William & Rosalie

A Holocaust Testimony (Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Series)

By: William Schiff, Rosalie Schiff, Craig Hanley

Narrated by: Michael Fischbein

Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

William & Rosalie is the gripping and heartfelt account of two young Jewish people from Poland who survive six different German slave and prison camps throughout the Holocaust. In 1941, newlyweds William and Rosalie Schiff are forcibly separated and sent on their individual odysseys through a surreal maze of hate. Terror in the Krakow ghetto, sadistic SS death games, cruel human medical experiments, eyewitness accounts of brutal murders of men, women, children, and even infants, and the menace of rape in occupied Poland make William & Rosalie an unusually explicit view of the chaos that World War II unleashed on the Jewish people. The lovers’ story begins in Krakow’s ancient neighborhood of Kazimierz, after the Germans occupy western Poland. A year later they marry in the ghetto; by 1942 deportations have wasted both families. After Rosalie is saved by Oskar Schindler, the husband and wife end up at the Plaszow work camp under Amon Goeth, the bestial commandant played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List. While Rosalie is on “heaven patrol” removing bodies from the camp, William is working in the factories. But when Rosalie is shipped by train to a different factory camp, William sneaks into a boxcar to follow, and he ends up at Auschwitz instead. Craig Hanley powerfully narrates the struggle of the couple to stay alive and find each other at war’s end. Now in their eighties, William and Rosalie come to terms in this book with the loss of their families and years of torture at the hands of Nazi captors. Unique among memoirs from this era, the book connects directly to the present day. The Schiffs’ ongoing and highly effective campaign against prejudice and discrimination is a heroic culmination of two lives scarred beyond belief by racism. William & Rosalie artfully combines biography with timely lessons on the nature of mass hate, a stubborn phenomenon that continues to endanger every life on Earth.

©2007 W-R Schiff Literary Works LLC and Craig Hanley (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"This is a riveting, harrowing, dramatic true story, the stuff of which blockbuster movies and television mini-series are made. William & Rosalie is particularly distinguished by an underlying message warning of the dangers of prejudice and ethnic hatred." ( Midwest Book Review)

"Every Holocaust Survivor has stories that grip and amaze us. But together with that, William and Rosalie Schiff have a rare dedication and determination to share these with as many people as possible. Rosalie was a pampered young girl. Yet she endured years in ghastly concentration and slave labor camps to emerge a warm and loving mother and grandmother as well as a dedicated community volunteer full of optimism and hope. William survived fifteen months in Auschwitz, including a time in Dr. Mengele's medical lab, yet he retained his indomitable spirit for life and an unshakable belief that there is but one race, the human race. Reading them is to be inspired deeply." (Elliott Dlin, Director, Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance)

"The richness of the Schiffs' memories and the sheer intensity of their experiences record for posterity the horrors of the Holocaust." ( Booklist)

Don’t miss this one!

Unbelievable
Read the summary
It’s 3-4 lives and neither shrinks from telling their good and bad choices
I wouldn’t judge them from any choices they made
Many tears shed while driving the 100 minute round trip to work teaching my little TK students
My second listen in a couple of years
I’d forgotten so much of their story
Probably in my top 3 of the 150+ audibles I’ve listened to🙂

Wonderful story of survival and love

Amazing book, powerful message for this generation of what hate can do and how much love can change lives.

Definitely Recommend!

This book was extremely sad, but it gives you an insight on how terrible the conditions were during the Holocaust. I definitely recommend it.

Excellent

I have read numerous books on the Holocaust and their survivors, this was one of my favorites, very sad, but heart warming in the end. I still find it incredible some of the stories of what these people had to endure during the Holocaust.

extremely touching!!!

unimaginable horror! you wonder how can there be so much hatred in this world! why cant we all respect each other!
my heart goes out to all the survivors !!!

Speachless, I wont forget this book

I cant use the words that i enjoyed this book, surely no one could. But i can say it just left me so captivated. I have been to Krakow in Poland and walked the very streets described in this book. This just made hearing the stories of life in the ghetto so much more haunting. I honestly dont know how to reccomend this book other than to say an absolute must. If they can endure such an ordeal then we can endure the difficulties of hearing their story. Be warned it can be heart breaking but also spiritually lifting. I am so grateful Their story has been shared in such an honest and revealing manner.

The narrator did such a great job with the right amount of sensitivity that i completely forgot there was a narrator. It felt like i was listening to the author.

Teriffic book of survival and love

Would you consider the audio edition of William & Rosalie to be better than the print version?

Never read it

What did you like best about this story?

It was the perfect length to tell a great story. The love between them was heartwarming.

Have you listened to any of Michael Fischbein’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but I will again. He's very good.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Many and I don't want to give any of it away by saying.

Any additional comments?

I've had this in my wish list for a long time and finally listened to it in one morning. I'm so happy I did. Don't let the length steer you away.