Barbara Bergren opens her biography of Mieczyslaw Wajgenszperg (he goes by “Martin”), by noting her father’s gift of storytelling–a gift that, strangely, doesn’t extend to his own life. “With a child’s instinct,” she writes, “I knew that when his face would tighten, when his eyes would soften as if he was looking at ghosts, it was time to stop asking questions. My father wanted me to have only a brief summary of his life—that much was clear. For the longest time, it seemed enough.” The introduction ends there, a little unsatisfactorily, before picking up in 2003, with Bergren and some friends preparing to interview her father, who was eleven years old when the Nazis invaded his hometown of Starachowice, Poland. He survived the death march from Auschwitz, imprisonment at Buchenwald, and the deaths of his family. His last stop was Dachau, and when that camp was liberated in 1945, Martin and another boy were sort of adopted by the 3512th Quartermaster Truck Company, an African-American unit under the command of Greensboro, North Carolina native Lieutenant John Withers. As a Black man, Withers knew racism, which may be why he took pity on these Jewish kids, feeding and housing them, saving their lives.

WITNESS FOR MY FATHER then skips back to 2001. Martin, age 72, gets a call from John Withers II, the son of his post-Dachau savior. Withers Sr. had always wondered what happened to Martin, and had spent years looking for him. Now, at last, he had been found. The back cover of WITNESS FOR MY FATHER leads with this reunion: “Fifty years [after the Dachau liberation], a surprise telephone call opens the door to Martin’s past, sparking a series of events that reignited memories of . . . the unexpected friendship between a young Holocaust survivor and an African-American lieutenant.” The book’s Amazon page also highlights the event: “It began with a phone call in 2001, unlocking a secret, an untold story that would forever change the lives of two families for generations.” Clearly, the call was the inciting incident for the book. Why, then, does Bergren wait until page 218 to mention it? She should have opened with the call, which is a natural framing device and let the story unfold from there. Nevertheless, she has written is a compelling account. History buffs will be drawn to the cinematic recreation of Nazi-era Poland, while readers looking for emotional depth won’t be disappointed in this tale of charity, danger, and redemption.

Barbara Bergren’s WITNESS FOR MY FATHER is a richly detailed story and a testament to the indomitable human spirit.

~Anthony Aycock for IndieReader