The memoir of a Holocaust survivor keeping alive the stories of his generation.
For more than 30 years, Phillip Maisel has worked selflessly to record the harrowing stories of Holocaust survivors.
Volunteering at Melbourne's Jewish Holocaust Centre, Phillip has listened tirelessly to their memories, preserved their voices and proven, time and time again, just how healing storytelling can be. Each testimony of survival is a miracle in itself - earning Phillip the nickname 'the Keeper of Miracles'.
But, for Phillip, confronting and overcoming trauma is also personal. A Holocaust survivor himself, he, too, has unthinkable stories of triumph and tragedy, cruelty and hope.
Published as Phillip turns 99, this deeply moving, healing and inspiring memoir shows us the cathartic power of storytelling and reminds us never to underestimate the impact of human kindness.
'This is my responsibility and my privilege: to be custodian of their memories, to be able to pass their stories on to the next generation - for me, this will be the greatest miracle of all.'
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Phillip Maisel OAM was born in August 1922, in Vilna, Lithuania. When the Germans arrived in Vilna in 1941, Phillip's life changed dramatically. He survived two years in a squalid, overcrowded Jewish ghetto, before enduring multiple Nazi labour and concentration camps. Phillip was liberated in 1945 while on a Death March. He moved to Australia in 1949.
For over 30 years, Phillip has worked at the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne, recording on video over a thousand testimonies of other survivors and their descendants, the custodian of their stories.