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The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood

Mark Kurzem

Hardcover | Pages: 418 pages

Rating: 4.02 | 2622 Users | 257 Reviews

Point Books In Favor Of The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood

Original Title:	The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood
ISBN:	0670018260 (ISBN13: 9780670018260)
Edition Language:	English

Commentary Concering Books The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood

One man’s struggle with memory and prejudice on the way to recovering his past

Mark Kurzem was happily ensconced in his academic life at Oxford when his father, Alex, showed up on his doorstep with a terrible secret to tell. When a Nazi death squad raided his village at the outset of World War II, Jewish five-year-old Alex Kurzem escaped. After surviving the Russian winter by foraging for food and stealing clothes off dead soldiers, he was discovered by a Nazi-led Latvian police brigade that later became an SS unit. Not knowing he was Jewish, they made him their mascot, dressing the little “corporal” in uniform and toting him from massacre to massacre. Terrified, the resourceful Alex charmed the highest echelons of the Latvian Third Reich, eventually starring in a Nazi propaganda film. When the war ended he was sent to Australia with a family of Latvian refugees.

Fearful of being discovered—as either a Jew or a Nazi—Alex kept the secret of his childhood, even from his loving wife and children. But he grew increasingly tormented and became determined to uncover his Jewish roots and the story of his past. Shunned by a local Holocaust organization, he reached out to his son Mark for help in reclaiming his identity. A survival story, a grim fairy-tale, and a psychological drama, this remarkable memoir asks provocative questions about identity, complicity, and forgiveness.

Present Regarding Books The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood

Title	:	The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood
Author	:	Mark Kurzem
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 418 pages
Published	:	November 1st 2007 by Viking Adult (first published February 2000)
Categories	:	Nonfiction. History. World War II. Holocaust. Biography. Autobiography. Memoir. War

Rating Regarding Books The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood

Ratings: 4.02 From 2622 Users | 257 Reviews

Write-Up Regarding Books The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood

Honestly, this is not the type of books I normally read. However, this is one of the best book Ive ever read! Personally, I think it portrays the different way holocaust affected the world in a really interesting way. It tells a war story that is out of the ordinary, but absolutely worth reading.

The Mascot is such a powerful and compelling biography. It is not your traditional biography--Holocaust or not. It is the story of how one man's past is revealed, how a father chooses to share his memories--some quite vivid, others very vague or fuzzy--with his adult son. The father's life is revealed to his son in a series of conversations and through the son's research to validate his father's story.Mark, our narrator, always knew his father had his secrets. His father had a brown bag he

The story itself was very interesting, but the "voice" of the book just didn't feel authentic. It was written from the perspective of the author having conversations with his father about his (the father's) past, and it felt a bit too forced for my taste. Not that his story isn't believable, but for me the way the story was presented lacked something for me.There was also a bit of "cloak and dagger" stuff that never really was explained, which took away from the main story too much. All in all,

As a parent of a one-year old baby girl, one of the most difficult things for me to read about and yet find so intriguing is the subject of children in times of war. Perhaps it is the stark contrast between childhood innocence (and helplessness) and the animal-like cruelty that Man is capable of inflicting to himself.Children and war. It is a pain that strikes me in deep the heart, the same way I feel when I read about babies abandoned at birth or children neglected and abused. War is that great

Wow, just wow. I don't know how to describe this book. It is in some ways like a detective story or putting together a jig saw puzzle. You read it and you wonder how the pieces will fit together. I've been in two death camps -- Auschwitz (5 times) and Majdanek (twice). The first time I travelled to Auschwitz in 1991 I went with a Polish Army Colonel whose uncle was killed there. I've read several books about the 'Shoah including "Night" and "the Diary of Anne Frank." I've pored over David

Read a copy borrowed from the library, after a recommendation from a friend. Thank you Adele for your review.

Think back to all the memories you have from when you were 5 years old. What can you learn and trust from memories you have at such a young age? This book is about a man who has been hiding the secret of who he was for such a long time that he can hardly remember what the truth is. He asks his son to help him find out who he is and who his family is. This book is the result.