Remember Me: A Holocaust Survivor’s Story

Marian Kampinski
iUniverse (2009)
ISBN 9781440121784
Reviewed by Carol Hoyer, PhD, for Reader Views (8/09)


Marian Kampinski takes readers through the horrible journey she was forced to take in 1939, when the Nazi’s invaded her home of Lodz, Poland. One cannot even imagine the terror this fourteen-year-old child experienced while she watched neighbors and loved ones being hauled away and not heard from again.

Marian’s vivid details and stories of what happened will remain in your minds. She is not asking for pity, she is asking readers to remember all of those who suffered, were tortured and killed because they weren’t the right race.

What particularly caught my attention was how Marian related her story, as if she were sitting across from you and talking in a calm voice, yet near tears.  The Germans were very organized as Marian relates- their lists told everything about individuals and families they were to take, kill or transport on cattle cars to death camps. Each day families lived in fear they would be next.

Reader’s can smell the fear, and feel the crowded trains that not only Jewish, but Polish people were forced to endure. The author provided many pictures in her book that gave the readers a better opportunity to become closer to her family and friends.

Many feel this Nazi torture did not happen; however, if you read Marian’s account, how could you deny this? Could anyone make up a story like this?  I have nothing but respect for anyone, including Marian who had enough faith, love and resilience to survive such a horrendous ordeal.  “Remember Me: A Holocaust Survivor’s Story” by Marian Kampinski will stay with you a long time.

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