The Watchmakers

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Told through interviews with his son, this extraordinary memoir recounts Harry Lenga's endurance, faith, and the unique skill that kept three brothers alive during World War II. Born into a Chassidic Jewish family in Kozhnitz, Poland, Harry and his brothers, Mailekh and Moishe, learned their father's watchmaking trade from a young age. When the German invasion disrupted their lives, they never imagined that their skills would be crucial for survival. Under horrific conditions, fixing watches for Germans in ghettos and brutal labor camps in Poland and Austria repeatedly saved their lives. From Wolanow and Starachowice to Auschwitz and Ebensee, the brothers bartered, worked, prayed, and ultimately witnessed liberation. Based on over a decade of interviews conducted by his son Scott and others, this memoir offers Harry's honest first-person account of his childhood, the lessons from his father, and his harrowing experiences during and after the war. It is a vital story of brotherhood, fatherhood, family, and faith, passed from one generation to the next, and serves as a profoundly moving tribute to resilience in the face of unimaginable adversity.