Otto, the Boy at the Window: Peter Abeles True Story of Escape from the Holocaust and New Life in America

By Peter Abeles and Tom Hicks

Book Overview

As sixty-eight year old Peter Abeles confronts his ambivalence over his mother's recent death, he laces together his childhood memories of the prewar Austrian aristocracy his Jewish family belonged to, the rising tide of hate that engulfed them and their decision to flee, and the story of his life in America. In trying to come to terms with his personal history and family, Abeles looks beyond the immediate horrors of the Holocaust and the Diaspora to some of the more subtle effects on the reconstructed lives that followed. He gives a hard, honest account of his upbringing by a cold, demanding father and an embittered, materialistic mother-but he frames that account in forgiveness and redemption, imagining his dead mother as she receives a treasure box of Sefirot, the ten Hebrew words that allow an individual to know Kabbalah, or wisdom. Peter Abeles and Tom Hicks have produced an intelligent and edifying memoir that has much to say about exile and immigration, about class, money, love and forgiveness. In Otto, the Boy at the Window, they offer readers some hard-earned shreds of Kabbalah. Praise for Otto, the Boy at the Window: "This unforgettable book opens with the death of Abeles' mother in Long Island when he was 68, which prompts him to reflect on his Viennese childhood in the 1930s. His mother was strict and possessive, and his father was unyielding. The father owned a thriving wholesale shoe business, and the family had servants and tutors. Abeles relives the Anschluss of March 12, 1938, when the Nazis took control of Austria, and he remembers mobs of Nazi sympathizers destroying synagogues and Jewish-owned properties during Kristallnacht in November of that year. In November 1939, the family sailed from Rotterdam to New York with only $10 left from their fortune. They went to Chicago, where two sponsoring families met them.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1418421286
• ISBN13: 9781418421281
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Authorhouse
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

otto,the boy at the window

I have not read a book since high school 1958 until my friend peter ables book wrote his true story escabe from holocaust and new life in america i could not put the book down until I finished reading it and ordered several books to give to some of my friends. thank bill cook Memphis, tenn.

CAPTURES YOUR HEART AND SOUL...

This is a book that will capture your heart and soul. I spent nights crying for Otto, and often wanted to put the book down, but found that I couldn't until I saw him through to the end. His ultimate successes were a real tribute to the strength that can be found within the human soul. This book is spiritual and inspiring and will not leave you.

Not a book you can put down.

I found this a fascinating, informative and enlightening book. It would make a great Christmas/Hanukkah gift because of its' originality and intelligibility.

I Couldn't Put it Down.........

I commend Peter Abeles and Tom Hicks on a well written and very interesting book. Once I picked it up, I could not stop reading it. I was truly inspired by the incredible life Peter Abeles has lived. Going from heart ache and loss in Austria and then coming to America where he and his family started over with hardly anything. Then making a successful life for himself in which his accomplishments are many and are definately something to be very proud of. His life is evidence of that which hurts us only makes us stronger. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who needs proof that hard work really does get you somewhere. Who doesn't need that???

Fascinating and Touching!

I couldn't hold back the tears as I shared Peter's experiences. I was so tremendously encouraged and uplifted as I witnessed a man who found out that it is never too late for love and forgiveness to prevail. Peter and Tom have told this story in a unique and entertaining way.