From Wartime Auschwitz and the Gulag to the Free World

A world-class economist tells of life from pre-Nazi Auschwitz to twenty-first century New York. Victor Zarnowitz is a world-famous economist and a holocaust survivor who grew up in the Polish town of Oswiecim, known in German as Auschwitz. Victor Zarnowitz and his brother fled the area as the Nazis [...]
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A world-class economist tells of life from pre-Nazi Auschwitz to twenty-first century New York. Victor Zarnowitz is a world-famous economist and a holocaust survivor who grew up in the Polish town of Oswiecim, known in German as Auschwitz. Victor Zarnowitz and his brother fled the area as the Nazis advanced in September 1939. Moving eastward, he landed right in the arms of the Soviets and ended up in a Siberian Gulag. How did this brilliant young man, who nearly died at the hands of the Soviets, end up a renowned University of Chicago economist? That's exactly what this inspiring, lyrical memoir - told in simple, captivating prose - is all about.His memoir is a thrilling tale. In September 1939 Victor and his brother walked the entire width of Poland with the blitzkrieg just behind them, and ran right into oncoming Soviet troops. They were trapped at the junction of the two most fearsome armies the world had ever seen. The Soviets considered Polish refugees prisoners of war. In 1940, they transported the author and his brother thousands of miles north and put them to work in Stalin's oldest Gulag.They earned their daily gruel and bread crusts by trying to meet impossible work quotas. The latter third of the book tells of his professional career, his observations of other economists and their ideas, and his own contributions to business cycle theory and economic indicators.While memoirs of the Holocaust are plentiful, the Jewish experience in Stalin's Gulags has been virtually forgotten. Weaving politics and economics into the harrowing tale of his personal journey, the author's inspiring life story thus provides a priceless perspective on some of the most traumatic upheavals of the 20th Century.