Auschwitz, Auschwitz I Cannot Forget You... As Long As I Remain Alive

Max Rodrigues Garcia was born in Amsterdam in 1924. His ancestors came to Amsterdam in 1613 from the New World, where they had fled after being expelled from Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition. Max's family settled in Amsterdam, with a brief interval in Belgium. The Garcia family returned to Amsterdam from Belgium in the summer of 1939. Max's father believed a major war was about to explode. He hoped that the Germans would bypass Holland as they had during WWI. But he was wrong: Hitler invaded Holland on May 10, 1940. Auschwitz, Auschwitz... I Cannot Forget You, As Long as I Remain Alive is the first-person story of Max Garcia, his beloved family, and his survival of Holocaust tortures at concentration camps. But this isn't a story only about the past. It is about the present and the future. From tales of cunning within the camps to those of how Max rebuilds his life after liberation, the book recounts how the Holocaust could not extinguish Max's dreams. And in San Francisco, Max realized those dreams: having a family and becoming a successful architect. Max today inspires generations with his story and character. As Max's grandson writes in the new final chapters of the book, each written by Max's children and grandchildren: "To me the knowledge I have gained from reading and hearing this story helps me understand better the kind of person I want to be and to apply my Grandpa's lessons to my everyday life." Readers of the book and experts on the Holocaust have called it "an important witness... Max's story is one of brutal honesty and ultimately one of inspiration as a person restarts his life in a new land..." and "...a most important and touching testimony for the young generation to remember and to learn from."