Max Michaelson summary

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Max Michelson

I had a serene boyhood in an upper middle-class Jewish family in Riga, Latvia—at least until 1940, when at the age of 15, I witnessed the annexation of Latvia by the Soviet Union. Private properties were nationalized, and Stalin’s terror spread to Soviet Latvia. Soon after, my family was torn apart by the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. I quickly lost my entire family and witnessed the unspeakable brutalities of war and genocide. My memoir, City of Life, City of Death, is an ode to my lost family; it is the speech of their muted voices and a thank you for their love. Although badly scarred by my experiences, like many other survivors, I was able to rebuild my life and gain a new sense of what it means to be alive. I am a retired engineer. My wife Julia and I have two grown sons. I regard my three grandchildren as the best thing that has ever happened to me.

City of Life, City of Death: Memories of Riga

By Max Michelson

A stirring and haunting personal account of the Soviet and German occupations of Latvia during the Holocaust. “With each memoir by a survivor, Riga’s tragic fate becomes better known. Thus Max Michelson’s book, filled with poignant and moving episodes, deserves to be read by anyone wishing to learn more about the life and death of a Jewish community that included the great historian Shimon Dubnov. But it is also a story of courage and rebirth of a young man who wants to find meaning in his survival.”

—ELIE WIESEL

www.upcolorado.com

University Press of Colorado

Order: City of Life, City of Death by Max Michelson

$18.95 Paperback · ISBN: 0-87081-788-4 · 192 pages · 6 x 9 · 34 b/w