Joshua M. Greene - Unstoppable: Siggi B. Wilzigs Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend

PRAISE FOR SIGGI B. WILZIG AND

UNSTOPPABLE

Siggi was someone who would look at the Himalayan mountains and say, I can climb that.

Rodgin Cohen, Esq., senior chair, Sullivan & Cromwell

Siggi understood a truth that often escapes experts in the world of finance: Human nature is the greatest determinant of market trends. For someone with so little education, and no formal business background, his achievements after liberation are as breathtaking as his survival itself. A fascinating read, deeply moving and illuminating.

Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics and international finance, Stern School of Business, New York University

Hard work, intuition, and faith helped guide Siggi through the horrors of Auschwitz to the upper echelons of the business world. Though he never escaped the trauma of his memories, his experiences will now educate and inspire others.

Marc Leder, co-CEO, Sun Capital

Siggis life story is a David and Goliath saga that reminds us what one individual can doa unique, mesmerizing biography.

Michael Berenbaum, former president, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, former chair, US Holocaust Memorial Museum

This book details the incredible story of Siggi Wilzig, a man who defied the odds and survived the hell of Nazi death camps and built a legacy in America. It teaches us hope and provides inspiration in times of trouble.

Dani Dayan, former consul general of Israel in New York

A powerful and moving narrative Siggi was a towering Jew, a role model for the ages a staggering success story and an amazing American.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean, global director, Ed Snider Social Action Institute, Simon Wiesenthal Center

This book is a wake-up call to the threat of Holocaust denial and a gripping, powerful account of one of the most successful entrepreneurs and philanthropists in Americaan extraordinary life.

Harley Lippman, former chair, board of trustees, the American Jewish Congress, founder/CEO, Genesis 10

After his liberation from Nazi death camp Mauthausen, Siggi Wilzig worked for the US Army Counter Intelligence Corps and collected evidence which I used to bring war criminals to justice. As a liberator of various concentration camps, and a US prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, I can confirm the authenticity of the horrors Siggi described. His survival and success after coming to America will be an inspiration to all readers.

Benjamin B. Ferencz, chief prosecutor, Nuremberg, Einsatzgruppen Trial

A tower of strength, a strong warrior who believed in helping people. Humanity needs men like Siggi B. Wilzig in order to stay human.

Congressman Frank J. Guarini

A story of struggle and triumph his legacy will be forever remembered.

Senior Senator Robert Menendez

He taught all of us that you dont have to be a victim of circumstances. May we one day inhabit a world where more people live by his example.

Congressman Donald M. Payne

Given his lack of any formal education, Siggis business acumen was incredible, and his life was a testament to human enduranceheroic and unparalleled.

Marc Bell, managing partner, Marc Bell Capital

Siggi had the heart of a boxing champion. He took on all comers, dodged lethal blows, came back again and again, and refused to quit. Youve got to read this story. Its a knockout.

Yuri Foreman, World Boxing Association super welterweight titleholder (2009-10)

Joshua M. Greene is a Holocaust scholar whose biographies have sold more than a half-million copies worldwide. Greene is a popular lecturer who has spoken at the Pentagon and before the Judge Advocate Generals College, and his documentaries on Holocaust history have aired on PBS and Discovery. Greene has appeared in several national media outlets, including NPRs Fresh Air with Terry Gross, FOX News, and CNN.

I have been teaching about the Holocaust for over forty years and frequently invite Holocaust survivors to speak to my students. Among them have been a Jew who grew up in Germany and witnessed the rise of the Third Reich, a Jew who ended up in a ghetto and described the terrible hardships of life in that hellhole, a survivor of death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau who described the worlds largest killing field, and someone who survived in hiding who explained the terrible psychological trauma of being separated from family and forced to adopt a new identity. No matter how intellectually stimulating and challenging my lectures are, presentations by survivors are what my students remember best. Many of my students have never met a survivor before, and it is always an awe-inspiring experience for them.

This book comes at a particularly critical time as, sadly, those who can speak most convincingly about the Holocaust are all but gone. That is why videotaped interviews, memoirs, and biographies of survivors, such as this one of Siggi Wilzig, are so important. All those who survived Auschwitz as Siggi did and who witnessed people being tortured, beaten, and murdered have an important history to relate; yet this book does something that many other memoirs and biographies fail to do, and that adds to its significance. Namely, it includes the subjects post-Holocaust experiences. What was it like for Siggi to rebuild his life? How did he manage? What was it like to raise children whose relatives had nearly all been murdered in concentration camps? Where did he find the confidence to achieve what he did? How did he learn to experience joy again? Was he able to still believe in God?

What happened to Siggi after liberation is an important part of the miracle of his survival. Not everyone who came out of that dark time had the wherewithal to start anew, having lost everything and everyone. Siggi rose from the ashes, never gave up, and always moved forward. To be sure, like many other survivors, Siggi suffered from emotional scars and foibles. He was, after all, human. Yet he also emerged with the intent of leaving his mark on this world, with a love of life, with the desire to make a difference, and he did all that in an extraordinary fashion.

Still, he carried with him an enduring concern that the antisemitism at the root of the Holocaust was back with a vengeance. He was enraged, as every decent person should be, at the offenses of Holocaust deniers. He worried that, due to their propaganda, people would forget the past and fall prey to the hatred that was its foundation stone. Sadly, today we see that Siggis fears were not unfounded.

This biography brings the reader into the totality of its subjects extraordinary life and leaves us marveling at the remarkable accomplishments of this man.

Deborah E. Lipstadt, Ph.D.

There will likely never again be a businessman like Siggi B. Wilzig, the only survivor of Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Mauthausen to come to America, poor and uneducated, and rise from cleaning sweatshop toilets to becoming CEO of a New York Stock Exchangelisted oil company and a multibillion-dollar commercial bank. That he did so in two of postwar Americas most antisemitic industries makes his achievements even more astonishing.

Most takeovers of publicly traded companies are led by American-born, Ivy Leagueeducated men from affluent families with masters degrees in business. Siggi was an unskilled laborer armed with only a grammar-school education, a foreigner who arrived from Europe with $240 in his pocket and made his first dollar in America shoveling snow.