A draft English translation of Doch der Hund prepared by John Rie was my first contact with this story, and provided a vital foundation for creating my own translation of Gustav’s diary and Fritz’s memoir. For the preparation of the Hebrew section titles, I am grateful for the expert advice given by Keren Joseph-Browning. Meticulous copy-editing by Richenda Todd has saved me from many small but awkward blunders.
Many archives and their archivists have provided me with guidance, documents and images, and have patiently dealt with my queries. I am grateful to all of them. They include the Austrian State Archive, Vienna, for documents on Gustav Kleinmann’s First World War record; Douglas Ballman and Georgiana Gomez, Access Supervisor, University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, for providing a transcript of Fritz Kleinmann’s 1997 interview and helping with photographs; Ewa Bazan, Head of the Bureau for Former Prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum; Johannes Beermann, archivist, Fritz Bauer Institut, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, for Fritz and Gustav’s witness statements from the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials; Cambridge University Library; Judy Farrar, Archives and Special Collections Librarian, Claire T. Carney Library, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, for information on Samuel Barnet; Harriet Harmer, Archive Assistant, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Leeds, UK, for documents on Edith Kleinmann and Richard Paltenhoffer; Elisa Ho, Archivist and Special Projects Coordinator, The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, for documents on Maly Trostinets; Katharina Kniefacz, KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen Research Centre, Vienna, for prisoner records on Fritz Kleinmann; Albert Knoll, archivist, KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, for information on Richard Paltenhoffer; Kimberly Kwan, volunteer, Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, for information on the Kleinmanns and Richard Paltenhoffer; Heike Müller, International Tracing Service, Bad Arolsen, Germany, for documents relating to the Kleinmanns’ incarceration in various concentration camps; Susanne Uslu-Pauer, Head of Department, Archive of the Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde, Vienna; and the Wiener Library, London.
Finally, I am grateful to my literary agent, Andrew Lownie, for first bringing the Kleinmann story to my attention, and to Dan Bunyard and Zennor Compton at Penguin Books, for believing in the book and bringing their enthusiasm to the project. As ever, my partner, Kate, has provided the constant, patient moral support which has sustained me through every book I have ever written.
Jeremy Dronfield, June 2018
THE BEGINNING
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MICHAEL JOSEPH
UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia
India | New Zealand | South Africa
Michael Joseph is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com
First published 2019
Copyright © Jeremy Dronfield, 2019
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Cover images © Shutterstock and © Getty Images
ISBN: 978-0-241-35918-1
1. ‘When Jewish Blood Drips from the Knife …’
fn1Now part of southern Poland and western Ukraine.
fn2Sabbath; from just before sundown on Friday to darkness on Saturday evening.
fn3Equivalent to about two or three pounds in 2019.
fn4A cross with T-bars at the ends of the arms.
fn5Ornate cabinet in which the scrolls of the Torah are kept.
fn6Reading table used by a rabbi, facing the ark.
fn7Literally ‘joining’; the forcible unification of Austria with Germany.
2. Traitors to the People
fn1Friends close enough to call one another du, the intimate form of ‘you’, rather than the formal Sie.
fn2‘Jew or non-Jew?’
fn3Green Henry: equivalent to Black Maria.
fn4Affectionate diminutive used in eastern Austria; e.g. Fritzl, Gustl.
3. Blood and Stone: Konzentrationslager Buchenwald
fn1Seven stone.
5. The Road to Life
fn1SS guard in command of a barrack block.
6. A Favourable Decision
fn1Cabaret emcee.
7. The New World
fn1Conservative Judaism is known outside America as Masorti Judaism.
8. Unworthy of Life
fn1Foreman was a semi-unofficial designation beneath kapo in rank.
fn2Later known as Schuler or Ding-Schuler.
9. A Thousand Kisses
fn1One and a half stone.
fn2Now Terezin, Czech Republic.
fn3Evacuated on 9 June 1942.
fn4Now Zabłocie in Żywiec, Poland.
fn5Now Vawkavysk, Belarus.
fn6 Special labour detail: concentration camp prisoners forced to handle victims before and after executions.
11. A Town Called Oświęcim
fn1Now Kraków, Poland.
fn2Now Wadowice, Poland.
fn3Now Bielsko-Biała, Poland.
fn4Later Lwów, Poland; now Lviv, Ukraine.
fn5Congratulations/good luck (Hebrew).
12. Auschwitz-Monowitz
fn1‘Five on the arse!’ (Polish).
14. Resistance and Collaboration: The Death of Fritz Kleinmann
fn1Military-ration bread made from sourdough with a long shelf life.
17. Resistance and Betrayal
fn1Part of western Poland.
18. Death Train
fn1Now Gliwice, Poland.
fn2Now Břeclav, Czech Republic.
21. The Long Way Home
fn1Just over 5½ stone.
fn2About 1½ stone.
The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz Page 39
