The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz Synopsis
'Everyone thinks, tomorrow it will be my turn. Daily, hourly, death is before our eyes . . .'
Gustav and Fritz Kleinmann are father and son in an ordinary Austrian Jewish family when the Nazis come for them.
Sent to Buchenwald concentration camp in 1939 they survive three years of murderous brutality.
Then Gustav is ordered to Auschwitz.
Fritz, desperate not to lose his beloved father, insists he must go too. And though he is told it means certain death, he won't back down.
So it is that father and son together board a train bound for the most hellish place on Earth . . .
This is the astonishing true story of horror, love and impossible survival.
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Jeremy Dronfield Press Reviews
Based upon meticulous research, this book tells of the Kleinmann familly and the love and courage of a son for his father - Clare Champion
Through the horrors, there was one constant that kept them alive; the love between father and son. Gustav's secret diary and meticulous archive research, tell this story for the first time - Sunday Express
A devastating yet extraordinary account - Eastern Daily Press
A defiant record of a horrific experience - Blouin Artinfo
This book tells their extraordinary tale of surviving tale of surviving five and a half years in Nazi prison camps - The Times, 100 Best Books for Summer
Extraordinary . . . an affecting father-and-son tale - The Times
An extraordinary tale of endurance and filial love. It is a miraculous story with many twists and Dronfield tells it well in an energetic and lively style - The Times
We should all read this shattering book about the Holocaust. An astonishing story of the unbreakable bond between a father and a son. Brilliantly researched and written with searing clarity - Daily Mail
Extraordinary - Observer
A deeply humane account. This book could not be more timely and deserves the widest possible readership - Daily Express
The inspiring true story of Gustav and Fritz Kleinmann, an Austrian father and son who managed to survive internments in concentration camps from Buchenwald to Auschwitz. Dronfield draws extensively on Gustav's diary, allowing us inside the incredible bond between father and son that kept them together through harrowing experiences, and, like all the best narrative nonfiction, the story is both immersive and extraordinary. Deeply moving and brimming with humanity. - Guardian
An extraordinary tale - The Times (Best Books of 2019)
An emotionally devastating story of courage - and survival - i
