Lovers in Auschwitz

Author Keren Blankfeld
Narrator Suzanne Toren
Publisher Ebury Publishing
Run Time 11 hours and 37 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Biography and non-fiction prose, Biography: historical, political and military, History, The Holocaust, True stories of heroism, endurance and survival.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Zippi Spitzer and David Wisnia were captivated by each other from the moment they first exchanged glances across the work floor. It was the beginning of a love story that could have happened anywhere. Except for one difference: this romance was unfolding in history's most notorious death camp, between two young prisoners whose budding intimacy risked dooming them if they were caught.

Incredibly, David and Zippi survived for years beneath the ash-choked skies of Auschwitz. Under the protection of their fellow inmates, their romance grew and deepened, even as their brushes with death mounted and David's luck in particular seemed close to running out. As the war's end finally approached and the time came for them to leave the camp, David and Zippi made plans to meet again. But neither of them could imagine how long their reunion would take or how many lives they would live in the interim. They had no inkling, either, of the betrayals that would await them along the way. But David did suspect that Zippi harbored a secret-one that could explain the mystery of his survival all those years ago.

An unbelievable tale of romance, sacrifice, loss, and resilience, Lovers in Auschwitz is a saga of two young people who found themselves trapped inside a waking nightmare of the Nazis' creation, yet who nevertheless discovered a love that sustained them through history's darkest hour.

©2024 Keren Blankfeld (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

Lovers in Auschwitz adds to the history of resistance during the Holocaust, and is an example of a rare story of joy during an incredibly dark time.

TIME Magazine

Haunting and powerfully resonant: an extraordinary story of human light and love shining even in the foulest darkness. Written with magnetic sensitivity, this is a story not just of remarkable individuals, but also a tribute to the wider indomitability of the human spirit at the darkest moment in European history.

Sinclair McKay, Sunday Times bestselling author of Dresden, The Secret Life of Bletchley Park and Berlin

A love story like no other, this profoundly moving book teaches us how the human spirit can never be entirely extinguished – even in the hell of Auschwitz.

Zippi and David are both lovingly rendered. And in focusing on them, the book does implicitly honor the full humanity of two survivors — recapturing the texture of their origins, their hopes and dreams, and their complex lives, rather than merely their presence at one of history’s most unfathomable, tragic episodes.

The Washington Post

A complicated, important story, told with great care.

The Los Angeles Times

A story of instant love and poignant loss…[Lovers in Auschwitz] captures the miracle of love in a place of horror and reminds us that, at the very moment the world is tearing us apart, certain forces might bring us back together.

Jewish Book Council

Moving and tragic … A true tale of love amid unimaginable suffering.

Kirkus Reviews

A story of hope in one of humanity’s most hopeless places, Lovers in Auschwitz honors those who were lost while producing fresh insights into the nature of survival, the resilience of memory, the unseen debts we all owe one another, and, yes, the transformative power of love.

Robert Kolker, New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road and Lost Girls

At its heart, Lovers in Auschwitz is a story of resistance—for what could be a greater act of defiance than two young, Jewish inmates finding love in a Nazi concentration camp? Brutal and moving, Zippi and David’s accounts of survival bring to light a great deal more than their connection to each other. With skill and painstaking research, Blankfeld introduces her readers to the extraordinary women and men interned at Auschwitz who, in the face of endless degradation and death, worked to undermine the Nazis, risking what little hope of life they had left to help save each other. Anyone meeting these individuals on Blankfeld’s pages will not forget them.

Rebecca Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of Into the Forest

In Lovers in Auschwitz, Keren Blankfeld offers a vivid portrait of the brutality of daily life at Auschwitz, alongside formidable tales of people who risked their lives to save others—even strangers—through sabotage, sympathy, and love. Mesmerizing and inspirational.

Judy Batalion, New York Times bestselling author of The Light of Days

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