Guest Post: Why I Wrote This Book by Jerry Amernic, Author of The Last Witness

The year is 2039, and Jack Fisher is the last living survivor of the Holocaust. Set in a world that is abysmally complacent about events of the last century, Jack is a 100-year-old man whose worst memories took place before he was 5. His story hearkens back to the Jewish ghetto of his birth and to Auschwitz where, as a little boy, he had to fend for himself to survive after losing his family. Jack becomes the central figure in a missing-person investigation when his granddaughter suddenly disappears. While assisting police, he finds himself in danger and must reach into the darkest corners of his memory to come out alive.

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What inspired this book?
Guest post by Jerry Amernic

The Last Witness is a novel that has been germinating in my mind for a long time. It’s about the last living survivor of the Holocaust in the year 2039, with a protagonist who is 100 years old and still in possession of his faculties. But the near-future world I devise here is abysmally ignorant and even more complacent about events of the past century. Let’s make it clear right off the bat; this is not sci-fi – not even close, I don’t write sci-fi – but rather a commentary on what is already happening in the world today, albeit in the guise of a thriller that packs a lot of history between the covers.

My central character, Jack Fisher, is a man whose worst memories took place before he was 5. After the sudden disappearance of his granddaughter, actually his great-granddaughter who is a schoolteacher, he becomes the central figure in a missing-person investigation that winds up involving two countries – the United States and Canada. A sympathetic NYPD detective takes on the case and, in the process, befriends him. While all this is going on, there is a mysterious string of murders of old people taking place around the world.

It  isn’t long before Jack finds himself in danger and must reach into the darkest corners of his memory to come out alive. Indeed, some of those memories have been repressed through years, decades, of torment and suffering.

Jack’s story hearkens back to the Jewish ghetto of his birth as a hidden child, and then to the death camp at Auschwitz where he had to fend for himself after losing his family. These are all captured as flashbacks in my novel.

While there have been many books about the Holocaust, including works of fiction, I don’t believe anyone has taken a futuristic slant quite like this. But the seeds for despair about the level of knowledge out there are all around us right now.

In researching this book, I met with real-life child survivors, including some who were liberated by the Red Army in 1945; one of these survivors was as young as three and his memories are very sketchy, but the others were older at war’s end, and the things they remember are etched in stone. I had former child survivors tell me that after coming to North America they were put into classrooms and told by their teachers not to talk about their experiences. One woman who now goes into schools doing talks about the Holocaust had a particularly gut-wrenching story; she was visiting a school only to have a number of Muslim students turn their backs on her when she spoke; they had been told at home that the Holocaust never happened.

I also met with eminent British historian Sir Martin Gilbert who has written extensively about the Holocaust and who is the official biographer of Winston Churchill; one of his suggestions really piqued my imagination and found its way into my novel.

So why did I write The Last Witness? Well, I have been seized by the idea that one day in the not-too-distant future, there will be one last remaining survivor of the Holocaust. If this individual was a child survivor who had been born in 1939, in the year 2039 he would be 100 years old. And that is my Jack. What will the world be like in 2039?

Aye, there’s the rub, as the Bard would say.

Consider this. A Gallup Poll done just a few years ago found that knowledge of the Holocaust was pathetically feeble in the United States. For example, only 46 per cent of Americans polled could say how many Jews were killed, and only 44 per cent could properly identify Auschwitz, Dachau and Treblinka as Nazi death camps. It is a sad commentary when less than half of Americans can answer these questions. In another poll some 70 per cent of Americans said they knew what the Holocaust was, but the sorry flipside of that is that 30 per cent apparently had no idea.

Yet another poll, this in the United Kingdom, found that 28 per cent of people aged 18 to 29 claimed to not know if the Holocaust ever happened at all. Then there was the survey done five years ago in Israel which said that 40 per cent of Israeli Arabs do not believe the Holocaust took place.

In my own country, Canada, knowledge is also on the wane, especially in the province of Quebec. Where I live in Ontario, the school system is such that any young person can graduate from a public high school with but a single credit in history during that whole time, and it doesn’t even have to be North American or European history.

This means we have spawned an entire generation that is abysmally ignorant of history, and the future does not hold good prospects.

The McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum in Chicago was America’s first museum dedicated to the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. It opened in 2006, but closed its doors only three years later and took its displays on the road. In 2008 the museum did a survey. Are you ready for this? Close your eyes. According to the study, while more than half of Americans could name at least two members of TV’s fictional cartoon family The Simpsons (22 per cent could name all five of them), only one in four Americans could identify more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.

So consider The Last Witness not so much a commentary on what the near future will look like, but a warning about profound ignorance and complacency just a quarter-century down the road. For what it’s worth, the very first person to post a review on Amazon said she read the entire book through the night, that she could feel the pain of the memories of the witness, and even cried during some parts. If there is one thing an author wants from a reader, it’s an emotional gut reaction.

Stay tuned for my next historical thriller. Qumran. That is the place in the Holy Land where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered back in 1947. But the discovery in this story has the potential to make that one pale by comparison.



Jerry Amernic is a Toronto author of fiction and non-fiction books. In doing his research for The Last Witness, he interviewed such people as noted Holocaust historian Sir Martin Gilbert, and met with real-life survivors who were children when they were liberated in 1945.


Reposted from Quiet Fury Books Blog

Guest Post: Op-Ed: History is not a Strong Point with the Young in America

 

"The Last Witness" is a book about the last Holocaust survivor. Do not take it for granted that the younger generation - those who did not get a Jewish education, that is - knows what that means.

Novelists must learn to deal with rejection. We get rejected all the time and receive replies like “This does not fit in with our current editorial needs.” But when a publisher turns down a novel because “I found that I had to suspend disbelief,” as one of them told my literary agent, that is another thing.

For years I had an idea – a novel about the last living survivor of the Holocaust. The man would be 100 years old. He would have been a child survivor, so after working out the details and doing the math, I pegged his birth to the year 1939. When he is 100 years old we are in 2039, the near future, and that’s when my story in The Last Witness takes place. But there’s a hook. My character is living at a time when knowledge of the Holocaust is pretty meager, and that was the problem this publisher had; he couldn’t buy my premise that one generation from now ignorance of the Holocaust would be widespread.

The novel includes flashbacks about my survivor as a hidden child in a Jewish ghetto, and then being discovered and winding up at Auschwitz with his family. He is the only one who gets out.

Edmund Burke said those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it, and this is what is so frightening about the current generation. Indeed, their lack of knowledge about times past is an epidemic of dire proportions.

Poll after poll has shown that young people are abysmally ignorant where history is concerned.

I have seen this first-hand. I used to teach writing and journalism to college students; there were those right out of high school and those with university degrees. One thing I learned early on was that history is not a forte with the young, and unless they had attended religious school as children, they also weren’t up to snuff on the most basic biblical analogies. It meant no jokes about living as long as Methuselah. No references to the
One student said that “thousands” of Jews had been killed in the Holocaust, and another said that while he’s heard of the Holocaust, he couldn’t explain it.

One student said that “thousands” of Jews had been killed in the Holocaust, and another said that while he’s heard of the Holocaust, he couldn’t explain it.
parting of the Red Sea. Nothing about David and Goliath or the Three Wise Men.

Have you ever played Trivial Pursuit with someone under 35 and asked questions in the History category? It’s incredible what they don’t know.

After getting the rejection from that publisher, I decided to produce a video. We went out to ask university students in Toronto, where I live, what they know about the Holocaust.

“When did the Holocaust take place?” I asked the first two I encountered.

The two girls stared at each other. Hmm. One of them said, “Nineteen-eighty …” but she wasn’t sure. Then her friend said it wasn’t the 1980s. They looked at each other again. “Nineteen-forty?” they said as one voice.

I asked the next pair, a young man and woman, if they have ever heard of The Final Solution. No they hadn’t. As it turned out, they weren’t up to snuff on D-Day, the Beaches of Normandy, FDR or Churchill either.

Not one student I spoke to that afternoon could tell me who Josef Mengele was. One student said that “thousands” of Jews had been killed in the Holocaust, and another said that while he’s heard of the Holocaust, he couldn’t explain it.

I don’t blame the students for knowing so little about history. When I was their age I might have been in the same boat, except history was compulsory then. But that isn’t the case today, which is why these students were scratching their heads searching for a tidbit of information about the Holocaust or Churchill.


Novelists must learn to deal with rejection. We get rejected all the time and receive replies like “This does not fit in with our current editorial needs.” But when a publisher turns down a novel because “I found that I had to suspend disbelief,” as one of them told my literary agent, that is another thing.

For years I had an idea – a novel about the last living survivor of the Holocaust. The man would be 100 years old. He would have been a child survivor, so after working out the details and doing the math, I pegged his birth to the year 1939. When he is 100 years old we are in 2039, the near future, and that’s when my story in The Last Witness takes place. But there’s a hook. My character is living at a time when knowledge of the Holocaust is pretty meager, and that was the problem this publisher had; he couldn’t buy my premise that one generation from now ignorance of the Holocaust would be widespread.

The novel includes flashbacks about my survivor as a hidden child in a Jewish ghetto, and then being discovered and winding up at Auschwitz with his family. He is the only one who gets out.

Edmund Burke said those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it, and this is what is so frightening about the current generation. Indeed, their lack of knowledge about times past is an epidemic of dire proportions.

Poll after poll has shown that young people are abysmally ignorant where history is concerned.

I have seen this first-hand. I used to teach writing and journalism to college students; there were those right out of high school and those with university degrees. One thing I learned early on was that history is not a forte with the young, and unless they had attended religious school as children, they also weren’t up to snuff on the most basic biblical analogies. It meant no jokes about living as long as Methuselah. No references to the parting of the Red Sea. Nothing about David and Goliath or the Three Wise Men.

Have you ever played Trivial Pursuit with someone under 35 and asked questions in the History category? It’s incredible what they don’t know.

After getting the rejection from that publisher, I decided to produce a video. We went out to ask university students in Toronto, where I live, what they know about the Holocaust.

“When did the Holocaust take place?” I asked the first two I encountered.

The two girls stared at each other. Hmm. One of them said, “Nineteen-eighty …” but she wasn’t sure. Then her friend said it wasn’t the 1980s. They looked at each other again. “Nineteen-forty?” they said as one voice.

I asked the next pair, a young man and woman, if they have ever heard of The Final Solution. No they hadn’t. As it turned out, they weren’t up to snuff on D-Day, the Beaches of Normandy, FDR or Churchill either.

Not one student I spoke to that afternoon could tell me who Josef Mengele was. One student said that “thousands” of Jews had been killed in the Holocaust, and another said that while he’s heard of the Holocaust, he couldn’t explain it.

I don’t blame the students for knowing so little about history. When I was their age I might have been in the same boat, except history was compulsory then. But that isn’t the case today, which is why these students were scratching their heads searching for a tidbit of information about the Holocaust or Churchill.


The Last Witness is fiction, but a lot of research went into it. I met with former child survivors and Sir Martin Gilbert, the eminent historian and master chronicler of the Holocaust who passed away recently. Gilbert and all those former child survivors had no trouble accepting my premise that knowledge of the Holocaust is lagging and will only get worse in the future.

Should we be concerned? Yes. Today we have a rising Cold War with Russia and a cauldron in the Middle East, never mind far-right political parties getting scary levels of support in many European countries. Hate seems to be everywhere.

With all this in mind, I recently took out a book from the library – Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment by respected journalist J. J. Goldberg. The book was a thoughtful, well-researched exploration of the history of Jews in America, the Israel lobby, and what impact Jews may have in certain areas. Goldberg, of course, is Jewish himself. But when I got home I saw, scribbled in pencil on the first blank page just inside the cover, this handwritten message:

‘We hate jews because we know that judaism is not simply another religion but the ideology of class/racial exclusivity apartheid and supremacism and they succeed in imposing their will on the rest of us. Simply put we hate jews because jews hate and control us.’

I was mortified. The message wasn’t signed – bigots are not known for their courage – and I’m sure whoever wrote it didn’t read the book. What is likely is that the person saw the title Jewish Power and thought this was about Jews taking over the world – the so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a myth created in Russia in 1903 and which to this day seeps into the consciousness of those who think they have it all figured out.

After finishing the book, I returned to the library and told the librarian there was an offensive message inside. She promised to address the matter. As for the cretin who wrote it, I can only say this: one thing I know about the human condition is that the greatest crimes in history are due to ignorance. That, of course, brings up our friend Edmund Burke again. But is anyone listening?

Reposted from Israel National News

The year is 2039, and Jack Fisher is the last living survivor of the Holocaust. t in a world that is abysmally complacent about events of the last century, Jack is a 100-year-old man whose worst memories took place before he was 5. His story hearkens back to the Jewish ghetto of his birth and to Auschwitz where, as a little boy, he had to fend for himself to survive after losing his family. Jack becomes the central figure in a missing-person investigation when his granddaughter suddenly disappears. While assisting police, he finds himself in danger and must reach into the darkest corners of his memory to come out alive.

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Guest Post: Washed out family bike ride a climate change harbinger for all by Jerry Amernic

I live in the east end of Toronto near Lake Ontario and like to bike through the valley system carved by the Rouge River. The route takes me along the lakefront and east to the Pickering nuclear station and the giant wind turbine you see from far away. By bike it’s a 90-minute round trip. You immerse yourself in the peace and harmony of nature. Sometimes you even spot a deer. 

It is a 10-minute ride from my house to the lake and then I bike along a pathway hugging the shoreline. Seagulls, ducks, maybe a fox, are part of the landscape. Then on to the mouth of the Rouge and the beachhead. On summer days this place is full of people. Just to the north are train tracks. 

Two years ago I started taking my younger grandson on bike rides there. He was four and his two-wheeler had training wheels. His energy and zest were such that he made people laugh. But spring that year, 2017, was different than any year I have known since we moved to this area 40 years ago. The water level of the lake had reached record levels. The Rouge beach was under water as was the road — the eastern extension of Lawrence Ave. — that leads down a long hill to the sand. The marshland, the road, the beach — everything — had become part of the bay. 

Last year water levels were normal and my grandson, now 5, and riding that same bike, but without training wheels, could ride with me to the beach and accompany me across the bridge that crosses the Rouge into Pickering. We would ride to his beloved “ding-ding,” which is what he calls the signal switch for the trains; when a train comes through the signals chime “ding-ding.” Now he’s 6 with a new bigger and faster bike. 

If you asked me a few months ago about 2017 being a once-in-a-lifetime event, I would have agreed. But this past spring the water levels of Lake Ontario were higher than two years ago. The beach was under water, the road leading to it submerged, and the marshland had joined the bay. 

And my grandson and I couldn’t bike to the next town, so no ding-ding. A once-in-a-lifetime scenario has now happened twice in three years and just last week the area returned to normal. But the summer is almost over. Something is going on here. The city has people pumping water out of the beaches, thousands of sandbags hold off rising water levels, which is why the Toronto Islands were closed again this year, and because I can’t do my route and we can’t get to the ding-ding, it’s personal.

"Lest They Forget" by Opinion by Jerry Amernic in The Globe and Mail (Ontario Edition)

Lest they forget: D-Day will fade from memory if we don’t teach the youth

Jerry Amernic is the author of several books, including the novel The Last Witness.

The other night, I watched Saving Private Ryan. It was Memorial Day in the United States. The opening sequence depicting the landings at Normandy on D-Day – June 6, 1944 – is riveting. Although the film never mentions Canada, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division penetrated further inland at Juno Beach on D-Day than did the Yanks or Brits at the four beaches they tackled.

The biggest military invasion in history, D-Day turned the tide of the Second World War. The 359 Canadian dead and 715 wounded were among 10,000 Allied casualties that day, and next week is the 75th anniversary. It will be the last one with actual veterans, which means there will soon be no more witnesses and that can be a dangerous thing.

We all know the words Lest we forget, but I fear that young people today know little, if anything, about D-Day and the Second World War. This became obvious to me when I taught college. They just don’t know. But when the last combatant is gone, knowing what happened and why it happened will be crucial.

My father served in the war, but was stationed in Newfoundland and never saw combat. I have his dog tag tucked away in a velvet pouch with other things from his youth. While I was born in the 1950s, I learned about Canada’s war effort in school and from my work as a journalist.

I once did a magazine profile on retired major-general Richard Rohmer who showed me his Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for his service as a reconnaissance pilot. Mr. Rohmer saw the entire Normandy invasion from the skies that day and told me about it.

Another time, I covered the last annual reunion of a group of Belgian citizens and the Canadian soldiers who liberated them in 1945. I still remember the camaraderie, the kinship and the love that existed among them.

A few years ago, I wrote a novel about the last living survivor of the Holocaust. It takes place in 2039 when my protagonist is 100 years old, but knowledge of past history is remote. My agent shopped it around, and one editor turned it down because he didn’t buy the premise about society becoming ignorant about the Holocaust in a generation. The editor said he had to suspend disbelief.

Really?

After my novel was rejected by that publisher, a videographer and I interviewed students at a Toronto university and asked them questions about the Holocaust. We asked them about the Allies. We asked if they knew about Churchill and FDR. We asked about D-Day. With few exceptions, these kids knew practically nothing. The video we made has gone viral around the world.

When I asked if they knew what happened on D-Day, their responses ranged from, “It happened in England,” to “It was a place where a lot of bombs went off,” to them just shaking their heads.

My daughter is a high-school teacher, has taught history and is dedicated to her job. But the problem might be rooted in the fact that the young have so many options today, not just in school but outside as well, and maybe there is no room for knowing about the past.

I have a 576-page document from the Ontario Ministry of Education. It’s supposed to explain what is taught in Grades 10 and 11 in high schools in the area of Canadian and World Studies, and it uses phrases such as “Concepts of Disciplinary Thinking across Subjects.”

Frankly, when it comes to teaching history – or any subject – I don’t care what it says in a document about what is supposed to be covered in the curriculum. The fact is that, for whatever the reason, young people who graduate from Ontario high schools do not know seem to know basic history.

Two weeks ago, I attended the funeral of Milton Berger. He was 94. Milt was a long-time Toronto city councillor and we met when I was a young newspaper reporter covering municipal politics. He was also the father-in-law of a close friend.

Milt was said to be the first Holocaust survivor to serve as a politician in Ontario. When he was 17 he was sent to Auschwitz.

Lest we forget? It’s time for us to wake up and ensure that our young know why we have the freedoms too many take for granted. Having them not know disrespects those who made the sacrifice – such as the men at Juno Beach – and may even foretell a future that we don’t want to imagine.

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The last surviving member of the Babe Ruth Household by Jery Amernic

https://baberuthlegacy.com/

The oldest person I ever interviewed was Helge Ingstad, the famed Norwegian explorer who discovered the old Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. That put to rest Christopher Columbus discovering America since the Vikings had beat him by 500 years. Ingstad was 100 years old when I met up with him at his home just outside Oslo, and he would pass away the following year.

But of all the people I have ever interviewed the one who lived the longest was Julia Ruth Stevens, daughter of Babe Ruth. Julia, who passed away last week at the age of 102, was the last remaining member of the Ruth household.

She was a neat lady with a razor-sharp memory, keen sense of humor, and passion, especially where it concerned the man she called Daddy.

Portions of my lengthy interview with her when I spent an afternoon at her home are up on www.BabeRuthLegacy.com under Babe Ruth Legacy interviews. And as they say on CNN, it’s worth a listen.

Babe Ruth was a big part of Julia’s life until his death in 1948 when she was 32, and her insights into the kind of person he was are precious. She told me about the fun-loving, outgoing Babe who adored kids, who never had a chance to be one himself, and who just had this uncanny knack for doing everything he did … well.

He would wake her up at 5 a.m. when she was a young girl to join him for breakfast. Just the two of them. He taught her how to dance. He gave her his blood when she was in hospital and needed a transfusion. He gave her away when she got married. And, said Julia, “he would never fail to keep a promise.”

Maybe the funniest part of my time with her was when we were talking about the incredible value of Babe Ruth-signed baseballs, and the fact she didn’t possess any of those baseballs herself.

“The only signature I ever got was on a check,” she said, and then laughed.

You can tell a lot about people by their laugh. Julia’s laugh was one that said she enjoyed life, she enjoyed people, and she certainly liked having fun.

I am so glad I got to meet her.

Guest Post: Ignorance isn’t bliss by Jerry Amernic

Four years ago I visited a major Canadian university and asked students questions about World War II. FDR? Never heard of him. Churchill? There’s a statue of him but I don’t know what he did. The Allies? Can’t tell you who they were. D-Day and the Beaches of Normandy?

Nope.

It wound up in a video which has been downloaded 90,000 times.

This November 11th marks 100 years since the end of World War I, also known as the Great War and the War to End All Wars. Only it didn’t. One century later and almost three-quarters of a century after the end of World War II, where are we?

The most powerful nation on earth is led by an ignorant demagogue who has no respect for democracy or freedom, and tens of millions support him through thick and thin, thinking he’s a Messiah who will take them to the Promised Land. Right-wing political parties are gaining ground and it’s okay to be a white supremacist or neo-Nazi as long as you call yourself the Alt Right.

But it’s not okay.

When I was a reporter I once covered a reunion of Belgian citizens who had been liberated by Canadian soldiers in 1944, and they were meeting with some of those soldiers thirty years hence. All these people were much older, but the emotion and camaraderie at that thing was so palpable I can still feel it in my bones.

Those Belgians hadn’t forgotten what it was like to be occupied by Nazi Germany, and to this day Belgium continues to honour the Canadians who liberated the nation.

Years after that reunion I was a guest of the Canadian Armed Forces, doing talks at military bases in the former West Germany. We had a German chauffeur, Herbie, a man in his 50s. We had stopped at a traffic light in this charming little town in the Black Forest when a group of straggly, long-haired youths walked across the road.

“You know,” Herbie said, “Hitler did a lot of bad things but he wouldn’t put up with that.”

I often discuss the issue about our young knowing nothing about history. They know nothing because that is what the schools teach them.

Last week I read an op-ed by an immigrant to the West who doesn’t think we should wear poppies at Remembrance Day because, he said, we shouldn’t recognize militarism. So here’s what I think.

If you’re new to a country that still relishes the principle of liberal democracy and don’t think we should observe such things, kindly pack your bags and return to where you came from.

If you’re a young person, a Millennial or a schoolteacher who doesn’t see the need to know about the last century, tune into the recent Munk Debate in Toronto about the rise of populism between former Trump aide Steve Bannon and journalist David Frum. It’s online.

Frum, senior editor of The Atlantic, delivered a passionate and eloquent defense of liberal democracy. But to fully appreciate what he said it would help to know about the past.

Ignorance might get elected, but it is not bliss.





CLICK IMAGE TO PURCHASE – BABE RUTH - A Superstar's Legacy.


Jerry Amernic is a Canadian writer of fiction and non-fiction books. He is the author of his newest book BABE RUTH - A Superstar's Legacy.

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www.jerrythenovelist.com

Guest Post: Perspective and balance by Jerry Amernic

 

The call came on a Wednesday morning. They were a group whose guest speaker had suddenly taken ill and was in the hospital, and could I come and take his place. And when might that be?

The very next day.

Well, they say it’s best to be flexible in life and so, I did it. My topic was A Crusader for Preserving History and while it was short notice – this was as short as it gets – I did manage to bring some books and give them an hour of my schtick which sort of goes like this.

First, put them at ease and offer to speak to their book clubs; this particular group had four of them! Then explain that I’m a writer who talks about heroes, history and ‘perspective.’ What does that mean?

Remember the movie ‘Back to the Future?’ It takes place in 1985 and Marty McFly returns to the 1950s where he tells the crazy scientist played by Christopher Lloyd about the future.

“Who’s the President in 1985?” Lloyd asks.

“Ronald Reagan,” McFly says.

“The actor?” replies the surprised Lloyd. “Who’s the Vice President? Jerry Lewis?”

Funny as that exchange was then, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched now. In 2018. Because it’s all about perspective. We’ve been there, we’ve seen the future and anything is possible.

That accomplished, the presentation continues with a discussion about my books – fiction and non-fiction – and the hero in each of them. And not losing sight of this thing called perspective.

Perspective means you can be a college student who just saw the film ‘Dunkirk’ and loved it, but you don’t know who Winston Churchill was.

Perspective means you can be a refugee from a war-torn country who comes to the West only to wonder what everyone is complaining about over here.

Perspective means you can be a woman who’s fed up with a lifetime of men taking advantage and so, you take part in a march and carry a sign that says ‘Men ruin everything’ and really believe it.

It’s all about perspective. But alas, each of us has different experiences and tends to reach conclusions based on what we know, what we’ve done or what we were told.

This could be why so many people hate so many other people. And yet, perspective is a two-edged sword. On one hand, it can open up the world and on the other, it can be a killer.

In a court proceeding, they start with a Statement of Facts which is a good starting point as long as we realize that an apple is an apple and a banana is a banana. However, nowadays that is fast becoming a blur with so many charlatans out there who put their own fanciful spin on history with alternative facts, fake news, what have you.

Which makes the Statement of Facts more important than ever.
 

Jerry Amernic is a Canadian writer of fiction and non-fiction books. He is the author of the  Holocaust-related novel 'The Last Witness' and the biblical-historical thriller 'QUMRAN'

   

Jerry Amernic
Ph: 416-284-0838
Mobile: 416-707-8456

www.jerrythenovelist.com

The Girly Book Club Reviews Jerry Amernic's The Last Witness

Amazon / Amazon UK / Amazon CA / Barnes and Noble

4/5 *

A dystopian story. 1984 meets The Holocaust. The Last Witness, written by Jerry Amernic, has one of the most fascinating premises for a book I’ve ever come across. Two years ago Amernic asked university students what they knew about The Holocaust and WWII. Their lack of knowledge and incorrect information in their answers inspired Amernic to write this futuristic thriller.

Within the first 4 pages of this book I thought three things:

1. It’s the future
2. It’s set in NYC
3. Although I was already sucked into the plot, the characters, and the language, there was a small part of me that knew it was probably going to break my heart over and over throughout the journey.

And I was right.

Jack Fisher is the last living Holocaust survivor. It’s 2039. Jack has a great-granddaughter Christine who is an 8th-grade history teacher. Christine is fighting the school board to have The Holocaust inserted back into the curriculum. When Christine suddenly goes missing, Jack soon finds himself in danger once again. We’re left to discover that what was once science is now personal belief, and what was once history has morphed into religion.

If Orwell is your guy, and Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale) is your lady, then this is right up your alley.

For all our sakes, I hope this remains just a great novel and not a sign of things to come

Review by Sara Kafka

Guest Post: A crusader for preserving history by Jerry Amernic

Diana Bishop is a former TV broadcaster and the author of a new book about her grandfather Billy Bishop, the flying ace who shot down 72 German planes in World War I. Her book is called ‘Living Up to a Legend – My Adventures With Billy Bishop’s Ghost.’

The other night I joined her for a screening of the film Billy Bishop Goes to War at the prestigious National Club in downtown Toronto. It was a few days before November 11th. Incidentally, this year marks the 100th anniversary of her grandfather getting the Victoria Cross from King George V.

When Diana isn’t writing books she helps ‘brand’ her clients and she branded me. What’s the brand?

‘A crusader for preserving history through the actions of unsung heroes.’

I probably never would have thought of that myself, but she’s right. Every book I ever wrote embodies this theme – some more, some less – but it’s always there. They are stories about heroes, and in the case of historical novels, about protagonists fighting some grave injustice.

Gift of the Bambino is a coming-of-age tale over three generations about a boy and his grandfather, and how the two are bound by baseball and Babe Ruth. In that one, the Grandpa is the hero.

The Last Witness is about a 100-year-old man who is the last living survivor of the Holocaust in a near-future world where people know little of the past. The survivor is the hero in that story.

Qumran is about an archaeologist who makes a dramatic discovery in the Holy Land and who is caught in the storm between science and religion. The archaeologist, whose core ideas are challenged in the novel, is the hero in this one.

So now I have put all this into a presentation that explores the stories, actions, and issues around many an unsung hero. And, of course, why history is important. I call it, well, A Crusader for Preserving History.

If only I can find the right cape.

Jerry Amernic is a Canadian writer of fiction and non-fiction books. He is the author of the  Holocaust-related novel 'The Last Witness' and the biblical-historical thriller 'QUMRAN'     Jerry Amernic Ph: 416-284-0838 Mobile: 416-707-8456 New Website  www.jerrythenovelist.com

 

Guest Post: The time to write by Jerry Amernic

The first thing of any length that I wrote was a play in university. It was performed by drama students before an audience and one of my friends asked if I had written it the night before. The night before? Well no, it took longer than that.

Any writer will tell you the key to writing is rewriting and the hours, days, weeks, what have you, add up. But I’m amazed at how quickly some writers work.

There is a graphic that shows how long it took to write popular books. John Boyne claims to have written the novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas – which was made into a film – in two and a half days! The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Robert Louis Stevenson did that in only six days.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens required six weeks, which to me still sounds like a sprint, while the same Mr. Dickens spent eight months writing Great Expectations. Mary Shelley worked for a year on Frankenstein and Harper Lee devoted two and a half years to To Kill a Mockingbird.

Then we have the marathons. Lord of the Flies by William Golding? Five years. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell? Ten years. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger? Ten years again.

It took Victor Hugo twelve years to get Les Miserables the way he wanted and sixteen years for J. R. R. Tolkien to pen the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but that was three books.

Writing a novel is many things. It is a mission, a work of love, the greatest satisfaction, and the most dire form of punishment – sometimes all of the above.

When I wrote my first novel more than 400 pages poured out – like water – over nine months. Then it was more work under the watchful eye of a good editor to cut the manuscript. In half!

My favorite novel, The Source by James A. Michener, is almost 1,000 pages of historical epic and every time I read it I am immersed. Michener would spend three years on a book, and I think three years to write The Source is productive time well spent. But if we’re talking time and productivity, the master is Ernest Hemingway.

He wrote The Old Man and the Sea in eight weeks. It’s not a big book, but not a single word is wasted and every phrase paints an image. It garnered Hemingway the Pulitzer Prize and later, the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Indeed, a book like that should be mandatory reading for every iPhone-tablet-mobile-device-carrying young person and Millennial out there. But read it in print. There is this thing about stories and time and paper that no screen can deliver.
 

Jerry Amernic is a Canadian writer of fiction and non-fiction books. He is the author of the  Holocaust-related novel 'The Last Witness' and the biblical-historical thriller 'QUMRAN'