Theodore H. Lehman
Auschwitz Survivor
Tells His Story

 Ted Lehman tells his story of survival in Auschwitz and later as a Jewish slave laborer in a Krupp armaments factory. His detailed descriptions of daily life in the concentration camp are among the most vivid ever told. An exceptional story teller in his book Defying Odds, in these videos he gives an introduction to the more complete information in the book.

An interview with Mr. Lehman has been edited in three lengths from a short 5 minute summary to the complete interview, which is 23 minutes in length.

 Defying Odds (5 minutes)

Ted Lehman (14 minutes)

Ted Lehman (23 minutes)

For further information contact Gaon Books.

Auschwitz Prisoner, Ted Lehman, Tells His Story of Survival

  Theodore H. Lehman

  Auschwitz Prisoner, Ted Lehman, Tells His Story of Survival in a New Book, Defying Odds by Gaon Books.

Eli Wiesel, Primo Levi and others have written notably about the horrors of the Holocaust, the loss of life, and the personal costs of cruelty. Ted Lehman adds a uniquely intimate, autobiographical view of that experience with day-by-day accounts of his life. His descriptions of the people and the personal interactions that drove that system are compelling and memorable. He has written for young adult readers because we can never forget. 

In Defying Odds Lehman narrates his life as a teen-age Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz and SS slave labor camps. Instead of having a Bar Mitzvah or going to high school, he learned to navigate the maze way of the Nazi death camps. As he clung to life, his family and friends were peeled away from him one by one and sent to the gas chambers.

He shows unerringly how the Nazi demonization of Jews demoralized Jew and non-Jew alike, narrating the inhumanity and barbarism of the German death camps perpetuated by a supposedly “civilized” nation. In this book Lehman describes the loss of moral direction by one of Europe’s most powerful countries, it is also a story of hope by a young man who defied that nation’s will and won.

See Ted Lehman talk about his experiences:
www.gaonbooks.com/DefyingOdds.html

and

YouTube - http://youtu.be/3Kc7cJjvL9M

Click here to Enjoy a Video Journey through Gaon Books. 

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Gaon Author Susana Weich-Shahak Wins European Prize for Folklore

Gaon Books Author

Susana Weich-Shahak

Has won the European Prize for Folklore

Agapito Marazuela

Named after the Spanish folkorist, this prize was given to Dr. Weich-Shahak for her work over the last four decades recording and documenting the Sephardic romancero (Judeo-Spanish ballads). In the interview below, which she gave after winning the award, she mentions the role of songs and oral tradition as primary factors in holding together Sephardic identity and heritage even after 500 years of exile in non-Spanish speaking lands from Morocco to Turkey and Israel around the Mediterranean and in the Americas from Argentina to the United States.






Dr. Weich-Shahak's book Moroccan Sephardic Romancero, was published by Gaon Books (2013) and summarizes her work of four decades of collecting, documenting and analyzing Judeo-Spanish ballads, which are traditionally sung by women.

What others have said about her work and this book.

For all of us who work on the traditional Romancero—and for all Hispanists whatever their speciality—we need to thank and congratulate Shoshana Weich...for having created and published a splendid book that is invaluable and full of pleasant surprises for the study of one of the most important branches of Spanish poetry: the traditional Romancero.   --  Samuel G. Armistead, University of California, Davis

Susana Weich-Shahak’s anthology of the Moroccan Sephardic Romancero vividly brings to life the Judeo-Spanish ballads transmitted by Moroccan women over the course of time and in scattered locales. Through its careful presentation of more than two hundred songs and details of their transmission
processes, this volume serves both to document a remarkable repertory in great detail and to memorialize the women who sustained these songs. This is a collection that speaks eloquently to the importance of music in Jewish life.   --  Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Harvard University

Click to Buy the Moroccan Sephardic Romancero from Amazon.com

 Click Here to Learn More about the Moroccan Sephardic Romancero

The Art of the Hebrew Alphabet - Gloria Abella Ballen

Gloria Abella Ballen

The Art of the Hebrew Alphabet

See videos in which Gloria talks about the art and meanings of the Hebrew letters and hear her in-depth radio interview with Mary-Charlotte in Santa Fe.

To see the videos and hear the interview go to

gaonbooks.com/HebrewAlphabet.html