The inspiring true story of a father and son's fight to stay together and to survive the Holocaust.

The book tells of Gustav Kleinmann, a Jewish upholsterer in Vienna, who was seized by the Nazis in 1939. Along with his teenage son, Fritz, he was sent to Buchenwald in Germany. There began an unimaginable ordeal that saw the pair beaten, starved and forced to build the very concentration camp they were held in.

When Gustav was set to be transferred to Auschwitz, a certain death sentence, Fritz refused to leave his side. Throughout the horrors they witnessed and the suffering they endured, there was one constant that kept them alive: the love between father and son.

This book is shocking in its content, but above all a story of hope and the outstanding things that humans can endure for loved ones and to stay alive. I felt horror that such things actually occured and in some respects this book made me ashamed to be part of the human race that actually visited these horrors on innocent people.

Based on Gustav's secret diary and meticulous archive research, this book tells his and Fritz's story for the first time - a story of courage and survival unparalleled in the history of the Holocaust.

I can’t praise this book highly enough - well researched, beautifully written and sensitively handled, this is the true story of Gustav and his son, Fritz who find themselves ultimately in Auschwitz. The book also deals to a much lesser degree with their wider family.

The facts of the Holocaust are well known but this is such a personal and Intimate account that it is even more effective in drawing the reader in but can also be, at times, uplifting.

I think this book should be prescribed reading for schoolchildren in secondary schools. It brights the plight of this generation to light in a clear and simple way.

It seems that this year is one where books about the Holocaust have been published based on memoirs of the Jewish prisoners. This well researched book was a bit of a novel and a bit of a history book. It is correct that we should not forget.

The most overwhelming feature about this book is the love of a Father and Son. How they survived is nothing short of a miracle. The bravery of people in the face of such atrocities is humbling.

I thought this was a heartbreaking account of those who suffered at the hands of the Nazi Party within the concentration camps. While I have read a fair few accounts about the atrocities of the camps, this one appears to be unique to me. Despite knowing that the author and his father survived, it was still tough reading about their experiences and I was relieved when they were freed. I encourage anybody to read this book.

I think 2018/19 seems to be the year for books about the Holocaust. They seem to be popping up left right and centre! As I am very interested in this time of history so can not get enough of them! I am so glad I got to read this one. It is a heart-breaking read yet so inspiring. It was well researched and portrays this horrible time in history very well. It feels odd to say it is a real page turner with it being set in the harrowing time but it was a brilliant read.

Thank you netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review this great book.

So, in 2018, do we really need another book about the Holocaust? In the case of this one I think we do. In the face of many memoirs, fictions, academic and journalistic studies, what Dronfield brings to this story is the sense of the local and particular as he follows a single family of Viennese Jews.

From the Anschluss to the end of the war, this is an unashamedly emotive and deeply moving story as Gustave and his eldest son, Fritz, are rounded up and put on one of the first transports to a Nazi labour camp and then moved to Auschwitz.

Based on Gustave's diary that he somehow managed to hold onto plus interviews this book does a tremendous job of telling the personal stories at its heart against the backdrop of the war more generally. It's nice to see, too, Dronfield's gestures to our present as desperate refugees are refused visas to the US ('the United States had a theoretical quota of sixty thousand refugees a year, but chose not to use it') and face xenophobic treatment in the UK ('The press - with the Daily Mail at the forefront -had helped whip up paranoia about fifth columnists' - i.e. German-speaking Jews who had fled from Austria and Germany and now faced internment in the UK in case they were closet Nazis...) I couldn't help also reading a reference to Brexiteering isolationist rhetoric about Britain's lone stand against Hitler in the corrective comment from Dronfield: 'the RAF had become a coalition force, its British and Commonwealth pilots joined by exiles from Poland, France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia. Britain still liked to think of itself as a sole nation, but it was nothing of the sort.'

Ultimately, though, this is a story about unimaginable human endurance and the love that binds Gustave and Fritz. Dronfield is not blind to the selfish instinct for survival that, of course, is a part of camp narratives, but in this story the there is compensating comradeship, friendship in some surprising places, organised resistance and sheer good luck, too.

A harrowing read but also, I think, a heartening one. Many thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley.

Such a harrowing story of real life events at concentration camps and the human will to survive . Beautifully written based on a diary written by the father .

Its hard to say you love a book when it is based on such harrowing events however I will say I was so invested in this book I read it in a few days. This book is both heartbreaking and inspiring, the difference between the cruelty and evilness of the Nazis and the love and loyalty between Father and Son was striking, with their refusal to give up truly inspiring.This book is based on a true story is about Gustav and Fritz Kleinman ,Jews who were seized by the Nazis and thrown into various Concentration Camps finally ending up in Auschwitz . I found this book so powerful and would recommend to all my family and friends.

This book is both heartbreaking and inspiring ,the cruelty and sadism of the Nazis and the love between Father and Son with their indomitable spirits and refusal to give up despite horrific punishments .This true story is about Gustav and Fritz Kleinman ,Jews who were seized by the Nazis and thrown into various Concentration Camps finally ending up in Auschwitz .The horrors they had to endure were unbelievable and the love and spirit they both had kept them going through it all Miraculously both survived and I am so glad they both lived to an old age ,though I doubt they would ever forget the horrors they had endured..I didn't know this story ,it is both compelling and powerful and very hard to put down . Jeremy Dronfield has written a beautiful book from the information in Gustav's diary which he manged to keep hidden through it all .Many thanks to the Publisher ,The Author and NetGalley for my review copy in return for an honest review

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. I honestly found this book a little hard to get into. A truely sad story about father and son. It’s horrible to think this happend. Such a cruel world in which they lived in. Something I’ve obviously only read in history books. It’s an absolute sin as to what people endured during wars of any kind, and the worst dictators known to man. Anyone who lives through this atrocity deserves recognition for their bravery. Very well written, but sad story.

I'm very interested in WWII literature, and this account is a very well written one. I think it's important that people are reminded of what happened, and that the people who experienced it have their experiences recorded while they still can. The language of the book is easy to read, and the author has done a good job of creating a coherent timeline from what was probably a disparate range of documents and accounts.

Powerful and compelling, despite the heart-rending subject matter.
There exist many historical records of events about the holocaust and concentration camps and many novels but this really brings the two together. We are, of course, fully aware of the atrocities but somehow they sometimes feel too removed from us - a page in a history book; a figure on a sheet of paper. But Dronfield has set the agonies and emotions suffered by those who were actually there against the historic facts, taking us with Fritz and his father as they lived through the realities of such an event.
Although knowing from the beginning of my reading that Fritz and his father both survive their ordeals I still suffered their profound despair, fears and sorrows. and was overwhelmingly relieved when they were freed.
Hardly a subject-matter to celebrate but I would highly recommend this book for those who want a slightly different angle to many other accounts of this topic.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

No matter how many books I read about the Holocaust, my heart breaks all over again as I unearth new details and recollections. The story of the Kleinmanns is a new one to me, and I appreciated how respectfully the narrative was handled. Certainly a tale so fantastically brave needs no embellishments. "The Boy..." is an affecting story told from the viewpoint of the entire family via correspondence, interviews, diaries and collaborative evidence. Put simply, I couldn't rest until I had finished the tale in full. What did slow me down was the pacing- in an effort perhaps to tell each story there is a lot of flashback and this slows things quite a bit. Plus a lot of information is needlessly repeated, which can be frustrating as a reader. On the whole however I very much appreciated the tireless work of this author who followed the thread of one family from beginning to end, including the women and men who touched their lives in one of the darkest periods of recent history.

I visited Auschwitz 12 years ago and was deeply moved, but reading this book about Gustav Kleinmann and his son there really brought the hell to life. Gustav and his family came to the edge of oblivion yet never gave up hope. A true lesson for us all to learn. Please read the book and take this lesson in that such things can never be forgotten or repeated. Thank you for writing this for the world to read.

Very powerful and emotive, the writing brings the characters to life and I had to stop many times as was so emotional, I've been to Auschwitz so I could visualise even more the descriptions. What strength of characters they both had

Based on Gustav Kleinmann's secret diary, this book tells the story of Gustav and his son Fritz, who are captured by Nazi's and sent to Buchenwald, Germany.

A well reasearched, deeply moving, haunting story of horror, courage, love, strength and survival during the Holocaust.. an unbreakable bond shared between father and son, this book will stay with you a long, long time after reading.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read in return for an honest review. 4 stars

You can't exactly say you enjoy a story about the holocaust or auschwitz so it's difficult to know how to review this. Written as a story by the author it is actually a true story based on the diaries left behind. It is about Gustav and Fritz Kleinmann seized by the Nazis during the war and when Gustav is set to be moved to auschwitz his son Fritz chooses to go with him rather than let his father go alone. It is a story of a father and son's unending love for each other through horrors and suffering, that endur d and kept them alive. The writing is good but loses its pace a little a few times, but it is probably due to the fact the author is trying to make a diary sound like a story. This like any book you read of the holocaust or auschwitz is haunting, horrifying endlessly sad, but again because of the tale shows the strength and love that endures in times of horror and evil.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest review

There are no words which can fully describe how important and powerful this story is. But I’m certainly going to do my best to express my own thoughts and encourage you all to read it. This is not an easy read, by any means, but a deeply vital and necessary one, difficult though it may be.

I’d just like to make it clear, which the writer Jeremy Dronfield also does: that this is a true story and everything within the book is factually accurate, down to the letters and threads of conversations within it. Throughout the book there are multiple footnotes as well as an extensive index at the end of the novel with all the references. It is an impeccably researched novel and I appreciate the effort and dedication this must have taken, as well as the emotional toll.

Before the story of Gustav and Fritz really begins, there is a touching foreword by the youngest member of the Kleinmann family, Kurt Kleinnmann who expresses that his families story must never be forgotten and the importance of keeping it alive. He also expresses his gratitude to the writer, Jeremy Dronfield for compiling this story and bringing it to public attention. This alone brought tears to my eyes and it sets the tone for this heartbreaking but inspiring tale of human strength and the unwavering love between a father and his son.

The book follows the Kleinmann family, a Jewish family who live in Vienna just prior to the German invasion of Poland and the horrifying events which follow. Over time each member of the family is separated and goes through different trials and tribulations. Primarily the narrative follows Gustav and Fritz, as they are held captive in a number of concentration camps, starting from Buchenwald then finally to Auschwitz.

Honestly, I had to stop many times whilst reading, as I couldn’t even comprehend the experiences of so many people depicted in the book. The atrocities and cruelty goes beyond any limits. Through it all, hope remained. The sense of humanity and the desire to overcome even the most insurmountable obstacles was honestly inspiring and humbling to read about. Through so many near death experiences and the brutality of Buchenwald then Auschwitz, Gustav and Fritz manage to stay together and retain their compassion.

One of the most touching elements was the resilience and bonds formed between Gustav, Fritz and other individuals in the camps. In such dire circumstances, where there was such little to go around, they would find ways to share even these morsels and help others. It’s a testament to the power of humanity, and a deeply poignant one at that.

This book is also an important reminder that the Holocaust and the many people who lost their lives are not just faceless numbers. They were individuals, with families, hopes and dreams which were cruelly taken away. It depicts what life was like in the many camps but also what life was like for those on the outside, the fear and paranoia as well as the grief. Dronfield depicts the ill treatment so many faced, in a way which is not overly descriptive but shows the grim realities in an eye opening way, and how these experiences shaped so many lives.

It’s hard to believe at certain points that this is a true story, and one of the many that we must never forget. As someone who has studied both World Wars as well as the Holocaust extensively, it still educated me a lot about the full extent of the heartbreaking realities and taught me so much. This book hit especially hard because of the rising amount of Anti Semitism across the world to this day, which most recently resulted in an attack on a Synagogue in the US, where members of the Jewish community sadly lost their lives. I implore people to educate themselves and find it in themselves to be compassionate and understand history, learn from the past and come together.

Overall, I am extremely grateful to have read The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz and I will always carry the Kleinmann family and their story with me. This account has left me so incredibly moved. I will never forget the will and determination of Tini Kleinmann and her unrelenting efforts to get her children to safety, may she rest in peace. I will never forget the strength, kindess and love between Gustav and his beloved son, Fritz.