The Cap: Or the Price of a Life

Roman Frister was born into a wealthy, educated, cultured (Jewish) Polish family - his future was assured, until war broke out in 1939. This is his unusual autobiography, which not only tells of his horrifying experiences in Mauthausen, but also continues his life story beyond 1945, in a way which few similar books have done. The seminal experience of life in a death camp serves as the fulcrum upon which his whole life (and thus his narrative) is balanced, and in a poignant and extraordinary book he shows how it has coloured (both directly and indirectly) his entire existence.He and his parents manage to avoid arrest for 3 years, hiding in the houses of both generous friends and strangers, but they are finally caught. His mother is beaten to death right in front of him in an interrogation room, and his father dies of TB in the camp. At the time of liberation he weighed only 37 kilos: he had survived, but at what price? His examination of the whole concept of morals within the amoral world of the concentration camps is surprisingly frank, and he is uncompromisingly honest about what it took to ensure his survival in a world where one life is as dispensable as the next. His life beyond Mauthausen has been a rollercoaster of disaffection and disillusionment. He tried to resettle in his native Poland, but had to leave because of the racism. His unsparing narrative is again achingly honest about this and many other aspects of his life - not least his turbulent emotional life with its string of failed relationships. This is a powerful and important addition to the Holocaust literary genre, which will engender both horror and sympathy in any reader.