Read an excerpt from A Prodigy in Auschwitz: A Holocaust Story, Book One: Simon by Fred Raymond Goldman

 

A Prodigy in Auschwitz: 

A Holocaust Story, Book One: Simon

By Fred Raymond Goldman

Publication Date: April 29th, 2025
Publisher: Historium Press
Pages: 368

Genre: Historical Fiction / World War II Fiction

When Nazi Germany troops enter Krakow, Poland on September 2, 1939, fourteen-year-old Simon Baron learns two truths that have been hidden from him.

One, the people who have raised him are not his biological parents. Two, his birth mother was Jewish. In the eyes of the Germans, although he has been raised Catholic, this makes Simon Jewish. Simon's dreams of becoming a concert violinist and composer are dashed when his school is forced to expel him, and he is no longer eligible to represent it at its annual Poland Independence Day Concert. There, he had hoped to draw the attention of representatives of a prestigious contest who might have helped him fulfill his dreams.

Simon vows to never forgive his birth father for abandoning him, an act resulting in unspeakable tragedies for his family and in his being forced to live the indignities of the ghetto and the horrors of Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps.

Throughout his ordeals, Simon wavers between his intense anger toward his birth father and his dreams of being reunited with him. Through his relationships with Rabbi Rosenschtein and the rabbi's daughter, Rachel, Simon comes to appreciate his Jewish heritage and find purpose in his life. Driven by devotion to family and friends and his passion for music, Simon holds on to hope. But can he survive the atrocities of the Nazi regime?

How do you reconcile a decision you made in the past when the world erupts in war, threatening the life of someone you love and believe you were protecting?

Excerpt

In October 1942, additional deportations of Jews to the ghetto began. Each deportation resulted in a reduction of the area comprising the ghetto. As the area decreased, the ghetto became more crowded by the Nazis requiring Jewish residents from twenty-nine surrounding villages to move into its confines. This resulted in the Rosenschtein children and Simon being forced to share their apartment with two other families.

Conditions in the ghetto became more horrific. Food became scarcer. With no medical attention, people were dying of starvation and disease. Corpses lay on the streets, ignored. Body collectors and grave diggers became overworked and stressed from hunger and exhaustion. Simon passed beggars on the streets on his way to and from work and blessed the fact that he, Rachel, and her brothers were doing better than many others, thanks to Rachel continuing to work at the sewing factory and he and the boys keeping their work assignments. But the suffering of others wore on him, and he began to question how God could allow such things to happen.

In early December 1942, the Germans divided the ghetto into two parts. Ghetto A was for people able to work. Ghetto B was for everyone else. Rachel, her brothers, and Simon lived in ghetto A. They now shared an apartment with three other families. Soon the German invaders sent many of those remaining in the ghetto to the Belzec concentration camp. 

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A Holocaust Story, Book One: Simon

Fred Raymond Goldman

Fred Raymond Goldman graduated from Western Maryland College in Westminster, MD (now named McDaniel College) in June 1962 with a BA in psychology. Two years later, in 1964, he earned an MSW degree from the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

Most of Fred's career was spent in Jewish Communal Service. He served as the administrator of Northwest Drug Alert, a methadone maintenance program at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. In this role, he also acted as a community resource, guiding individuals struggling with addiction toward Jewish services that supported abstinence, counseling, and job placement. Following that, Fred was hired as the Assistant to the Director of Jewish Family Services in Baltimore.

His final professional role was with Har Sinai Congregation, a Jewish Reform Synagogue in Baltimore, where he served as Executive Director for 23 years, retiring in October 2005.

In retirement, Fred pursued his love of hiking with The Maryland Hiking Club and spent time volunteering at The Irvine Nature Center. There, he led schoolchildren on nature hikes and assisted in the center’s nature store.

Writing had always been a passion for Fred, dating back to childhood, but it wasn't until retirement that he began to take it seriously. He started writing children's books and became a member of the Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Association.

Among the titles he wrote are: Vera and the Blue Bear Go to the Zoo, Never Bite an Elephant (And Other Bits of Wisdom), The Day the School Bus Drivers Went on Strike, If You Count, and The Day the School Devices Went on Strike.

Though none of these books has been published, Fred remains hopeful that if the CONCERTO books gain recognition, opportunities for the earlier works may follow.

Fred’s journey of writing the CONCERTO companion books began when he saw a note on a local library bulletin board about a new writer's group led by a local author. He joined and, along with nine other participants, learned the fundamentals of writing: staying in the protagonist’s point of view, building narrative tension, developing distinctive and flawed characters, and the process of writing and rewriting.

Over the course of more than four years, Fred dedicated time to writing, researching, rewriting, and submitting the manuscript. What began as a single book titled The Auschwitz Concerto was eventually split into two volumes and self-published. For a time, the manuscript was also titled The Box.

The encouragement from the group’s teacher and fellow members played a key role in shaping the novels, and Fred hopes his feedback was equally helpful to others in the group.

In the 'Author’s Notes' of the CONCERTO books, Fred outlines the goals behind sharing these stories. Prior to writing them, he had only a general understanding of the Holocaust—knowing that nine million lives were lost and that it was a horrific chapter in history. Through the writing process, he gained deeper insights into both historical events and human suffering, fostering a greater sensitivity to contemporary issues. He firmly believes that what affects one group can quickly impact everyone, and that such awareness is critical today.

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