Reuven (Gutkin) Govrin

Wood, Luck & Survival Reuven (Gutkin) Govrin

How could Max and his father possibly have survived the Holocaust when so many did not?!

This story is the journey of the author and his brother to discover the happenings of their father, Max Gutkin, and his family during the Holocaust. When the German army invaded Riga, Latvian Jewry numbered about 95,000, of which only about 1,000 survived the war. The story of how Wood and luck somehow enabled Max and his father to survive the Holocaust, unlike so many, is riveting. The family business was engaged with forestry and wood, so Max, his older brother, and their father were forced to work in wood for the Nazis, while his mother and little brother were murdered.

A harrowing journey replete with painful memories...

The book traces their harrowing journey from work camp to work camp, a terrible choice that the father is forced to make, the aftermath of the war in Europe, and finally arrival in Israel. For 65 years Max silently bore the burden of these memories until the author led him on a path of discovery through his painful personal history.