Thomas Geve (born 27 October 1929)[1] is an engineer, author and Jewish Holocaust survivor
Born in Stettin in 1929, he lived as child in Beuthen, before moving to Berlin with his mother in 1939.[2] During the war years, he worked for some months as a gravedigger at the Weißensee Cemetery.[3] He was deported to Auschwitz in June 1943 with his mother, who perished in the camp.[4] He stayed in Auschwitz until its evacuation in January 1945, after which he still survived the death march, Gross-Rosen concentration camp and Buchenwald concentration camp before the latter was self-liberated by the inmates in April 1945. Upon liberation he was too weak to leave the camp and proceeded to record camp life in 79 different drawings.[2] After the war, he went to a camp in Switzerland for orphaned shoah survivors, and when his father was located, he was reunited with him in England. In 1950 he emigrated to Israel and settled in Haifa.[5]
His experiences are retold in two books and two documentary films.[6] The first book, Youth in Chains, recounting his wartime years, was subsequently republished and translated into six other languages. His second book, recounting his experiences after the war, was published in German. In addition, his drawings have also been published separately and made into a French-language documentary. Today, he lectures about the Shoah at schools in Germany and other countries.[3][7]
References and footnotes edit
- ^ Profile of Thomas Geve
- ^ a b "Wollheim Memorial". Wollheim-memorial.de. 1945-04-11. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
- ^ a b Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (2012-07-09). "Kindheit in der Hölle, Veranstaltungsbeiträge, Publikationen, Bildungswerk Freiburg, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung". Kas.de. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
- ^ "BBC: The survivor who brought the Holocaust to life". bbc.com. 2015-01-27. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
- ^ "Thomas Geve". Afmd44.voila.net. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
- ^ "Wilhem Roesing DVDS". Roesingfilm.de. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
- ^ "Nichts als das Leben - Ein Zeitzeuge berichtet". Dsbruessel.be. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
Bibliography edit
- Geve, Thomas (1958), Youth in Chains, Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 220 pp. later republished as Geve, Thomas (1987), Guns & Barbed Wire: A Child Survives the Holocaust, Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 220 pp.
- Geve, Thomas (1997), Es gibt hier keine Kinder - There are no children here; Zeichnungen eines kindliches Historikers - Drawings of a Child Historian (German - English - Hebrew), Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 151 pp.
- Geve, Thomas (2000), Aufbrüche. Weiterleben nach Auschwitz, Südverlag, 193 pp.
- Geve, Thomas (2021), The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz: A Powerful True Story of Hope and Survival, London: HarperCollins, ISBN 9780008406387, 304 pp.
Documentary film edit
- W Rosing, "Thomas Geve - Nichts als das Leben", 1997, 36 min.
- ECPAD, "Il n'y a pas d'enfants ici : Dessins d'un enfant survivant des camps de concentration", 2009, 75 min.