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Praise
"[A]n elegant, fascinating account of courage and perseverance, written at professional quality. Enhanced by an index of individuals’ experiences, camp-layout drawings and family photos, Sky Tinged Red is uncommonly worth reading."
- The American Jewish World
"I am truly amazed how this story was written, recovered and translated. Mrs. Eiger Zaidenweber is to be commended, not only for her translation work, but [for] her relentless determination and passion to honor both her father and all the victims whose stories cannot be told."
- nightreader, Amazon.com user
"Eiger has much to tell us, making his book an invaluable addition to Holocaust literature. Moreover, it is a book only he could write!"
- Martyrdom and Resistance
"This is destined to be one of the premier books revealing first-hand harrowing abuses that were inflected upon those imprisoned at the Auschwitz death-house. A 'must have' book!"
-William Garrison Jr., Amazon.com user
about the book
“Yes, even in the concentration camps one could distinguish between beasts and human beings, who, although they were physically abused and rundown, remained spiritually dignified.”
During its years of operation, the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was a planet unto itself, complete with its own hierarchy of terror and enslavement. For those who toiled there awaiting death, days were marked by hunger, hard labor, and beatings, nights by illness and bone-chilling fear. Yet even in the extermination hub of Europe’s Jews, seeds of dignity and humanity took root. Sons “organized” extra food to sustain their ill fathers. Friends found each other work. People gave their lives to protect others. Religious and secular came together to pray. Couples fell in love. Some plotted escape. Others planned armed resistance.
Sky Tinged Red is Isaia Eiger’s chronicle of two and a half years as a prisoner in Birkenau, where most were dispatched to death within hours of arrival. As a schreiber—an intake scribe—and participant in the resistance movement, Eiger’s acquaintance with the camp and its people was extensive. His incisive record of those he met, both prisoners and captors, chronicles the extremes of human behavior, from the most noble to the most base. Illuminating the constraints and choices that governed life in the camps, Eiger highlights the courage of those who maintained their humanity in a world dominated by brutality. Written shortly after the end of the war and translated decades later by Isaia's daughter, Dora, Sky Tinged Red, for both its compassionate narrative and the remarkable story of its publication, is a tribute to the enduring power of survivor testimony and the potential for transmission of memory through successive generations.
During its years of operation, the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was a planet unto itself, complete with its own hierarchy of terror and enslavement. For those who toiled there awaiting death, days were marked by hunger, hard labor, and beatings, nights by illness and bone-chilling fear. Yet even in the extermination hub of Europe’s Jews, seeds of dignity and humanity took root. Sons “organized” extra food to sustain their ill fathers. Friends found each other work. People gave their lives to protect others. Religious and secular came together to pray. Couples fell in love. Some plotted escape. Others planned armed resistance.
Sky Tinged Red is Isaia Eiger’s chronicle of two and a half years as a prisoner in Birkenau, where most were dispatched to death within hours of arrival. As a schreiber—an intake scribe—and participant in the resistance movement, Eiger’s acquaintance with the camp and its people was extensive. His incisive record of those he met, both prisoners and captors, chronicles the extremes of human behavior, from the most noble to the most base. Illuminating the constraints and choices that governed life in the camps, Eiger highlights the courage of those who maintained their humanity in a world dominated by brutality. Written shortly after the end of the war and translated decades later by Isaia's daughter, Dora, Sky Tinged Red, for both its compassionate narrative and the remarkable story of its publication, is a tribute to the enduring power of survivor testimony and the potential for transmission of memory through successive generations.
on publishing Sky Tinged Red
Bringing Sky Tinged Red to publication was a truly intergenerational project, utilizing the skills and passion of family members spanning four generations of the Eiger clan. Isaia’s words describing his time in Auschwitz, written in the late 1940s, would have been consigned to the archives long ago were it not for his daughter Dora’s dedication, love, and poetic flair, so evident in her English translation. Though her Yiddish was rusty and her eyesight severely impaired, Dora spent hours every day for nearly a year painstakingly translating the story from its original script - first to transliteration, and then to English prose.
Isaia’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren then took over, beginning the long process of editing, proofing, and self-publishing that finally brought Sky Tinged Red to print. Etan took on management of the project, working with an editor, designer, publisher, and others to ensure that Isaia’s powerful story was accessible to the public. From attention to minute details like the standardization of Polish spelling to the arduous task of creating an “Index of Names” to catalogue the many individuals mentioned throughout the book, Etan was driven by Isaia’s desire that his words serve as a “memorial to fallen comrades.” Meanwhile Jonah, a budding journalist, collected stories from interviews with Dora to weave together his own words with hers in essays that bookend Isaia’s story with descriptions of Eiger family life before and after the war. Other family members and friends gave input into the publishing decisions and contributed their many skills, creating a glossary, drawing a map of Isaia’s journey, and providing the resources to self-publish the final product. Many more relatives and friends pitched in by reading a chapter or two each for a personalized audio book, so that Dora, now legally blind, can finally read her father's memoir from start to finish.
Sky Tinged Red contains the stories of many who lived and died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, told with compassion and attention to the humanity of those who suffered there. At the same time, it embodies the story of four generations of the Eiger family, who have labored with love to maintain and share this record of our family’s history.
Isaia’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren then took over, beginning the long process of editing, proofing, and self-publishing that finally brought Sky Tinged Red to print. Etan took on management of the project, working with an editor, designer, publisher, and others to ensure that Isaia’s powerful story was accessible to the public. From attention to minute details like the standardization of Polish spelling to the arduous task of creating an “Index of Names” to catalogue the many individuals mentioned throughout the book, Etan was driven by Isaia’s desire that his words serve as a “memorial to fallen comrades.” Meanwhile Jonah, a budding journalist, collected stories from interviews with Dora to weave together his own words with hers in essays that bookend Isaia’s story with descriptions of Eiger family life before and after the war. Other family members and friends gave input into the publishing decisions and contributed their many skills, creating a glossary, drawing a map of Isaia’s journey, and providing the resources to self-publish the final product. Many more relatives and friends pitched in by reading a chapter or two each for a personalized audio book, so that Dora, now legally blind, can finally read her father's memoir from start to finish.
Sky Tinged Red contains the stories of many who lived and died at Auschwitz-Birkenau, told with compassion and attention to the humanity of those who suffered there. At the same time, it embodies the story of four generations of the Eiger family, who have labored with love to maintain and share this record of our family’s history.
