Beyond the gates of hell

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Possibly the longest Jewish survival account of the Holocaust. An inspirational story lingers behind tales of horror witnessed by thirteen-year-old Mayer Hersh in the labor camps of Nazi Germany. In what is possibly the longest recorded survival of its kind, Hersh would spend a total of 5 years and 2 months in 9 separate labor camps before his liberation in 1945. During this time, Hersh would lose 100 members of his immediate and extended family, witness countless inhumane acts, and live constantly on the brink of starvation. Yet, as author Colin Rushton marvels, "he tells his story without bitterness, without rancor, and without hatred because, in a wonderful way, and quite literally, his humanity has triumphed over all the evil he has witnessed and suffered." This tale of a boy's release from Hell ends with a confrontation of the past during his return to Auschwitz in 2002.