In My Brother's Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith after the Holocaust

By Alfred Bester

Book Overview

In My Brother's Image is the extraordinary story of Eugene Pogany's father and uncle-identical twin brothers born in Hungary of Jewish parents but raised as devout Catholic converts until the Second World War unraveled their family. In eloquent prose, Pogany portrays how the Holocaust destroyed the brothers' close childhood bond- his father, a survivor of a Nazi internment camp, denounced Christianity and returned to the Judaism of his birth, while his uncle, who found shelter in an Italian monastic community during the war, became a Catholic priest. Even after emigrating to America the brothers remained estranged, each believing the other a traitor to their family's faith. This tragic memoir is a rich, moving family portrait as well as an objective historical account of the rupture between Jews and Catholics. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067088538X
• ISBN13: 9780670885381
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 327 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Incredible Story

The author takes you on an incredible journey, beginning with his grandparents and their struggle with acceptance from his family in the intense social hierarchies, which existed in their nation. The grandmother coming from a working class background and the grandfather from a prominent and wealthy family was told a poor Jewish girl had nothing to offer him. These types of sentiments were not unheard of during that time. Then,...

I've met the author!

I remember reading about this real-life story a number of years before this book was actually published; I still have the clipped article from the Boston Globe in one of my scrapbooks. Then, when I was a student at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mr. Pogany came to our Hillel one Friday night and after services and dinner read from his book and spoke to us about the story behind it. Having met the author makes...

Insightful, very well written family portrait

A very thoughtful and sensitive family story. Very insightful. It helped me to understand my own parents better. It is very well written, easy to read and I couldn't put it down.

Fascinating New Book

This book is riveting in a way that a novel never could be. We follow a real family's struggle to survive the appalling hostilities and unspeakable tragedies to which Hungary's Jewish citizens were subjected in the years prior to and during World War II. Pogany's unique work is a sensitive and insightful portrayal of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times. It is also a moving account of a child's desire to understand...

A Powerful, Beautifully Written Book

While probably every survivor of the holocaust has a unique and compelling story to tell about the experience of the holocaust, the author of In My Brother's Image, who is the son of a survior, has written a fascinating account about the impact of the holocaust on the relationship between his father, and uncle, a Jew who became a priest.From the outset of the book, I was connected with the characters on an emotional level,...