I Seek a Kind Person 9781399803304

I Seek a Kind Person

My Father, Seven Children and the Adverts that Helped Them Escape the Holocaust

Borger, Julian (author)

(4 reviews)
Format: Hardback
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A powerful, eloquent and deeply affecting book. I loved it' EDMUND DE WAAL'Tender, evocative and deeply moving' JONATHAN FREEDLAND'Profound, elegiac and fascinating... I zipped through it' PHILIPPE SANDS'I SEEK A KIND PERSON WHO WILL EDUCATE MY INTELLIGENT BOY, AGED 11.' In 1938, Jewish families are scrambling to flee Vienna.Desperate, they take out adverts offering their children into the safe keeping of readers of a British newspaper, the Manchester Guardian. The right words in the right order could mean the difference between life and death. Eighty-three years later, Guardian journalist Julian Borger comes across the advert that saved his father, Robert, from the Nazis.Robert had kept this a secret, like almost everything else about his traumatic Viennese childhood, until he took his own life. Drawn to the shadows of his family's past and starting with nothing but a page of newspaper adverts, Borger traces the remarkable stories of his father, the other advertised children and their families, each thrown into the maelstrom of a world at war. From a Viennese radio shop to the Shanghai ghetto, internment camps and family homes across Britain, the deep forests and concentration camps of Nazi Germany, smugglers saving Jewish lives in Holland, an improbable French Resistance cell, and a redemptive story of survival in New York, Borger unearths the astonishing journeys of the children at the hands of fate, their stories of trauma and the kindness of strangers.I Seek a Kind Person is a gripping family memoir of grief, courage and hope, connecting us with multiple generations, distant continents and the hidden histories of our almost unimaginable past.
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  • 4
    I Seek a Kind Person (J Borger)

    Posted by M Mareck on 16th Feb 2024

    Well written and documented investigation of the difficulties individual Jewish families had to overcome when trying to escape the Nazi terror in Vienna after 1938. It is a very personal account, but many of the hardships and difficulties described were experienced by many who had to leave their hom…

    Well written and documented investigation of the difficulties individual Jewish families had to overcome when trying to escape the Nazi terror in Vienna after 1938. It is a very personal account, but many of the hardships and difficulties described were experienced by many who had to leave their homeland, whether they were Jewish, political opponents, banned writers and artists or anybody else the fascist government deemed undesirable or inferior.

  • 5
    I Seek A Kind Person by Julian Borger

    Posted by Christine Dixon on 12th Feb 2024

    I bought this book to counter my feelings about Israel and remind myself of the Holocaust. It does both. As well as being a page turner -me wanting to know what happened to the individuals Julian Borger uncovers with great warmth and empathy it also weaves in facts about events which unfolded so fr…

    I bought this book to counter my feelings about Israel and remind myself of the Holocaust. It does both. As well as being a page turner -me wanting to know what happened to the individuals Julian Borger uncovers with great warmth and empathy it also weaves in facts about events which unfolded so frighteningly in Austria. The book is filled with complex individual narratives so speedy reading led to some confusion- for me this means a need for re reading and study and is not a criticism but a recommendation that the book is included in any curriculum studying human behaviour - highs and lows and abuses of power .

  • 5
    Search for lives of the children that were saved through the Msnchester Guardian ads.

    Posted by Pauline Stoiber on 11th Feb 2024

    One of the best book I've ever read about terror on Jews in Nazi times. As I'm Austrian I will go to search for the gicen addresses in Vienna. Also the graves of Motti Sorger and Mr Borger's ancestors lying to rest on Zentralfriedhof. Very good informative and touching book. Thanks…

    One of the best book I've ever read about terror on Jews in Nazi times. As I'm Austrian I will go to search for the gicen addresses in Vienna. Also the graves of Motti Sorger and Mr Borger's ancestors lying to rest on Zentralfriedhof. Very good informative and touching book. Thanks to the author.

  • 4
    I Seek a Kind Person

    Posted by Christine Rhodes on 9th Feb 2024

    A very interesting story of the author's journey to discover his father's past. The historical facts behind the book are fascinating and emotive. A recommended read; the past is never far away!

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Authors:
Borger, Julian
Year Published:
2024
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Format:
Hardback
ISBN:
9781399803304
Number of Pages:
304
Publication Date:
18/01/2024
Publisher:
John Murray Press
SKU:
9781399803304

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