The Stone Crusher, Jeremy Dronfield
The Stone Crusher, Jeremy Dronfield
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The Stone Crusher
The True Story of a Father and Son's Fight for Survival in Auschwitz

Author: Jeremy Dronfield

Narrator: Christopher Lane

Unabridged: 13 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/01/2018


Synopsis

In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer in Vienna, was arrested by the Nazis. Along with his 16-year old son Fritz, he was sent to Buchenwald in Germany, where a new concentration camp was being built. It was the beginning of a five-year odyssey almost without parallel. They helped build Buchenwald, young Fritz learning construction skills which would help preserve him from extermination in the coming years. But it was his bond with his father that would ultimately keep them both alive. When the 50-year old Gustav was transferred to Auschwitz—a certain death sentence—Fritz was determined to go with him. His wiser friends tried to dissuade him—“If you want to keep living, you have to forget your father,” they said. But that was impossible, and Fritz pleaded for a place on the Auschwitz transport. “He is a true comrade,” Gustav wrote in his secret diary, “always at my side. The boy is my greatest joy. We are inseparable.” Gustav kept his diary hidden throughout his six years in the death camps—even Fritz knew nothing of it. In it he recorded his story, a tale of survival and a father-son bond which proved stronger than the machine that sought to break them both.

About Jeremy Dronfield

Jeremy Dronfield is a biographer, historian, novelist, and ghostwriter. Following a career in archaeology, he began writing fiction. His titles include the bestselling thriller The Locust Farm and The Alchemist’s Apprentice. His recent nonfiction includes the bestselling Beyond the Call and Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time. His website is jeremydronfield.com.


Reviews

The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz reads like fiction, but it’s based on meticulous research, including interviews with the family. This book is brilliant, all heart, and an absolute must-read if you are drawn to Holocaust and World War II fiction, so we never forget the despicable trans......more

3 stars. Based on the secret diary of Gustav Klienmann, this novel shares the detailed story of Gustav and his sixteen-year-old son Fritz’s devastating and horrific six year journey from the Buchenwald concentration camp to Auschwitz. Gustav and Fritz face the endless unfathomable Nazi brutality yet......more

Goodreads review by Justo

4/5 Estrellas Periódicamente intento leer algo sobre el holocausto, aunque acabe destrozado mentalmente al volver a leer sobre todo el repertorio de salvajismo que desplegaron en sus campos los nazis. Creo que es necesario tener fresco en la mente lo que pasó. Si todo el mundo lo hiciera quizá no asi......more

*[URL not allowed] One glance at the title of Jeremy Dronfield’s The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz will have you shaking your head in sheer disbelief. A place of certain and horrific death, why anyone would willingly choose this path of fate is unfathomable. But it di......more

I have read several books about the Holocaust but this one will stay with me for a long while. It has been the most graphic book that I have read about the atrocities that happened in the hands of the Nazi’s and the concentration camps. It’s 1939 Gustav Kleinmann a furniture upholsterer and son Fritz......more