THE LAST WITNESS By Jerry Amernic Reviewed by Joan's Musings

Moments in world history that must never be forgotten

I was in high school during WWII and I remember the news footage when General Eisenhower first visited Auschwitz, and even in these times there are people who claim that Auschwitz and the other death camps never existed.

Although this story is written as fiction, the conditions and treatment of the Jews as related by Jack Fisher are true.  Jack was originally a Jew and imprisoned in the ghetto in Poland by the Nazis.  Jack and other small boys would make a hole in the wall and sneak out to steal food to eat, for the Nazis never let enough food be allowed into the ghetto to feed everyone sufficiently. At this time, Jack had a Jewish name as Jacob, so he spoke Polish, and then had to learn German, which the Germans demanded.  Jack was rather blond with blue eyes, so he didn’t look Jewish, but more Polish.  One time when Jack was out stealing, he entered a Catholic Church.  The priest gave him food and told him to come back weekly and he would have food for him.  The priest also recognized the fact that Jack looking Polish might save his life, so he dye Jack’s hair more blond and told Jack to use the Polish version of Jacob and he also taught him some Catholic prayers.  Thus Jack was able to save his life and as the years passed, he said he was Catholic.  Eventually the priest was taken away by the Gestapo.  Jack was four and five years old during these times.

Then the Nazis began to move the Jews out of the ghetto, over-loaded them on freight train cars and sent them to Auschwitz.  Eventually all of Jack’s family was killed and the only reason why Jack wasn’t was because the Nazis thought him Polish and Dr. Mengele never got around to experimenting on him like he did the other children.  Through this story Jack tells about the atrocities that occurred.

The slant in this story against other tales of Nazis and the Jews is that the story takes place in 2039, the Holocaust of the murder of six million Jews took place from 1939 to end of WWII and in the meantime in 2019 there was a slaughter of twenty-thousand Christians by Muslims, which was considered the Great Holocaust.

Jack is now one hundred years old and there were only four or five other Jews that old who were Holocaust victims.  One by one they suffered mysterious deaths.  The officials of Austria, Germany and several European countries claimed Jack and the others lied.  That they did have camps where they simply held people who were considered anti-German.

Jack spoke up about his experiences when he had a chance and his great grand-daughter, Christine, was able to get documented proof of these camps and the names and numbers who were killed, as they were original Nazi records.

This put Jack and Christine’s lives in danger.  And the story continues with what they went through to prove what Jack said.  This is a fantastic plot, a page turner, but a true historical story based on facts.  I received a complimentary copy for an honest review.  

Reposted from Book Reviews by Joan