<< 1 >>
Rating: Summary: A German Survives the Holocaust Review: Walter Meyer's memoir, Tomorrow Will Be Better: Surviving Nazi German, speaks out to inform the world that the horrors of the Holocaust were not an exclusively Jewish experience but that it also included Hitler's own German people as well as other non-Jews. Many scenes that the author details have been chronicled many times in books and documentaries about the Holocaust, but these are familiar to the world as exclusively a Jewish nightmare. Meyer informs the world that this is a misconception. His voice helps to create a more complete picture of atrocities suffered by "millions of humans," not at the hand of the enemy, but by his very own government. Meyer reminds the world that Hitler was brutal in his quest to eliminate "any opponent of the Third Reich, regardless of race, religion, or nationality." Meyer was arrested during World War II and, after botched escape attempts, sent to the Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp, where his weight declined to eighty pounds and he contracted tuberculosis. Realizing that if he didn't escape, death was certain, he devised a plan, and survived by sheer determination. Meyer has been a resident of Austin, Texas, since 1963. He earned doctorates in History and Philosophy of Education, Psychology and Human Sexuality, was Assistant Director of the University of Texas' Center for International Education, and taught languages as well as philosophy. He has represented a number of Texas Governors as Ambassador of Good Will. He served as an interpreter to President Lyndon Johnson, and painted His Holiness Pope John Paul II on commission. This book was a finalist in the Nonfiction Category of the Ninth Annual Austin Writers' League Violet Crown Book Award and honored with a Special Citation for Nonfiction in 1999.
<< 1 >>
|