Life Must Go On

“Though lan­guage can­not tru­ly cap­ture the depth of the suf­fer­ing inflict­ed on Holo­caust vic­tims by the Nazis, this book offers a haunt­ing approx­i­ma­tion. Writ­ten from the per­spec­tive of a Holo­caust survivor’s daugh­ter, the book also reminds us of the impor­tance of Jew­ish sur­vival through l’dor v’dor, or inter­gen­er­a­tional con­nec­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Fur­ther, this book suc­ceeds in shed­ding light on the suf­fer­ing of Holo­caust vic­tims with­out reduc­ing them to mere sym­bols of tragedy or pas­sive fig­ures stripped of their indi­vid­u­al­i­ty. Read­ers will like­ly fin­ish this book hop­ing to meet Sol. Despite what he went through, Sol’s pos­i­tiv­i­ty and love for oth­ers make you feel good about human­i­ty despite the fact he wit­nessed the worst of it.” – Jewish Book Council
“In this poignant account, Lurie and Holocaust scholar Jacobs (Antisemitism) retrace the steps of Lurie’s father Sol, who survived six different Nazi concentration camps. He narrowly escaped death on multiple occasions, sometimes due to luck, but often, as Sol would stress later in life, due to the unexpected kindness of others. It makes for an informative contribution to Holocaust studies.” – Publishers Weekly
“As the last survivors of the Holocaust depart, their children continue to tell their stories. In this account of one survivor’s life in the vanished world of Lithuanian Jewry, Sol Lurie’s daughter and her collaborator tell of a young boy stripped of his childhood. His personal tale gives hope to modern readers faced with political struggle and an increasing social intolerance. The book presents a readable, capsule history of Jewish life in northern Europe, largely for the purpose of restoring Lithuanian traditions. A moving tale of personal resilience, told through a history of Lithuanian Jewry.” – Kirkus Reviews
“We live in a time of the passing of generations and the receding of memory into the shadows of history. And yet the Event—the Holocaust—casts its shadow over us. Here, in the testimony contained in these pages, we have a convergence of history, memory, and the transmission of memory, for the sake of a future. Sol’s words reach out to us through the words of those who have been entrusted with his testimony, a testimony that transforms all of us into witnesses.” – David Patterson, University of Texas at Dallas, from the Afterword
“Slaughters, betrayals, broken treaties and broken promises. They’re all here, as they are in any account of the Nazi years. Defying them was a young Lithuanian Jew graced with courage, imagination and sometimes pure luck. In the end, Sol Lurie found love, family and the tenacity to tell his story to a world that too often didn’t want to hear it. Lurie not only endured. He survived and thrived—a stubborn phoenix rising from the ashes.” – Arthur J. Magida, author of Two Wheels to Freedom

Bea Lurie is the daughter of two child Holocaust survivors, her father, Sol, and her mother, Evelyn Rebecca Lurie, whose parents escaped from Poland with two toddlers. Bea learned by her parents’ actions the importance of helping those in need and devoted her career to making a difference in the lives of others as a leader of nonprofit organizations and government agencies, and as an owner of two businesses. Bea also is an active volunteer in her community and at her local synagogue.

Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs is the child of a Holocaust survivor. He is a noted Holocaust and genocide scholar and the author of nearly forty books. Dr. Jacobs is a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at University of Alabama and Emeritus Aaron Aronov Chair of Judaic Studies.

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