Max and Helen: A Remarkable True Love Story (English and German Edition)

This novel is the story of an Eastern European Jewish man (Max), who is imprisoned by the Nazis during WW2 and by the Soviets immediately after. His story is amazing and is being told to famed Nazi hunter and the author of this book, Simon Wiesenthal, in the 1960's. Wiesenthal's involvement surrounds the Nazi camp commander who persecuted Max and his fiancée. The Nazi, Werner Schulze, resurfaces as a German plant manager twenty years after the war and Wiesenthal must decide whether or not he has sufficient evidence to prosecute him. Where the story goes after Max's stint in Soviet Siberia is unbelievable. You will not put this novel down during the second half of it, I promise. And it's a true story, adding to the amazement.

I read this book many years ago and even now I consider it a much ignored love story with a difference. Max and Helen are survivors of the Holocaust who are separated during the war and both end up in Concentration Camps. Max believes Helen to be dead but many years later finds out that she is still alive and goes looking for her. What starts off as a journey into both their pasts becomes a struggle for them to forget what the war and the atrocities committed have done to them both as individuals; especially as Helen's son is also the son of her Nazi rapist, something that Max finds hard to accept. This is poignant love story with a bitter-sweet twist, and you are left wondering if Max and Helen will ever get back together? The ending is left open, and this to me is the saddest ending of all. Simon Wiesenthal proves himself to be a damn good writer of fiction as well as fact about the Holocaust and its tragic consequences.