Title: Living A Life That Matters: From Nazi Nightmare To American Dream
Author: Ben Lesser
Publisher: Abbott Press
ISBN: 978-1458202727
Pages: 370
Genre: Western U.S. Biographies
Reviewed by: Anthony Avina
Pacific Book Review
Surviving a harrowing ordeal in one’s life can often be cause for reflection. As Elie Wiesel once said, “I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived, I owe something to the dead and anyone who does not remember betrays them again.” Yet one of the most horrific and traumatic things a person has ever survived in this world has to be the Holocaust that saw the awful genocide and murder of six million Jewish men, women and children. In author Ben Lesser’s book Living A Life That Matters: From Nazi Nightmare To American Dream, one survivor of that ordeal reflects on the events which brought him through it to where he ended up today.
In this book, the author recounts the events which saw him somehow survive the Holocaust while so many did not, including his own parents. From experiencing the horrors of the war and the Holocaust to finding his way to America and building a new life that defines the classic “American Dream.” The author uses his own experiences and memories to analyze what brought these events to pass and show future generations that by learning from the past perhaps we can stop it from repeating in the future.
A powerful and well written book, the author’s message and story immediately hits readers in the heart and keeps readers invested as the author recounts this painful history and eventual recovery into a life one can only classify as a dream after the nightmare. The author’s message is more relevant today than ever before, as hatred and tensions run rampant throughout the world at large, but especially in America. It is important to analyze how events such as the Holocaust and WWII as a whole happened, which primarily was based on hatred, which the leader of the Nazi Party used to fuel his campaign of terror on the world. If this hatred in modern America is not stopped, the nightmares that the author describes could sadly reappear, which is why the author’s book and message are so important to get into the hands of students and modern audiences alike.
This is a book for anyone with an interest in biographies and memoirs, history, WWII, the Holocaust studies and non-fiction as a whole. As a history buff myself, it was not only engaging but important to me to read through the author’s experiences and life, and to see not only the hardships they overcame but what was waiting for them on the other side, as they built the American dream for themselves.
Overall this was a truly fascinating and important read that was evenly paced, insightful and passionate all the way through. Definitely emotional as well, the book cuts to the core of what drove humanity to the horrors of WWII in the first place, and what true humanity means as we move forward in life. It made me appreciate many things in my life that most of us take for granted. If you haven’t yet, pick up your copy of Ben Lesser’s Living A Life That Mattes: From Nazi Nightmare To American Dream today and see for yourself why the author’s work is as revered as it is.
