The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi

The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood
- 5 x12 inches 418 pages
One manâ€™s struggle with memory and prejudice on the way to recovering his past

Mark Kurzem was happily ensconced in his academic life at Oxford when his father, Alex, showed up on his doorstep with a terrible secret to tell. When a Nazi death squad raided his village at the outset of World War II, Jewish five-year-old Alex Kurzem escaped. After surviving the Russian winter by foraging for food and stealing clothes off dead soldiers, he was discovered by a Nazi-led Latvian police brigade that later became an SS unit. Not knowing he was Jewish, they made him their mascot, dressing the little â€œcorporalâ€ in uniform and toting him from massacre to massacre. Terrified, the resourceful Alex charmed the highest echelons of the Latvian Third Reich, eventually starring in a Nazi propaganda film. When the war ended he was sent to Australia with a family of Latvian refugees.

Fearful of being discoveredâ€”as either a Jew or a Naziâ€”Alex kept the secret of his childhood, even from his loving wife and children. But he grew increasingly tormented and became determined to uncover his Jewish roots and the story of his past. Shunned by a local Holocaust organization, he reached out to his son Mark for help in reclaiming his identity. A survival story, a grim fairy-tale, and a psychological drama, this remarkable memoir asks provocative questions about identity, complicity, and forgiveness.
Country USA
Brand Viking Drill & Tool
Manufacturer Viking Adult
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2007-11-01
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780670018260

Country	USA
Brand	Viking Drill & Tool
Manufacturer	Viking Adult
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2007-11-01
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780670018260

The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood

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