About this item
Benzion Malik was on a path of discovery. He was keen to learn about everything in life through the teachings of his faith and only something cataclysmic could throw him off this course. In 1939, the 21-year-old Benzion was called up to the Romanian Army. Little did he know that he would not be a free man until 1945.During six long years, Benzion served in three further armies. He was forced into hard labor and was constantly abused because of his Jewishness by the Hungarian army. He was then made to serve the German army which simply needed disposable bodies to be targets for Soviet bullets. Finally, the Soviet army needed young men like Benzion to help with the effort to fight the Nazis.None of these acts of service and servitude were easy. Benzion was in a continuous dance with death but clung to life through the goodness of strangers.
About the Author
Martin Bodek is co-founder of TheKnish. com - a Jewish version of The Onion. He is the beat reporter for JrunnersClub. org, an emerging Brooklyn-based organization for athletes. He researches surnames for Jewishworldreview. com (e-mail onsurnames@gmail. com with yours and he'll do the legwork for you!) . He has been writing freelance for more than 15 years for The Denver Post, The Washington Times, The Jewish Press, bangitout. com and other sites and media outlets as well as Germany's only weekly Jewish newspaper, The Judische Allgemeine. He was born and raised in the wilds of Brooklyn, New York, has worked most of his life in the badlands of New York City and settled in the jungles of northern New Jersey with his strong wife and three above average children. As you can tell, he wants to be a writer if and when he grows up.
