Young Lothar : an underground fugitive in Nazi Berlin / Larry Orbach and Vivien Orbach-Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Orbach, Larry, 1924-2008, author.

Orbach-Smith, Vivien, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fugitives from justice--Germany--Biography.

Fugitives from justice.

Germany--History--1933-1945--Biography.

Germany.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 pages) : illustrations, maps

Place of Publication:

London, [England] : I.B.Tauris, 2017.

Summary:

His promising education was aborted; his close-knit family splintered. When the Gestapo came for Orbach's mother on Christmas Eve 1942, they escaped with false papers; his mother found sanctuary with a family of Communists and Orbach - under the assumed identity of Gerhard Peters - entered Berlin's underworld of 'divers'. He scraped a living by hustling pool, cheating in poker and stealing - fighting, literally, to stay alive. Outwardly he became a cagey amoral street thug, inwardly he was a sensitive, romantic boy, devoted son and increasingly religious Jew, clinging to his humanity. In the end, he was betrayed and sent to Auschwitz, on the last transport, in 1944. This singular coming of age story of life in the Berlin underground during WWII is, in essence, a story of hope, even happiness, in the very heart of darkness.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed August 29, 2017).

ISBN:

9781786721730

1786721732