Every Last Jew

It’s 1939 and Hitler just invaded Poland. Henry is 13 years old, and unbeknownst to him or his family, his life is about to change forever. Soon he is torn from his siblings and parents and finds himself packed into a covered truck with dozens of desperate strangers. He doesn’t have any idea where he’s going or when he’ll be let out, if ever. Henry is now struggling for his life in one of the most diabolical and murderous events in human history – the Nazi plan to exterminate every last Jew in Europe.

Travel with him to a munition’s factory in his home town of Radom, where he is forced to labour 12 hours a day with barely enough rations to keep him alive. Discover how he manages to obtain extra food through ingenuity and a willingness to risk his life. Would we have the courage to do the same? Follow Henry to an airstrip in Unterriexingen where he is put to work in the freezing cold with barely any clothes and no shoes to protect him from the elements. Learn how, during an Allied air strike, he escapes to a nearby farmhouse where he pleads with the owner to take him in after he’s caught eating with the swine. Feel what it’s like to hold a Luger for the first time while Henry struggles with the idea of killing the Nazi officer who allows him to clean his pistol and shine his boots, when he is not forced to work building what would someday become his own prison. Would you pull the trigger? Walk with Henry on a ‘death march’ through the streets of Germany with no end in sight, having to endure the taunts of passersby who yell nasty epithets and throw stones at him while he reaches for a discarded apple core and is stabbed in the back by a Nazi soldier’s bayonet. How many of us would have the strength to continue in such circumstances?

This true-to-life story shines as a beacon of hope and perseverance and serves as a backdrop-narrative to remind us that racism and hate can lead to murderous behaviour and the rapid destruction of civil society. Every Last Jew
is a beautifully written memoir by Henry’s son Mark Koperweis that will take you on a journey that is up-close, personal, and in full living horror. When you emerge, you will never again see the world or your life in the same way. It will change you, as it did Henry, forever.