SEVEK AND THE HOLOCAUST: THE BOY WHO REFUSED TO DIE
SEVEK AND THE HOLOCAUST- THE
BOY WHO REFUSED TO DIE
Sidney Finkel - self-published (104 pp.)
$10.00
ISBN: 0-9763562-0-1
http://holocaustspeaker.com Home page of Sidney Finkel (Sevek Finkelstein)
From Kirkus Review: SEVEK AND THE HOLOCAUST- THE BOY WHO REFUSED TO DIE
"An honest and awe-inspiring tale of bittersweet survival in the face of great odds and oppression. "
"After years of repression, Finkel, aka Sevek Finkelstein, realizes that it is time to tell his story. Prompted by his daughter and feeling a need to exorcize his demons, Finkel presents his (and his family's) experiences before, during and after the Holocaust as a person of Jewish descent living in Poland."
"He writes in a straightforward manner using raw, bare language which makes this memoir all the more powerful. Finkel's story begins with a sheltered childhood growing up in a fairly well-to-do family with loving parents and siblings and mischievous adventures and then quickly changes to years filled with atrocities and horrors such as running for cover as German planes open-fired around him, having his eldest and dearest sister shot dead in a cemetery after having her newborn thrown out a window by German officers, living in a cramped and disease-ridden ghetto, constantly hiding from certain death at a bevy of concentration camps, eating grass for survival in the final days before reaching freedom and finally the difficulty and joys of resuming an education in a foreign country after a six-year gap. . . ."
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"My students have been greatly affected by the book, Sevek & the Holocaust. When I read the book to my students they were astounded when they heard and read what Sevek went through to survive the Holocaust. I feel that the book, told as a personal narrative, is in a format that the students can relate to. We read other stories about people in the Holocaust, but Sevek's book is different. Sevek's trials happened to him at about the same age as my students are, so they were able to put themselves in Sevek's shoes and ask themselves, what they would do in his place. We did several activities to coincide with the reading of Sevek & the Holocaust. Most notable is our culminating activity, which, after inspired by Sevek's book, the students developed, designed and presented a PowerPoint presentation on any aspect of the Holocaust which was relevant to the book. The book provided the inspiration. If I had not had the student's read the book, they would not have had any excitement about the topic. Instead of receiving about a 60% return rate on students who do the project, I received a 90% return rate. 90% did the work and all of the work turned in was exemplary. I have never had that much return rate on any project I have assigned. It wasn't my doing either, it was the book. The students have heard about the Holocaust and a few of them may have read information on Anne Frank. Though her story is inspiring, Sevek & the Holocaust is even more so because it goes into graphic detail about what Sevek went through and survived. The students couldn't believe how many times Sevek faced death and survived. All in all, I will teach Sevek & the Holocaust every year I am a middle school teacher from now on."
Amber Weston, eighth grade teacher, Tulsa. OK
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Sidney Finkel's e-mail address: S341F@aol.com For information about how to order Sevek and the Holocaust, please contact the author at the address above. |
| Sidney Finkel meets with teachersVicky Knickerbocker, Judyth Lessee, and Suzanne Bunkers in Tucson, AZ, March 2005. |