Legacy of Rescue - Book Review

Book: Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter's Tribute

Author: Marta Fuchs

Genre: Memoir

Publisher/Publish Date: December 2011

Source: NetGalley, ebook courtesy of author

Pages: 208

Rating: 3.5/5

GoodReads

Marta Fuchs' Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter's Tribute tells the story of her father Morton (Miksa) Fuchs and Zoltán Kubinyi, the man who saved him and over 100 other Hungarian Jewish men during the Holocaust as the Commanding Officer of their forced labor battalion.

Zoltán Kubinyi was taken as a POW by the Russian Army, died a year later from typhus in a Siberian labor camp, and was buried in an unmarked grave, leaving behind a young wife and infant son. Due to Marta's father's testimony, Zoltán Kubinyi, a devout Seventh Day Adventist, was posthumously honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. 

The story of rescue came full circle in the Summer of 2011 when Marta and her brother took their children (all in their '20s) back to Hungary to meet the rescuer's family. The rescuer's son, now in his late '60s, never knew his father, and with his wife and granddaughters – the great grandchildren of Zoltán Kubinyi -- Marta's family talked about the heroic actions of his father and how this courageous man none of them knew has made such an indelible impact on all their lives. (Summery via GoodReads)

After having the opportunity to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site in Germany a few years ago, I read many books on the Nazi Holocaust, and took a fascinating college class on the history of that catastrophe. So though I have broad knowledge of the events, this was new to me.

Told from the POV of Fuchs' father, a Hungarian Jew, this book covers life in Germany and the concentration camps only briefly. It follows her father life, who was forced to work in labor camps, and also includes stories from her mother and other family members. Most of it narrated word-for-word by her father.

Later when she has first hand stories to share of visiting the places from her father stories, it helps bring it full circle. I can appreciate the emotional impact of retracing her father's steps.

Though the writing stye threw me off at the beginning, as I continued to read I liked that it put me in the story. The book could have been improved with my supporting text by Fuchs to expand on and tie the stories together, though I enjoyed experiencing it alongside him.

You can find out more about the book on it's website: Legacy of Rescue

A Huffington Post article by the author: Why I Could Write a Positive Holocaust Book