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If, By Miracle
Michael Kutz
Nearly buried alive, ten-year-old Michael Kutz narrowly escapes the Nazi death squad that has killed four thousand Jews, including his own family, in his hometown of Nieśwież. Guided by his mother's last words and determined to survive, he becomes the youngest member of a partisan resistance group in the dense Belorussian forest, taking part in daring operations against the Nazis and their collaborators. After the war, Michael embarks on an odyssey through Czechoslovakia, Austria, Italy, and, finally, Canada, as he tries to find a home where he can leave the horrors of his past behind. Translated from the original Yiddish, If, By Miracle is the gripping and compelling story of a courageous and resilient young boy searching for freedom.
Introduction by Anika Walke
Rescapé d'une fosse d'exécution
Camps de personnes déplacées (Italie d'après-guerre)
Projet des orphelins de guerre
Immigration au Canada en 1948
Adaptation à la vie canadienne
Médaille d'argent décernée lors des Living Now Book Awards en 2015
Tranche d'âge recommandée
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Second Story Press Amazon Indigo
I will always remember my mother's last words to me. "If, by miracle, you survive, you must bear witness and tell the free world what happened to us." I am the only survivor of the Holocaust from my mother's large family, which originally comprised more than 150 people. Among the few survivors on my father's side were his younger brother, Shimon, the only survivor of seven brothers, and a few of his cousins. That was all that remained of our family. I often asked myself whether there could be a God who allowed the murder of my family and my people, young and old. When I was ten years old, I heard the last cries of Jews reciting the prayer Shema Yisrael on their way to mass graves in my hometown of Nieśwież. As a child, I was angry and disappointed that God had permitted this to happen, but to adopt a negative opinion of God would have meant giving up the struggle to survive and especially giving up on my mother's last words to me. I came to the conclusion that there was a God and that He would give me the determination to live and be free again, and to avenge the Jewish people. I remembered what I had learned in Hebrew school about the two-thousand-year history of our people – how we had survived pogroms, slaughters and inquisitions.
When I was older, I always held on to my mother's words and I promised myself that I would fulfill her wishes by telling Jewish and non-Jewish youth, as well as adults, about everything that our people had been forced to endure during the war, to implore them to pass on our history to future generations so that these events would never happen again.
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Michael Kutz est né le 21 novembre 1930 à Nieśwież (Pologne, aujourd'hui en Biélorussie). Il est arrivé au Canada comme orphelin de guerre en 1948 et a vécu à Winnipeg avant de s'installer à Montréal au début des années 1950. Il s'est engagé auprès de divers organismes de bienfaisance venant en aide aux jeunes défavorisés, aux aînés et aux anciens combattants. Michael Kutz est décédé en 2020.
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I didn't see anyone outside the pit, so I jumped out…. I had the feeling that my mother was running beside me and calling out to me, "Michael, run faster and don't look back!"