Hilton Obenzinger, who transcribed the memories of his aunt, Zosia Goldberg as she related her life and survival of the Holocaust, was a classmate of my husband at Columbia, and a professor at Stanford when my son and his classmates were there.

The account related in this book is fascinating, if somewhat rough in the telling. Goldberg survived by "passing" as gentile. The memoir is stark, and is pretty much a transcript of an elderly woman's telling of her story separated by many years from the actual events. I have read other survival stories that may have benefited from better writers/storytellers at the helm, or transcribers who helped smooth out uneven telling. Zosia Goldberg may not be as polished as some, but she is a survivor, and her story is worth preserving. ( )