Legacy and Redemption

By Joseph Tenenbaum

As a teenager, Joseph Tenenbaum survived forced labor camps near Krakow-Zatoska, Plaszow, Wieliczka, and Mielec -followed by deportation to the concentration camps of Mauthausen, Melk and Ebensee in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0896041638
• ISBN13: 9780896041639
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: United States Holocaust Museum-Holocaust Survivors Memoirs Project
• Length: 457 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Six Million Ones

Each Summer I lead a group of teenagers through Poland. For them it is a confirmation of many of the things that they have already learned about the Holocaust. For me it is an attempt to try to understand the depth of this tragic period in the history of the Jewish people. On one of my earliest trips I was confronted with the cremation oven in the small "experimental" gas chanber and crematorium in Auschwitz I. It was at that moment, staring into the doorway of the creamtorium oven, that I began to understand. The oven, you see, was only large enough for a single body to be burnt. It was then that I began to understand that the number 6,000,000 was really made up of individuals, each with teir own lives, potential and purpose. Over the past few weeks I had a much similar experience. Reading the story of Joseph E. Tenenbaum, his family and friends and their deaths and survival has added another level to my understanding of the tragedy. Mr. Tenenbaum's story of how he miracously realized his potential past insurmountable odds gives me pause to think about those 6,000,000 ones and their lost potential. The authors intention was to provide a "letter to his children". How fortunate we are that Mr. Tenenbaum has included us in that family circle by publishing this outstanding book. My sincerest thanks!

Great Book/Must Read

This is a great book that tells the reader an amazing story and is a must read by everyone.The author is a remarkable person with numerous talents; he is in part a survivor,a religious scholar, a philanthropist, a successful business man,a loving and devoted family man and above all, a great humanitarian.His story is told in vivid and at times in remarkable detail remembering times, places, names, and events some of which are horrific and others most gentle and loving.He tells a powerfull story of living, survival, and living.I congratulate and thank him for sharing his his life with me.

Legacy and Redemption- A Life Renewed

Legacy and Redemption- A Life Renewed By Joseph E. Tenenbaum Reflections by Rabbi Lionel Nussbaum There are two very striking omissions by Joseph Tenenbaum in the phrasing of his book- Legacy and Redemption. Striking because most all of the "Holocaust" literature contains the words subhuman, and superhuman, subhuman refers regularly to the conduct and the nature of the Nazi persecutors, and their assistants; and superhuman refers as a matter of course to the persons who survived the persecutions and those who did not survive, yet were described time and again as superhuman in their efforts to covertly and overtly deny the Nazis victory over their very souls. Joseph Tenenbaum veers totally in a different mode. No one is referred to as subhuman. All of the people in this remarkable book fall into the enormous continuum called humanity. The references to the greatest of the holy Rabbis, the description of the most cruel and macabre torturers and perverse persons, all are scanned and experienced as humans. They are not symbols, they are not paradigms, they are not abject or heroic roll models or arch villains, they are all people who decide to act or not to act, who are coerced or partially coerced, to have their acts forge their essences in the individual hinterlands of their beings. They all live in the, and by the, personal touch of the author. They all fit or don't fit into his vast human happening. The first segment of the book could very well have taken place most anywhere on this planet, the schools, the friendships, the envy, the shenanigans, the blarney, the artful dodging, the resourcefulness, the hatred, the needs, the joys, the pains, the excitement with life, the impulsiveness, the strategies, the buffing, the honesty, the melding compassion, the condescension, the integrity, the judgements, the will, the passions, the beauty, the squalor, the ugliness, the teamwork, the isolation, parental influence, the parental powerlessness, the wisdom, the foolishness, the pettiness, the largesse, the spiritualism, the earthiness, the fraternity, the elitism, the blend and mix of all these elements in profoundly disparate and exquisitely similar proportions, disproportions and equilibriums, all could have taken place with any given child in any given country at any given time. The first segment deals with his development as a child in pre-W.W.II Poland. Much of this account is heartwarming indeed. The story of his father getting up and getting him up at 5:00 a.m. (far tugs) and then his subsequent tutoring by Shloymeleh; the warm, loving, and novel idea of the tutor kicking back 10% of his wages to Joseph if he mastered the material would bring a smile onto any face in recognition and acknowledgement of a loving and personal approach. His father and the soccer game is another clear example of how this young boy could have been in a ball game in Mexico, New Mexico, New Zealand, or anywhere else insofar as his impulse a obfuscation got the better of

Repairing A World Gone Chaotic

How does one remember the precious days of early childhood and not allow the terror that destroyed it to overshadow that memory? How does one keep forever, in a safe and special place, that beautiful age of innocence? Joseph Tenenbaum, in his touching and inspiring book, "Legacy and Redemption: A Life Renewed", has demonstrated that this, indeed, is a possibility, without diminishing the intensity of both experiences and somehow, integrates them into a whole, both co-existing in his memory. He is inspiring in that he models for his readers the possibility of allowing survivors the opportunity to love, even though loved ones perished,to remember the horrific and still retain beauty, humour and love in their lives. Perhaps by remembering each story from childhood, which he lovingly, honestly, and meticulously relates,he keeps his family intact, his dear and loving parents alive and well, forever more, in our hearts. Alternatively, he is so totally unafraid of showing the vulnerability of his youth in the concentration camps, and walks us through each brutal and humiliating experience that occurred to him and others, sparing us and himself, no pain. Yet,he is capable of balancing the inferno, in which he and millions of others found themselves,with hope for the future. This hope is personified by the heroes in his narrative, who stand alongside the villains. We weep in humility with him, as we meet his brother, Willie, who like an angel swept into his friends' and family's lives to save them from certain death. This "angel boy" reminds us that there is someone who cares, someone who emotionally helps to repair a world gone chaotic. "Repairing" is the primary theme in the second half of "Legacy and Redemption". It explores how the author was driven to rebuild, both metaphorically and concretely, the shattered lives that had been destroyed, yet never forgotten.

Spellbound!!

Joseph Tenenbaum has an outstanding memory for detail. He describes his early childhood in Dzialoszyce, Poland including such items as the old methods of washing their clothes and using outhouses.186 steps carrying a load to the top of a pit, where ,if you became ill or weak ,they threw you down to your death. He describes his friends, his teachers, his family in minute detail. However when the Germans invaded his small village, his life was changed forever. We take our freedoms and modernity for granted. What he and millions of people went through in the labour and concentration camps was unbelieveable.Every second was precious because they never knew when they would be exterminated.How to find a few extra scraps of food in order to get through the day. The inhumanity that took place can not be adequately covered in this book or thousands of other books.It is just too difficult for people that didn't live through it to comprehend. This book deals with the life of one individual that survived the Holocaust. Sometimes it is necessary to look at the life of just one individual in order understand the depravity, brutality, cruelty of man's inhumanity to man.Mere statistics just won't do.What happened to Mr. Tenenbaum and millions of others was unbelieveable.Yet millions of their family, friends and others were exterminated.His mother was taken from him at an early age never to be seen again.When someone's relative passes away, they know where they are buried and can visit in silence. Where could Mr. Tenenbaum and millions of others go to find their relatives when they were thrown into the ovens and disappeared into ashes? Where can they grieve for their relatives? A short review of this excellent book will simply not do it any justice.A lot of time and effort and heart went into Legacy and Redemption and one can't put the book down.Mr. Tenenbaum was a survivor.His survival instincts and fate kept him alive.His life was ripped from him by those involved in genocide, yet through strength and perseverance he managed to have a second life with a devoted wife and children. He became a successful businessman along the way.He wrote this book for his children so they would know the real story of the hell he went through and the hope that never was extinguished .He may have written for his children but he educated us at the same time.Those who read this book will only have a slight inkling of the torture and torment that he went through but it is a book that should be mandatory in schools or libraries for the historical record.The truth hurts and this book speaks the truth of how millions of innocent lives were lost.Sometimes we have to be jolted from our complacency . This book does it!Mr. Tenenbaum deserves a lot of credit for deciding to spend the years necessary to put this book together.On many fronts it must have been difficult to do since he has to go over again and again and again the painful memories seared into his brain. Well worth reading!!