Book review: Holocaust biography harrowing and inspiring

For years, Celina Karp Biniaz lived a quiet life in Iowa. Little did those around her realize the horrors she had experienced in the Nazi Holocaust.

William B. Friedricks, professor emeritus of history and former director of the Iowa History Center at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, chronicles Celina's experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp and meeting Oskar Schindler in "Saved by Schindler: The Life of Celina Karp Biniaz," published by Ice Cube Press of North Liberty, Iowa.

Friedricks tells how Celina, who grew up in an upper middle class family in Krakow, Poland, saw the gradual grip of the Nazis, leading to their takeover of the country and later confining Jews into ghettos. Through all those horrors, Celina’s family was saved from the gas chambers and ovens by Julius Madritsch and later Schindler, who put Jews to work in factories that supported the German war effort, keeping them out of concentration camps – at least initially.

Eventually, though, Celina and her family found themselves on the train toward Auschwitz concentration camp where Celina was initially slated for death by the notorious Josef Mengele, who surprisingly spared her when Celina begged for her life.

The bulk of Friedricks’ biography focuses on the Karp family’s successful efforts to secure passage to America where family relatives in Des Moines, Iowa, helped them relocate. Celina later graduated from Grinnell College with high honors, met her future husband and began a family, all the time keeping her Holocaust experience close to her vest.

As Friedricks tells us:

“The one matter that Celina would not address, however, was her Holocaust experience. She remained mum on the topic after people in Des Moines seemed uninterested or unable to comprehend the handful of details she revealed during her first six months in the city. After that, only a handful of people besides Bini (her husband) knew anything of her story, and Bini, in fact, knew very little.”

The release of the movie "Schindler’s List" moved Celina to tell her story, if for no other reason than she knew it should not be forgotten.

Friedricks’ extensive research, coupled with interviews with Celina and her family, presents a detailed and moving picture of the Holocaust. This is a book that belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in the Holocaust, World War II or how one man was able to save the lives of so many.

Saved by Schindler: The Life of Celina Karp Biniaz

• William B. Friedricks

• Ice Cube Press

• ISBN 978-1-948509-38-1

• $21.95

Michael Tidemann writes from Estherville, Iowa. His Facebook page is Author Michael Tidemann.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Book review: Holocaust biography harrowing and inspiring