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Text originally published in 1961 under the same title.
Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Publishers Note
Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.
We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.
OUT OF THE ASHES: THE STORY OF A SURVIVOR
BY
LEON THORNE, PH.D.
AUTHORS PREFACE
Sixteen long and eventful years have now passed since the writer emerged from the shadow of death, with a lifetime of experiences etched in his mind, and a battered manuscript written under enormous handicaps and describing in detail the years of the Hitler terror.
Since that time there have been other survivors who have told their stories; there have been thousands of magazine articles and hundreds of books and plays and poems and true-life accounts ghost-written and distributed all over the world.
The story of Anne Frank has captured the imagination of the world. The Wall by John Hersey has been a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and it, like the Anne Frank book, has appeared in millions of copies of paperback editions everywhere. Meyer Levin, in his autobiography, In Search and in his best-selling novel Eva , has told, graphically, the stories of other survivors.
Why, then, another book by another man who happened to live through the war, through the concentration camps and through the harrowing crematoria?
No life is like another and no man has lived another mans life. I feel, with humility and with passion, that what happened to me was different in spirit if not in kind from what others lived through. No professional writer, no skilled novelist, no gifted poet could lift the limits of his imagination to compete with the facts as they were.
The reader of this narrative may sometimes doubt the events recounted in this tale. But every word is the truth. And where I repeat some stories from hearsay, I have checked the manuscript with survivors in Europe who participated in those events of which I did not have first-hand knowledge.
I saw a generation dieand a new generation come to life. I emerged from the holocaust feeling that I came through, to some extent, because my story had to be toldto a doubting and to a forgetful and an indifferent generation. Men and women and children were wantonly murdered; and I saw it happen. The depths of degradation were witnessed by me and yet I retained my belief in the power of man to survive, to retain his faith in his Lord.
I shall never forget the years during which I existed; existed rather than lived. But Ilike thousands of othersremain alive to give evidence of the barbarous treatment man can visit upon his fellow man.
I wrote this manuscript in German and, after years of travel and travail, saw it translated into English, for a new generation to read and ponder. It is obvious today, in reading of the swastika smearings in Germany and elsewhere that my story must be told. For after fifteen years, it is clear that Nazism is not dead. Young boys and girls, now studying in most schools are taught practically nothing about the Hitler years. Their ignorance of the atrocities is abysmal. And this ignorance is world-wide for people in all lands ignore the past and pretend a lack of knowledge of what happened in those years. The world has been shocked by violence against the Jews and Jew-baiting, renewed and revived a decade and a half after the victory over Hitlerism.
Indeed, a new generation must read and ponder this story. I can only wish that the eyes which read this narrative will help the world understand what happened to the people to whom these things were doneand the triumphant conclusion of this taletriumphant even in the midst of terror and bloodshed. For I am persuaded that the Jewish people shall continue to dismay their enemies through the ages, even though some people continue to give evidence that they are still tainted with hatred and bigotry and violence.
The Jewish people are immortal and my own survival is part of that immortality, and the victory of God.
I owe a special word of gratitude to my good friend Dr. Benjamin Z. Kreitman, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of America, who has taken an affectionate interest in my welfare and has been my faithful guide for many years. Without his friendship and support my life in this country would have been difficult. He has made it easier and I shall always be grateful to him.
I cannot conclude my expressions of appreciation without paying special tribute to my dear wife Rachel, who is intimately acquainted with the events described in these pages and whose love and encouragement have meant much to me during the relatively peaceful years of adjustment in the United States.
And if the reader will gain some insight into the period, some realization of the hell and terror of the Hitler years, I shall consider my work well done.
Leon Thorne
New York, January, 1961
X marks the hiding place
FROM THE CELLAR
I am writing these lines under great difficulties, while my life is in danger and with little confidence that I shall survive these terrible years. But I must write, even if these words die with me, for I feel someone must tell the story of how the Jews lived, diedand survived the Hitler years. The despairing cries of my fellow Jews in the ghettos and concentration camps are echoing in my ears.
And their cries shall not go unheard. Will somebody be left to record recent events? Who will describe our tortures for the people of the future, who may be ignorant of what we experienced?
I dare not hope that I shall live through this period, but I must work as though my words will come through. I shall act and write as though there were hope for me....
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