I REMEMBER SINGING

By Arielle A. Aaron

Subjects: Biography, Jewish children in the Holocaust, Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), Jews

Description: **I Remember Singing** New Biography Offers Detailed, Heartwarming Account of Courageous Holocaust Survivor "The Holocaust happened. I was there." These are the words of Hugo Schiller, Holocaust survivor and subject of the riveting new biography, I Remember Singing (published by AuthorHouse), by Arielle A. Aaron. I Remember Singing is the result of Aaron's meticulous research into Schiller's life. She recounts his experiences in detail and includes a chronology of the Holocaust, a glossary of terms, and a vocabulary list, making the book ideal for teachers and students alike. Hugo Schiller was 7 years old when Hitler's Nazis dragged his father, the town mayor, from their home in Germany and took him to the concentration camp in Dachau. Two weeks later, with no explanation, he was brought back home and forced to sell the family store. Hugo, who had grown up in a loving home, had never dreamed that there might be people in the world who hated him because he was Jewish. While home from school on vacation, Hitler's Nazi troops returned, storming the Schiller home and giving them one hour to pack a suitcase and leave. The family was marched to a train and deported to Gurs, a refugee camp in the south of France, where they were held behind barbed wire in cruel living conditions with little or no food. Young Hugo would sing songs for hunks of coarse brown bread to feed his starving aunt and mother. Alice Resch, a worker with the Quaker Refugee Relief Agency, was able to gain permission to take Hugo and 49 other children to a children's home in Aspet, France. From there the agency was able to get the children into schools, where they learned French. The agency eventually helped Hugo get to America, where he was able to learn English, graduate high school and join the Army, eventually earning a degree in industrial engineering. It wasn't until 1945 that Hugo learned of his parents' murder at Auschwitz just weeks after he set sail for America. Aaron has skillfully crafted the events of one man's extraordinary life in the pages of I Remember Singing. She writes: Today, Hugo Schiller tells about the family he once had in Germany, and he tells the truth about what happened in the Holocaust. He warns that there are those bent on rewriting history to say the Holocaust did not happen. He warns that we must stay vigilant and make the world a better place, each of us in our own communities. About the Author: Arielle A. Aaron holds a bachelor's degree in English, writing and editing and has published poetry, non-fiction, a play and children's stories. In 2009, Aaron and Hugo Schiller signed copies of I Remember Singing at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.