Arthur Spindler's autobiography is an extraordinary story of courage during the second world war when Poland was occupied by the Nazis. By a mixture of good fortune, clever deceptions of both the Germans and the Poles, Arthur and his wife managed to survive. Passing themselves off as non-Jews, both Spindlers worked for the Germans while Arthur was secretly active in the Polish Resistance.
Arthur survived the Germans only to fall victim to the occupying Russians, and was jailed by Stalin's regime in the USSR. As the Holocaust survivors age, there is an increasing urgency for them to record their stories, each adding another dimension to this most terrible chapter of modern history. Arthur Spindler was 22 years old when the Nazis invaded, and observed events with a mature, unclouded outlook, all the while sustained by his own natural ebullience and cheerfulness. His retelling of those years retains that sense of immediacy, so reading his words or hearing his stories is akin to hearing tell of something that only happened yesterday The many black and white photographs, many of family members, add to this impression.
