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The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Kurzem
Publisher: Plume
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $8.94
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Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 4648
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0452289947
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780452289949
ASIN: 0452289947
Publication Date: August 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Minor shelf wear
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Product Description
The spellbinding (The New York Times) true story of a Jewish boy who became the darling of the Nazis
When a Nazi death squad massacred his mother and fellow villagers, five-year-old Alex Kurzem escaped, hiding in the freezing Russian forest until he was picked up by a group of Latvian SS soldiers. Alex was able to hide his Jewish identity and win over the soldiers, becoming their mascot and an honorary corporal in the SS with his own uniform. But what began as a desperate bid for survival became a performance that delighted the highest ranks of the Nazi elite. And so a young Jewish boy ended up starring in a Nazi propaganda film.
After sixty-three years of silence, Alex revealed his terrible secret to his son Mark. With his sons help, Alex retraced his past in search of answers and vindication. His story is at once a terrifying account of survival and its psychological cost as well as a brutally honest examination of identity, complicity, and memory.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
The Tragedy of Latvia October 2, 2008
This is an exceptionally well-written book that tells an amazing story. Since other reviewers have given the details of the story, I will not rehash them. Suffice to say that Alex Kurzem's story is a good example of the terrible suffering innocent individuals have had to endure (a suffering that may even be worse than death itself) as a result of Nazi cruelty.
Some reviewers have said this book is unfair to the Latvian people and tarnishes the entire nation with the same brush. I beg to differ. I believe the author went out of his way to distinguish between those Latvians (police and troops) who committed war crimes and those Latvians who did not (such as the family that took in his father). Even with regard to Commander Lobe, whose soldiers did commit atrocities, the author is careful to indicate he can not say for certain that the commander participated in those war crimes although he may have.
It would have helped to set the stage for his story if the author had included a brief introductory chapter on the history of Latvia during World War II. Nazi Germany and the USSR divided Poland between themselves in 1939. Then, in the spring of 1940, with no pretext or justification, Stalin swallowed up the three Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Naturally, the Latvians were outraged at this groundless conquest of their country and communization of their economy. Most Latvian Jews, however, were more willing to accommodate themselves to life under Soviet rule, even if it meant giving up personal property, because they felt they were now safe from the Nazis. In June 1941, however, Hitler broke his alliance with Stalin and turned on Russia. When the Nazis conquered Latvia, most Latvians saw them as liberators from the hated Russians, especially since they restored the Latvians' private property (that is, other than the Latvian Jews' property). One thing the Nazis did not restore, however, was Latvia's independence. The more thoughtful Latvians realized this. To them the Nazis may have been the lesser of the two evils, but they were still evil. Other Latvians, however, saw the Nazis as their friends, protectors and allies. This was unfortunate, and both the Latvians and the Latvian Jews ended up paying a terrible price. Close to 90 percent of all Latvian Jews were killed by the Nazis and those Latvians who made common cause with them. In addition, some Latvians even went into other countries (including Alex Kurzen's village in what is now Belarus) to help the Nazis commit their evil atrocities. Toward the end of the war, the USSR took over Latvia and annexed it. For the next 45 years the Latvians knew no freedom and the Soviets settled many Russians in their country, who live there to this day.
The Latvians should have at least tried to follow the example of the nearby Finns. The Russians also wanted to conquer Finland and as a result Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany. But the Finns fought only to regain the land Russia had taken from them and refused to participate in the Nazi invasion of Russia itself nor did they send troops to help the Nazis anywhere else. The Finns refused to harm their country's Jewish citizens nor would they turn them over to the Nazis, though Germany requested they do so many times.
As a result, the Russians grudgingly respected the Finns and did not see them as Nazi puppets or stooges. Finland therefore managed to maintain its freedom and democracy in the aftermath of World War II, though they had to remain neutral in the Cold War, so as not to offend their Russian neighbor.
The moral of the story: If a nation puts its trust in another nation to the extent that it willingly relinquishes its independence and willingly ceases to take responsibility for its actions, there will be a price to pay.
The ultimate survival story September 28, 2008
Without reciting all of the details, this is a must read for people interested in understanding the Holocaust.
Must Read September 22, 2008
This book is very interesting. I rate it a must read; however, it is very slow at the beginning.
I couldn't help but think while reading of what Alex witnessed and then the ensuing childhood being raised by Nazis, the story of Moses, a Hebrew who falls into the hands of the Pharoah's daughter. He too was raised by people who slaughtered and enslaved his people. Too bad Alex has not yet connected with his Old Testament roots. Moses became a great leader and great man by God leading the Jews out of Eqypt.
There are parallels than can be drawn.
 WHAT PRICE SURVIVAL? August 27, 2008
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
There are many stories to come out of World War II, both told and untold, this is surely one of the most remarkable. It is a tale of survival but not without cost.
As a five-year-old boy Alex Kurzem saw his mother and father as well as neighbors shot by the Nazis. For some inexplicable reason his life was spared and he ran to hide in a dense Russian forest. Amazingly he did not freeze to death during the unrelenting cold but existed by searching for food and taking the clothes of dead soldiers.
When he is found by a group of Latvian SS soldiers they never imagine he is Jewish but believe he is Russian and more or less adopt him, making him a little corporal in the SS with his own uniform. Young Alex fears for his life, of course, and does as he is told, even to repeatedly watching repetitions of the same fate that befell his parents and starring in a Nazi propaganda film.
What price survival? What he has done will haunt Alex for the rest of his days. He is so troubled by his past that he does not even tell his wife and only later reveals his entire story to his son, the author of this memoir, Mark Kurzem.
The Mascot is not only a reminder of one of history's darkest times but testimony to the dramatic effects it may have on those who are not killed but sorely injured in their hearts and souls.
- Gail Cooke
One of the most riveting accounts of World War II I have ever read July 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
In the United States most of the time when one reads World War II history it tends to focus on the Normandy Landings and lightning dash to Berlin the Pacific theater is generally ignored and so is the Italian campaign. The Soviets also had to do a large amount of the fighting they were both defenders of their homeland and agents of a tyrannical regime.
Then there were those people who were caught in the middle of it all like one Jewish Latvian survivor who was only 5 years old. Plucked from a firing line by a sympathetic sergeant and warned never to be seen naked this little boy resolves to survive in any way he can. He survived the war and had a family but he was racked by guilt at the manner in which he was saved for many years.
While there are some funny accounts over the course of the novel it is by no means meant to be humorous the two stories that stick with me the most is the account of the time Alex Kurzem (the mascot) went to the train station and was assigned to pass out chocolates to an unruly crowd to claim them; later he reasoned that all or most of those people were killed in an extermination camp. Then there was the time that the soliders he was traveling with used him as bait to attract village women with unpleasant results for the little mascot and the women.
One also admire the author Mark Kurzem who tracked down all of these loose ends partially out of a sense of curiosity and to give his family a sense of closure about the whole issue. It is a truly remarkable effort especially when you consider the unlikelihood that there would be enough people alive to put the sometimes spotty recollections of the father into any context.
Overall-A truly remarkable account and evidence of tremendous courage on the part of the father both as a child to survive all of that and to level with his family years later about what he had gone through.
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