Julian Borger John Murray, 304 pages, £20
Guardian journalist Julian Borger has Austrian-Jewish ancestry on his paternal side. This book traces his father Robert, how he had arrived in the UK in 1938 and lived with the Bingley family in Wales. It is a family memoir of grief, courage and hope, connecting multiple generations across distant continents, set against the difficult history of the Holocaust.
Borger discovers that his grandfather Leo had placed a classified advertisement in: “I seek a kind person who will educate my intelligent boy, aged 11, Viennese of good family.” The advert was one of 80 similar entries placed by desperate parents trying to save the lives of their children. The research affected Borger deeply, as he investigated the lives of seven children, dealing with their various fates. Some were caught up in the maelstrom of the Holocaust and others had altogether different experiences, the words chosen in the small ads having made the difference between survival or not. In the process of his research, Borger also uncovered aspects of his own family history, unearthing astonishing journeys and the kindness of strangers.
