As a young child in Nazi-occupied Poland, Steve Ross (then Smulek Rozental) endured unspeakable violence and deprivation in ten concentration camps. He lost most of his family to the Holocaust, but through sheer determination and a lot of luck, he survived his brutal ordeal, and went on to emigrate to the United States, where he build a successful career helping ensure that inner-city youth in Boston, Massachusetts could pursue their dreams and never experience suffering like he had. A true testament to the power of human resilience, Steve teaches us how even those who suffer the most can find strength and purpose in the service of others.
In FROM BROKEN GLASS: My Story of Finding Hope in Hitler’s Death Camps to Inspire a New Generation (on sale May 15, 2018; Hachette Books; ISBN# 978-0-316-51304-3; $26.00, with a foreword by former Boston mayor and US Ambassador to the Vatican Ray Flynn), Ross transports readers into a gripping survival story, as he is repeatedly forced to decide who is telling him the truth or which fateful queue he waits in might be luring him to his death, enduring along the way fear and abuse, hunger and pain. With poignant insight into where we find resilience in the face of human frailty, Ross explores how resourcefulness, determination, and most importantly the help of his fellow prisoners, pulled him through the starvation and slave labor he survived in such notorious death camps as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Sobibor, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen, and Dachau.
Ross also shows us how his childhood experiences finding strength and love in the most unlikely places inspired him to devote his life after the Holocaust to helping forge a better world for underprivileged children. He worked for the city of Boston for nearly four decades, He eventually became a Director of Education at the city’s community centers, and later conceiving of and founding the New England Holocaust Memorial, one of Boston’s most visited sites.
Taking readers from the horrors of Nazi Germany to the streets of South Boston, this is the story of one child’s stunning experiences, the piercing wisdom into humanity with which they endowed him, and the drive for social justice that has come to define his life. FROM BROKEN GLASS is a wise and intimate memoir about finding strength in the face of despair and an inspiring meditation on how we can unlock the morality within us to build a better world.
Steve Ross, born Smulek Rozental, is the survivor of ten Nazi concentration camps—including Dachau, where he was tasked with transporting corpses to the crematorium. He was the Director of Education for the City of Boston’s community centers, and he conceived of and founded the New England Holocaust Memorial, which was erected in 1995 and remains one of Boston’s most visited landmarks.
