Israel Sushi / Ben & Sarai Kerido
(4-5 Minute Read)
In honor of International Holocaust Memorial Day, Lehavdil is highlighting the newly-released book by Oren Schneider entitled, The Apprentice of Buchenwald: The True Story of the Teenage Boy Who Sabotaged Hitler’s War Machine (Amsterdam Publishers, 2023).
The book tells the story of Alex Rosenberg, Oren Schneider’s grandfather, who was imprisoned with his father in Buchenwald, a Nazi German camp known for its “death by work” policy. There, Alex became a part of a brave network of assembly line workers who intentionally and strategically produced weapons with serious defects that would make them ineffective, thereby sabotaging the Nazi war machine at crucial moments on the battlefield. Alex Rosenberg further used his abilities to gain access to food supplies and secured privileges and pardons from Nazi officials in order to save the lives of his fathers and others.
In 1943, when Alex Rosenberg was a teenager, he left his life of privilege and his identity behind when his family lost everything during the War. He was thrust into a reality of hiding and horrors, for which nothing could have prepared him. However, his selfless acts and a determination to survive saved his father and the lives of Allies on the battlefield. Alex’s story is now immortalized in a new book The Apprentice of Buchenwald, by his grandson, Oren Schneider.
Using their last reserves of wealth and influence to escape extermination, the Rosenbergs fled their hometown and went underground to avoid the Gestapo. Eventually exposed, captured, and taken to Buchenwald, the largest concentration camp in Germany, Alex and his father collaborated to survive one day at a time.
A chaotic chain of events put Alex, an entrepreneurial trader’s son with the hands of a gifted mechanic, now a forced laborer, at the heart of a massive armament sabotage scheme. When his father is gravely injured and disappears after an air bombing, it is up to industrious Alex to create leverage and use wartime machinations and raw talent to save his father’s life.
The Apprentice of Buchenwald is now available for purchase on Amazon. [Click here for link.]
Ben Kerido from Lehavdil: Jewish Life in the Real World connected with Oren Schneider, who graciously agreed to provide an exclusive interview with Lehavdil about his brand-new book.
Ben: “Oren, thank you so much for agreeing to speak with us today. I must say, we are very impressed by your work. It is very compelling. But first, please tell us a little bit more about yourself.”
Oren: “I was born in Israel to a family of Holocaust survivors and farmers from the Galil region [Galilee] of Israel. I grew up in Netanya on the coast, and I served many years as an officer in the IDF. Presently, I live with my wife and daughters in Brooklyn, New York. I am an entrepreneur and business owner, and I enjoy music, cooking, travel, people – and especially the combination of all four.”
Ben: “Great. Well, like I said, your book is a very interesting project. What made you decide to write it?”
Oren: “My grandfather, a Holocaust survivor born in Czechoslovakia, played a significant role in raising me, after my father was killed at a young age. I have lived his survival story all my life, and was fortunate to be with him as he went back to track his roots. Telling this story is one of my life’s purposes. Regretfully, we are bidding farewell to the last of the survivors. Soon, all that the younger generations will be able to do is to read about the horrific history of our people. It is our duty to capture these stories, document them, and carefully bequeath them to our offspring.”
Ben: “Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. Also, on a personal note, my grandfather served in the United States Navy during World War II, even at Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, he passed away when I was very young, and many of his amazing stories faded with him. It is one of my biggest life regrets that I never had the opportunity to really understand and appreciate his life while he was alive, and it’s too late to interview him now. I would have loved to have engaged in a project of a similar caliber to your book. So I can totally appreciate and applaud your efforts. Did you always know the story of your family? Or was a significant amount of research required?”
Oren: “It was a combination of both. I have lived my immediate family’s story all my life and have known all the details since childhood. Over the last two decades, I started researching the origins of my family and learned about the different paths taken by family members, with most deciding to immigrate to the United States well before World War II. And with that research, I’ve reached out to reopen family ties that had been cut more than a century ago.”
Ben: “Wow, that’s amazing. And what would you say was your most favorite and least favorite part about writing your book?”
Oren: “I really enjoyed the collaboration with my fourteen year-old daughter, Rio, on this project. She is American, well-articulated, and has a vocabulary that I can only dream of. I am an Israeli whose mother tongue is Hebrew. Rio was my first reader, and her suggestions and inputs allowed me to tell a better story. As for the second part of your question, I really regret the fact that my grandfather wasn’t there to read it. I believe he would have liked it a lot.”
Ben: “I have no doubt whatsoever that your grandfather would have been very proud of you and your work. Please tell us a little bit more about your grandfather himself, and what made him such a special person.”
Oren: “My grandfather’s mantra was threefold: always remember that life is good, always think positively, and always remember that if you don’t take care of yourself, no one else will take care of you. I live by that mantra every day. The message is that simple. My grandfather’s life philosophy as a camp survivor shaped who I am as an adult, his perseverance and extreme belief in self-help and independence made me the optimist that I am.”
Ben: “Wow. Good stuff. Thank you so much, Oren, for taking a few minutes to speak with us about your new book, The Apprentice of Buchenwald. We here at Lehavdil wish you and your family harbeh brachot v’hatzlachah (many blessings and much success)!”
The Apprentice of Buchenwald: The True Story of the Teenage Boy Who Sabotaged Hitler’s War Machine (Amsterdam Publishing, 2023) is now available for purchase from Amazon [click here for link]. For more information about this book and the author, Oren Schneider, please visit his website, apprenticeofbuchenwald.com.
