Sometimes in history, you come across an atrocity so incomprehensible it’s lesson has to be learned no matter. The Holocaust, the struggle for Jews to exist at a time when they were being eliminated is hard to fathom.I came across a writer, quite by chance, and it appeared that Patrick Dempsey would deliver such comprehension as I would understand.I have not been disappointed,in the midst of such a challenge to humanity. Patricks first book paved the way for my owning all 6 books of his works. There is a clarity which opens the mind to what horrors are achieved, when we simply sit back and conform to indifference.I understand that Patrick has a commitment which does not falter as I see his work reason with those who witnessed what they too fail to understand.

Thank you Patrick Dempsey

Patrick Dempsey’s book The Child in the Holocaust has been very important for me. I grew up my whole life colored by the Holocaust experiences of my parents. I lived and breathed it. I thought about all the missing relatives, but Patrick’s book got me to examine it in a different way while crisscrossing my own experiences. Patrick wants to account for every life murdered or maimed. But children too!!! It made me realize my mom had a child possibly not full term born in hiding and never survived. I never counted this boy as a Holocaust victim! Thanks to Patrick ‘s focus I wrote to Yad Vashem to count my baby brother as a child victim. All the children lost, as Patrick says, never had a chance to grow up and become contributing members of society. All their future endeavors and unborn generations are gone. Millions never had a chance to go on to create future generations.

Patrick has made us all realize that the children were people unto themselves not just appendages of the adults. I look at my parents’ photos of the cute little boys and girls and I don’t even know who they are. Their deaths were horrifying and who knows what they were thinking during their experiences. These children, completely dependent on their parents, were rounded up and killed.

Patrick interviews survivors as much as possible so we hear their testimony of what they felt and how they managed to cope with their experiences. I am grateful for this book because of the whole focus on the child..