Jerry Amernic

The Last Witness by Jerry Amernic was inspired by the time he saw the numbers on the arm of a woman at a Jewish Bakery that his father used to take him to as a child. I was older when I first saw the tattoo of numbers on a man’s arm. Having read many books about the Holocaust, I always wonder about how is it possible that there are still survivors of those who were in death camps. Jerry Amernic provides one of the best answer.

Jack Fischer aka Jacob Klukowsky is the vehicle for that answer. At the beginning of the book he is 100 years old and believed to be the last survivor of the Holocaust. Why is this book set in the future? The author can see signs that the Holocaust is being forgotten or diminished in its importance. One thing that this book brings up that is different from many books on the Holocaust is that recognizes that the Nazis forced many into ghettos. Jacob was only four years old living in a closed ghetto (walled off from the rest of Lodz, Poland. There was overcrowding, disease and hunger. This was the stage before the death camps. Jerry Amernic flashes back and forth from different points in Jack’s life and to 2035 in New York City with great ease.

Jack Fischer’s great granddaughter, Christine, a school teacher with a love for history is shocked with the trend to cover less and less of the Holocaust in the textbooks. Jack had not told his children of what his life had been like but he shared what happened with his great granddaughter. She fights to get the full history in the school books.

This book does have some mystery which becomes more apparent at the end but I think it is more of a crossover book with historical fiction. This book makes you think. When I was growing up, we heard nothing about the Holocaust. It was my father who brought me the book by Anne Frank that introduced me to the subject. Also, we need to think about recognizing all genocide, about what we can do to prevent it. We need to think about what leads to it, racial slurs, putting down people who are different from the majority, to not really listening to people who are verbally threatening others because they need to be prevented from action.

I received an Advance copy of The Last Witness by Jerry Amernic in exchange for a fair review from the Partners in Crime but that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in my review.… (mais)