The Boy: A Holocaust Story

In his first book, Porat, a Hebrew University Associate Professor, shares a remarkable true story wherein multiple Nazi war criminals and Jewish victims intertwine. Using court documentation, recorded accounts, and scrapbooks and journals, Porat pieces together life inside the infamous Warsaw ghetto. After the Jews of Warsaw were forced inside, SS Brigadef%C3%BChrer J%C3%BCrgen Stroop was ordered to oversee their liquidation. Stroop was flanked by two lower ranking officers, Bl%C3%B6sche, an SS member involved with roundups, interrogations, and executions, and Konradm, an SS member and photographer who documented the the Nazi mission. These men's lives intersect with Rivkah, an ally to the Jewish Fighting Organization, and the eponymous boy photographed with his hands in the air and a Nazi machine gun pointed at his head. The little boy is thought to be Tsvi, and Porat reveals through court documents that Bl%C3%B6sche was the Nazi threatening him. Tsvi is shortly discussed, losing most of his family to concentration camps and Nazi murderers. Through extensive research and well-written documentation, Porat delivers a spellbinding account of Warsaw and its inhabitants. Photos. (Nov.)