Not just another rendering of the tragic Holocaust survivor account, Orenstein's story focuses on the wit, will and courage of his family and himself as they traverse ghettos and five concentration camps during World War II in Nazi-occupied Poland. His parents murdered during one of the Nazi actions, Orenstein endeavors to keep himself and his siblings alive by masquerading as scientists, mathematicians and engineers as part of what became known as the Chemical Commando, a group whose task was to create a secret weapon for the Third Reich, but was in fact, just a ruse that fooled even Heinrich Himmler, and more importantly, kept the Orensteins and many others alive to see the end of the war, and liberation. Originally published in 1987, this reprint of the 1997 edition includes new documents, letters to and from Himmler himself, and an introduction by Malcolm Hoenlein, as well as the original forward by Claude Lanzmann. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)