Strength from Within

The strenght of the human spirit shines even under the worst circumstances. This truth endures in author Amrom Gottesman’s biography of his father, Leibish Gottesman, who endured unspeakable cruelty during the Holocaust. At the height of World War II, the Gottesman family is transported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where most of them perish. Surviving this tragedy is a teenaged Leibish, who is moved to Dachau. There, he meets a comrade in Mr. Springer as they suffered brutal conditions. Leibish loses contact with his only living brother, Kalmen, until after the war—when both men have changed in unimaginable ways. This biography highlights Leibish’s grueling train ride south when the Nazis had to abandon Dachau. The endeavor put them right in the crossfire of the Americans and Germans. With safety diminishing at every turn, how did Leibish survive with no family left? Strength from Within highlights the evils of humanity and the triumph of hope, even when surviving seems impossible.