My Voice: Ike Alterman: Rest Their Souls(My Voice: The Remarkable Life Stories of Holocaust Survivors)

Ike Alterman was born in 1928 in Ozarów in Poland. In telling his story, he recounts his happy Orthodox Jewish upbringing, the tragic loss of his immediate family in Treblinka and Auschwitz, his ordeal through concentration camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau, surviving multiple death marches, and his liberation in Theresienstadt in 1945. Ike is one of ‘The Boys’, brought to Windermere in England, as part of a British governmental scheme granting asylum to Holocaust child survivors. Ike describes his rehabilitation, and new life in Manchester, where he started a family and established a jewellery business. Later in life, Ike pursued closure by revisiting his hometown in Poland and undertaking a difficult trip to Treblinka. He reflects on his life after immeasurable loss, and what it means to endure and bear witness. Ike’s book is part of the My Voice book collection, a stand-alone project of The Fed, the leading Jewish social care charity in Manchester, dedicated to preserving the life stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who settled in the UK. The oral history, which is recorded and transcribed, captures their entire lives from before, during and after the war years. The books are written in the words of the survivor so that future generations can always hear their voice. The My Voice book collection is a valuable resource for Holocaust awareness and education.

Table of Contents:
1 – My early memories 2 – My father’s family in Ostrowiec 3 – My father’s business 4 – Family rituals in Ozarów 5 – The taste of those times 6 – My early education and antisemitism 7 – Occupation and the ghetto 8 – So much fear, so much pressure 9 – The selection 10 – I was alone 11 – Blyzin concentration camp 12 – Auschwitz-Birkenau 13 – It was fear all the time 14 – Oh, the atrocities 15 – Death march and missed liberations 16 – Another missed liberation 17 – We’re free, we’re free! 18 – England bound 19 – Freedom in Windermere 20 – A Manchester group 21 – Getting back to normality 22 – My first job 23 – I’ve got family! 24 – Sawdust to the clowns 25 – Myra, a local girl from Hightown 26 – Marriage 27 – My children, my world 28 – My records and tracing family 29 – ’45 Aid Society 30 – Alterman and Watson Ltd 31 – My word is my bond 32 – Losing Myra 33 – Golf and new beginnings 34 – Triple bypass 35 – Courting Diane and returning to Windermere 36 – I’ll always be there for them 37 – Telling my story to the world 38 – Returning to Prague 39 – You can’t hate a whole country 40 – The world today 41 – Learning to live 42 – Finding closure Glossary My Voice volunteers About The Fed

About the Author :
The Fed is Manchester's leading social care charity serving the Jewish community. In June of 2021, The Fed were awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service for the My Voice Project, the highest possible accolade for a voluntary sector group.