Ot Dransi do Auschwitz'a (Russian Edition)

George Weller did not talk much about his captivity, even many years later. His wife Anna mentioned that when he returned home from Buchenwald he spent weeks in bed, facing the wall. And yet, this book was published in 1946. It means that he wrote it very soon after regaining his physical and emotional strength. Even if he managed to keep notes in the camps, in his microscopic handwriting that amazed me in his letters, he must have made good use of the obsessive German record-keeping to produce all the dates and numbers of deportees that the reader found in this book.

He published several other books about the Holocaust, but this one was never translated. Until now. A group of enthusiasts decided to dedicate Russian translations to the memory of those who perished, and those who survived against all odds, so that the younger generation can learn about the Nazi persecution of the Jews from a firsthand account at a time when anti-Semitism is raising in so many countries that should know better.

Part One of the book is a meticulous description, with a scientist’s precision, of the Drancy camp throughout its existence.

Part Two is a personal and emotional description of several people whom George befriended in the camps, from prominent individuals much older than he was at that time to teenagers whom he helped to survive at amazing risk to himself and self-sacrifice that might be expected towards one’s own sons. It takes the reader to Auschwitz and the "Death March" to Buchenwald after its liquidation.

Although the book is entitled “Ot Dransi do Aushwitz” it was Buchenwald where George was liberated by the Americans troops.