HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Going beyond what happened to Jews, German born Rosa Raskin (nee Chimowicz) describes the life of Christians in Germany during the Second World War and her lifelong search for her older sister in “Walk Forward,” a different Schindler's list. What Raskin has found since publishing "Walk Forward," is intriguing. Although she has not found new information on her sister, she found the grave of an Uncle Leo Chimowicz, her father's youngest brother, in the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague. His three young sons were with her sister and were sent back to Auschwitz for a final time on September 10, being murdered on September 11, 1944. Through a new contact in Germany, she found the son of a replacement of some taken at Stutthof. The son wrote a book about his mother and lives in Canada. Most important, Raskin found a lady in the USA who was on the journey and three years older than her 9 year old, blond-haired sister. The lady's granddaughter published an incredible book entitled "Through Eva'a Eyes." Raskin visited her new found friend and felt it was her once in a lifetime chance to get a glimpse of her sister's world from another child who was at the same place at the same time and also a member of "The Last 500."
Using letters sent to her from a newly found cousin in Israel, Raskin has detailed dates and exact facts as written by her Uncle Alfred Chimowicz, Head of Metals #1 in the Lodz Ghetto, who selected each member of "The Last 500.” Jewish family members are caught in a hellish spider's web. As pawns in the chess game between Hitler's assistants, the group designated as metal workers, survive the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, and Stutthof, the last place where two young Chimowicz mothers and their four children were seen alive. the fate of one mother and her three sons is on the cover of a book from the Museum of Stutthof, while the fate of her sister and her sister's mother remains a true mystery. Those who survived concentration camp Stutthof, were sent to a converted cigarette factory in Dresden to make munitions. On the burning of Dresden, they continued on a horrific death march to concentration camp Theresienstadt from which they were released by the Russian Army
On September 10, 1944, many women and children were taken from Stutthof back to Auschwitz where the 500 had come from the week before on September 3, 1944. Raskin's sister is not documented on this return trip as are her three young male cousins of the same age. Her sister, Eugenia Chimowicz, is not documented to date in any verifiable format, but Raskin has filled out memory forms at Yad Vashem and posted her name on many lists.
Born in Germany after the Holocaust, Raskin describes her endless search and promise she made to her father.
“Walk Forward” is $2.99 in ebook format and $8.99 in paperback. It was written over a periood of twenty years and many chapters stand alone as the story is an ongoing mystery. It has been very difficult to get the book into Germany where the author believes more information might exist, but is popular in the U.S. and the U.K.
A silent tribute, “We walk forward, but will never forget,” is presented in the book's video trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp7uQap6p2M.
