Initially he had reservations about reading the book, arising from his disappointment at the derisory compensation given to former Nazi slave laborers in Auschwitz whose cause he had championed as their honorary academic adviser. Yet Dr Pinto-Duchinsky discovered that his hesitation had been misplaced …the book shows the exceptional determination, skill and luck needed by Jewish heirs in search of belated justice.
And, encouragingly, he believes that stories such as mine appear … to be helping rather than hindering elderly survivors of the concentration and death camps and their families. I do hope that is the case.
“A determined struggle for justice” is the headline of a review in the February edition of the AJR Journal. The article goes on to say: … the book covers far more than simply a legal battle. It is also a well researched history of an interesting family.
The reviewer is kind enough to remark: Dina Gold is to be commended for her persistence and determination not only in fighting for the return of her family’s property but also in tracing the fate of her relations and exposing the misdeeds of apparently respectable organisations and individuals.
In recognition of it being International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a review by Lori Lowenthal Marcus in the Jewish Press A few extracts as a taster of the entire article:
A granddaughter’s grit, her investigative journalist skills, serendipity, the Germans’ propensity for keeping records all combine to make a true historic adventure – a victory against the Nazis – in Dina Gold’s “Stolen Legacy.”
Dina Gold’s book, Stolen Legacy (Ankerwycke 2015), is a rare Holocaust story. Her family tale combines all the drama and heart-pounding fear of Jews on the run, of Jewish families scattered throughout the world, of loss and, remarkably, of final vindication.
Gold’s story is unique in being a true detective novel and a document-driven courtroom drama, set in the heart of the Nazi Empire.
Read the whole piece. Here are some choice extracts:
The theme of the story is Gold’s struggle to recover a large and valuable office building in the heart of Berlin that had belonged to her grandparents, then to the Third Reich, then to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), and then to the government of a united Germany. But the theme frequently takes a backseat to tangents and local color. Stolen Legacy is also distinctive among Holocaust books in its unusually unpleasant cast of good guys. The author is perfectly honest in describing her flawed and schismatic family: wastrel philanderers and Communists in prewar Germany, irresponsible stiffnecks in Israel, snobs in postwar Britain. The fact that she manages never to sound disloyal to her family shows a certain finesse.
How did it turn out? I won’t spoil it for you. But if you’re interested in a good detective yarn lasting 150 years, Stolen Legacy won’t disappoint.
Today Kirkus posted this great review of “Stolen Legacy.”
The piece concludes:
… an engaging, well-written depiction of how the Holocaust destroyed individual lives as well as families and community relationships. Although the story centers on a valuable piece of property, Gold’s measured, compassionate prose makes it clear that it’s not a tale of financial gain, but one of justice and the survival of a persecuted people.
A highly readable account of one family’s fight for personal and financial vindication.