The Stone Crusher: The True Story of a Father and Son's Fight for Survival in Auschwitz

The Stone Crusher: The True Story of a Father and Son's Fight for Survival in Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield, 388 pages.

A devastating and haunting look at the lives of Gustav and Kurt Kleinmann and their family. The Kleinmanns were Austrian Jews; the family lived in Vienna, and Gustav had served in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War, but when the Anschluss came his life and the lives of every member of his family were derailed, uprooted or destroyed.
A remarkably well-written book which follows the disturbing and unique story of a father and son who were both interned in Nazi concentration camps from before the war began until the camps were liberated. Both men faced death constantly and found their own lives balanced on a razor's edge many times. Father and son depended on each other to keep going, but they both had to be remarkably adaptable, resourceful and very lucky to survive. The paths of the the other Kleinmann children and their mother are also recounted. Remarkable and deeply moving.