The train continued on for a total of 3 days to an unknown destination. Max said, “We didn’t know where we were heading, but we knew wherever we were going would be a bad ending.  On the third day, we arrived at Auschwitz.”     – Max Steinmetz

In riveting detail, Max Steinmetz, Holocaust survivor, describes the journey from growing up in a small, Transylvania, Romanian town to the horrors of the Szaszregen ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau camp and killing center, Dachau concentration camp, slave labor sub-camps, a death march, and liberation by American soldiers.

The story does not end there, as Steinmetz recounts the challenges and difficulties of rebuilding his life after the trauma and devastation of the Holocaust, and eventually coming to a place of being able to talk and share about his experiences.

With a passion for Holocaust Education, Steinmetz and author, public high school teacher, Amy McDonald, work together to provide a factual, yet gripping emotional account of one survivor amidst the enormous and complex history of the Holocaust.  As the time quickly approaches when there will be no living witnesses of the Holocaust, personal testimonies and historical accounts such as these become increasingly vital to ensuring that the lessons of the Holocaust and the legacies of its survivors are not forgotten.

“Max Steinmetz is a living legend. His remarkable life story, captured and shared by Amy McDonald, reminds us all of the strength of the human spirit in the midst of unspeakable brutality. By recounting Steinmetz’s compelling personal journey, McDonald preserves this important history for generations to come. The friendship forged between the two is heartwarming.” – Senator Bob Dole, US Senator, World War II veteran

“Amy McDonald has written a unique memoir that encompasses two stories in one: the moving account of Holocaust survivor Max Steinmetz’s survival and her own journey to research and document his story and to write it for him, her students, and posterity. It is an authentic, powerful narrative that contributes a much-needed fresh perspective to the crowded field of Holocaust memoirs.”  –  Alexandra Zapruder, author of Salvaged Pages, Twenty-Six Seconds

Buy Determined to Survive from:

Buy here on Amazon

Birmingham Holocaust Education Center – bhecinfo.org or call 205-795-4176

Church Street Coffee and Books – Mountain Brook, AL – 205-870-1117