Ann Arbor Jewish Book Festival Program

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

With Author Anna Salton Eisen, The 23rd Psalm

Moderated by Shirlee Wyman Harris

11:00 AM over Zoom

This new anniver­sary edi­tion of the Holo­caust mem­oir of George Salton (then Luc­jan Salz­man), gives read­ers a per­son­al and pow­er­ful account of his sur­vival through one of the dark­est peri­ods in human and Jew­ish his­to­ry. With his daugh­ter and co-author Anna Salton Eisen, George shares a grip­ping nar­ra­tive of his trans­for­ma­tion from a Jew­ish eleven-year-old boy liv­ing hap­pi­ly in Tyczyn, Poland, with his fam­i­ly, to his expe­ri­ences as a teenage vic­tim of grow­ing per­se­cu­tion, bru­tal­i­ty, and impris­on­ment as the Nazis pur­sued the Final Solu­tion.

Alone at age 14, George begins a three-year hor­ror-filled odyssey as part of a Jew­ish slave labor group that will take him through ten con­cen­tra­tion camps in Poland, Ger­many, and France. The authors recall not only the painful details of his sur­vival, but also the tales of his fel­low pris­on­ers, a small group who became more than friends as they shared their mea­ger rations, their frag­ile strength, and their wan­ing hope. The mem­oir moves us as we behold the life-sus­tain­ing pow­ers of friend­ship among this band of young prisoners.

Anna Salton Eisen was the founder of Con­gre­ga­tion Beth Israel in Col­leyville, Texas, the site of the anti­se­mit­ic syn­a­gogue hostage cri­sis in Jan­u­ary 2022. She is the author of two Holo­caust mem­oirs and exec­u­tive pro­duc­er of an upcom­ing doc­u­men­tary film based on both books. A licensed social work­er, Salton Eisen for­mer­ly prac­ticed as a ther­a­pist, spe­cial­iz­ing in men­tal health and trauma.