{"product_id":"the-narrow-bridge-beyond-the-holocaust","title":"The Narrow Bridge: Beyond the Holocaust","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs a boy studying Torah  Isaac Neuman learned to seek the spiritual lessons hidden in everyday life. Likewise  in this narrative of occupation and holocaust  he uncovers a core of human decency and spiritual strength that inhumanity  starvation  and even death failed to extinguish. Unlike many Holocaust memoirs that focus on physical suffering and endurance  The Narrow Bridge follows a spiritual journey. Neuman describes the world of Polish Jewry before and during the Holocaust  recreating the strong religious and secular personalities of his childhood and early youth in Zdunska Wola  Poland: the outcast butcher  Haskel Traskalawski; the savvy criminal-turned-entrepreneur Nochem Ellia; the trusted Dr. Lemberg  liaison to the German occupation government; and Neumans beloved teacher  Reb Mendel. Through their stories  Neuman reveals the workings of a community tested to the limits of faith and human dignity. With his brother Yossel  Neuman was transported to the Poznan area  first to the Yunikowo work camp in May 1941  then on to St. Martins Cemetery camp  where they removed gold jewelry and fillings from exhumed corpses. A string of concentration camps followed  each more oppressive than the last: Frstenfelde  Auschwitz  Fnfteichen  Gross Rosen  Mauthausen  Wels  and Ebensee. In the midst of these horrors  the brothers kept their feet on the \"narrow bridge\" of life by holding to their faith  their memories  and each other. In the end  only Isaac survived. The Narrow Bridge celebrates symbolic victories of faith over brute force. The execution of Zdunska Wolas Jewish spiritual and intellectual leaders is trumped by an act of breathtaking courage and conviction. A secret Passover Seder is cobbled together from hoarded bits of wax  piecemeal prayers  and matzoh baked in delousing ovens. A dying fellow inmate gives Neuman his warm coat as they both lie freezing on the ground. Such rituals of faith and acts of kindness  combined with boyhood memories and a sense of spiritual responsibility  sustained Neuman through the Holocaust and helped him to reconstruct his life after the war. His story is a powerful testimony to an unquenchable faith and a spirit tried by fire.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44985894338613,"sku":"ByrdShop_025202561X","price":45.94,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780252025617.jpg?v=1770876111","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-narrow-bridge-beyond-the-holocaust","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}