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The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5318092
EAN: 9780670018260
ISBN: 0670018260
Label: Viking Adult
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: November 01, 2007
Publisher: Viking Adult
Studio: Viking Adult
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Editorial Review:
One mans struggle with memory and prejudice on the way to recovering his past Mark Kurzem was happily ensconced in his academic life at Oxford when his father, Alex, showed up on his doorstep with a terrible secret to tell. When a Nazi death squad raided his village at the outset of World War II, Jewish five-year-old Alex Kurzem escaped. After surviving the Russian winter by foraging for food and stealing clothes off dead soldiers, he was discovered by a Nazi-led Latvian police brigade that later became an SS unit. Not knowing he was Jewish, they made him their mascot, dressing the little corporal in uniform and toting him from massacre to massacre. Terrified, the resourceful Alex charmed the highest echelons of the Latvian Third Reich, eventually starring in a Nazi propaganda film. When the war ended he was sent to Australia with a family of Latvian refugees. Fearful of being discoveredas either a Jew or a NaziAlex kept the secret of his childhood, even from his loving wife and children. But he grew increasingly tormented and became determined to uncover his Jewish roots and the story of his past. Shunned by a local Holocaust organization, he reached out to his son Mark for help in reclaiming his identity. A survival story, a grim fairy-tale, and a psychological drama, this remarkable memoir asks provocative questions about identity, complicity, and forgiveness.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - The Tragedy of Latvia
This is an exceptionally well-written book that tells an amazing story. Since other reviewers have given the details of the story, I will not rehash them. Suffice to say that Alex Kurzem's story is a good example of the terrible suffering innocent individuals have had to endure (a suffering that may even be worse than death itself) as a result of Nazi cruelty.
Some reviewers have said this book is unfair to the Latvian people and tarnishes the entire nation with the same brush. I beg ... Read More
Rating: - The ultimate survival story
Without reciting all of the details, this is a must read for people interested in understanding the Holocaust.
Rating: - Must Read
This book is very interesting. I rate it a must read; however, it is very slow at the beginning.
I couldn't help but think while reading of what Alex witnessed and then the ensuing childhood being raised by Nazis, the story of Moses, a Hebrew who falls into the hands of the Pharoah's daughter. He too was raised by people who slaughtered and enslaved his people. Too bad Alex has not yet connected with his Old Testament roots. Moses became a great leader and great man by God leading the ... Read More
Rating:  - WHAT PRICE SURVIVAL?
There are many stories to come out of World War II, both told and untold, this is surely one of the most remarkable. It is a tale of survival but not without cost.
As a five-year-old boy Alex Kurzem saw his mother and father as well as neighbors shot by the Nazis. For some inexplicable reason his life was spared and he ran to hide in a dense Russian forest. Amazingly he did not freeze to death during the unrelenting cold but existed by searching for food and taking the clothes ... Read More
Rating: - One of the most riveting accounts of World War II I have ever read
In the United States most of the time when one reads World War II history it tends to focus on the Normandy Landings and lightning dash to Berlin the Pacific theater is generally ignored and so is the Italian campaign. The Soviets also had to do a large amount of the fighting they were both defenders of their homeland and agents of a tyrannical regime.
Then there were those people who were caught in the middle of it all like one Jewish Latvian survivor who was only 5 years old. Plucked from ... Read More
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