Frank Shooster
The Possibilities Frank Shooster, Civil Rights Attorney
I have never been given a greater honor, or a graver responsibility than to have been asked by Leon Schagrin to write the forward to his first-hand sworn testimony of his Holocaust experience from the moment Germany declared war on Poland until his final liberation from Auschwitz, only to have to overcome anti-Semitism all over again upon his arrival in the United States. Leon Schagrin is a genuine hero in his own right. Understanding that nobody is born to hate, Leon has willingly subjected himself to relive his Holocaust experiences in hundreds of school auditoriums. To date, he has spoken to more than 10,000 middle- school and high school students throughout South Florida. Leon’s testimony may well be the single most chilling reading experience you will ever have. It reads like a thriller that will keep you up all night, but you may need to put it down from time to time to catch your breath, wipe a tear, or work up the cour- age to turn another page. You cannot read this book without becoming traumatized by its unforgettable im- ages of horror and cruelty. As you accompany Leon Schagrin to the depths of hell and beyond you will be stunned, shaken, and speechless. No artist of fiction, no Dante, no Kafka, no Orwell, no Marquis de Sade has ever been able to envision, let alone depict, a more horrifying inferno than the mechanized mass murder personally witnessed by Leon Schagrin. That he survives at all is amazing itself. Sometimes survival was a mat- ter of luck if it’s proper to use that word at all to a prisoner-slave in a concentration camp. Sometimes it was quick thinking and sharp judgment. Most of all, Leon sur- vived because he looked like the idealized Aryan: tall blond and blue eyes. Ironically, racism almost killed him, and racism probably saved his life.
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