The Journey of Alfred Goldsteen’s Family

In this masterfully researched memoir, George H. Goldsteen looks back upon a long life; grieves his murdered extended family; and reflects on a tortured century. The book is based on the extensive journals kept during WW II by the author's mother and uncle and upon interviews he recorded with them.

The Journey of Alfred Goldsteen's Family: From Promising Lives to the Holocaust roundly succeeds - and hits us where we live - on several levels. First and foremost, it is the tragedy of a displaced and violated people. In Holland, Anne Frank and family were not the only victims of the Nazis - there were others. Like the Franks, and many other middle-class Jews, the Goldsteen family prospered in the Netherlands until that country fell.

At the same time, the book is a remarkable and intimate (because personalized) capsule of 20th century history. It's all here: read about the fall of Holland. Read about the absurdly rising prices (3 liters of cooking oil going for the equivalent of $700); read about the laws against the Jews. The author has done his homework. Goldsteen travelled far and wide to unearth photographs and documents showing his living, breathing family.

We get to meet, almost in the flesh, Goldsteen's parents, grandmother, and his uncle, along with other extended family. George H. Goldsteen depicts the shattered life arcs of family members (95 murdered by Nazis) with love and reverence.The book also depicts the spiritual progress of the author - and of the century.

Goldsteen's personal solution to the dilemma of evil is to reach for God: he is an observant Jew. The author copes with the miasma of fractured history with an on-point (always scholarly rant) on the once beautiful and flowing lives of his forebears. Goldsteen amplifies this intimate and compelling family history with historical documents that are truly eye-opening, viz., 'Appendix A: German Nazi Laws Decreed against Jews in the Netherlands, 1940 -1945'; 'Appendix B: Letters Alfred Sent to Tine from the Transit Camp at Westerbork in 1944; and 'Appendix E: Partial List of Members of the Goldsteen Family Murdered by Nazis'. And so on and so forth.

The book is beautifully illustrated and researched; it is a grand testament to the lives of those swept beyond the pale of history by scapegoating, the madness of crowds, and fascism.

- Pacific Book Review

"Had the war lasted any longer, there is no doubt my mother, my sister, me, and others like us would also have been deported and murdered."

George Goldsteen never knew his father, Alfred. Alfred was arrested due to an order by the Nazis and their sympathizers and sent to a concentration camp when the author was two, just days before Alfred’s daughter would be born. Through World War II and the Holocaust, the author would lose about ninety-five family members. This memoir tracks his journey to find out what happened to his family and how his father was murdered.

Much of the information comes from journals written during that period and letters and interviews conducted afterward, mostly from Goldsteen’s mother and his uncle, Carl. They suffered terribly during that period, and everyone lost loved ones and friends. This is their narrative collected and presented by the author. In addition, there is historical information that helps explain the ordeal and describes some of the aftermath of the war. It also relates the victim’s attempts at finding details on their loved ones and compensation from those responsible for the atrocities.

Goldsteen’s family memoir is compelling and offers an intense look at the lives of those who suffered during the Holocaust. However, the largest portion of the narrative describes the lives of family members for thirty-five years before the Holocaust. Intriguingly, this is the section that stands out as truly unique and fascinating. The reader is given a detailed look at the families’ lives and businesses that they owned and ran. Seeing their personal and entrepreneurial freedoms taken away from them piece by piece before the war is a telling example of how Nazism took root through a series of steps. It is not only a personal story for the Goldsteen family, but it is also a historical narrative of paramount importance to all readers, as the lessons learned about nationalism and bigotry should never be forgotten and require constant vigilance. Overall, the narrative is well-written, although there are times readers can become confused due to the number of characters with similar names and the shifts in narrative focus. However, the letters and interviews included by the author do a good job of making the story both personal and affecting, and many readers will undoubtedly be moved by this recollection.

-The US Review of Books