Der Junge, der seinem Vater nach Auschwitz folgte

The SPIEGEL bestseller about the incredible story of Gustav and Fritz Kleinmann during the Holocaust. Fritz Kleinmann makes an unbelievable decision. Not wanting to leave his father alone, he follows him to Auschwitz. Jeremy Dronfield's bestseller "The Boy Who Followed His Father to Auschwitz" is a poignant plea against forgetting. Based on the secret diaries of Jewish concentration camp inmate Gustav Kleinmann, the author tells the story of Gustav and his son Fritz in this historical non-fiction book, who escaped the Nazis' "death factories." It is a tale of unimaginable cruelty, yet also of humanity, courage, and hope.

In 1939, Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer from Vienna, and his sixteen-year-old son Fritz are arrested by the SS along with hundreds of other Jewish men. Torn from their family circle, they are initially deported to Germany. Assigned to forced labor in the quarry at the Buchenwald concentration camp, they are among the inmates who help build the camp. After some time, Gustav—deeply scarred by the inhumane conditions—is selected for deportation to Auschwitz. However, for son Fritz, the thought of being separated from his father is unbearable. Despite knowing that no one returns from Auschwitz, Fritz voluntarily offers to accompany his father. Thus begins a path of suffering for the two that is even more brutal and hopeless than anything they have experienced so far—and yet they endure it together.

"The story told in 'The Boy Who Followed His Father to Auschwitz' is unique; it resembles a miracle." The Times. "All the more shocking, as it is a completely true story. This book comes at the right time and deserves the widest possible readership." Daily Express.