in the face, and looking after the horses of SS officers. In Auschwitz he learned and used survival skills that he later applied in the commercial realm. George settled in Montreal and became a world-class wrestler, competing internationally and carrying the flag for the Canadian team at the 1957 Maccabiah Games in Israel. After working in a number of jobs he found his calling in the furniture business, eventually founding Jaymar Furniture, a leading manufacturer and a company that still operates successfully in Quebec. Wrestling with Life is a moving account of a child’s survival under the most difficult of circumstances. It tells the story of one man’s hard-won success as a businessman and athlete.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Illustrations follow pages viii and 100

Introduction

Szikszó

Auschwitz

The Journey Home

Hungary for Canada

Wrestling

George and Eleanor

Jaymar, 1956–1980

Jaymar, 1980–2000

Looking Forward, Looking Back

Afterword

Richard King's Acknowledgments

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed August 22, 2017).

ISBN:

9780773551831

0773551832

9780773551848

0773551840