I Choose Life: Two Linked Stories of Holocaust Survival and Rebirth

When an SS guard gave Goldie Cukier’s father the “choice” of freeing only one of his two daughters, little Goldie chose to stay – and was torn from her family. When the Auschwitz Commandant gave young Sol Finkelstein a “choice” of execution by shooting or hanging, Sol defied him, saying – “I choose life!”
I Choose Life is the remarkable account of Goldie and Sol, two Jewish youths, who, imbued with Jewish pride and values, survived despair by choosing humanity. It tells of idyllic childhoods in Radom and Sosnowiec, Poland; of dark years of suffering, separation, loss, and death; of ghettos, raids, selections, forced labor camps, cattle cars, and death marches; of the infamous camps of Auschwitz, Mauthausen and Bergen-Belsen; of finding love together in a Displaced Persons Camp in Stuttgart; and of rebirth and happiness as chicken farmers in rural New Jersey.
Using newly available historical resources, the authors document the harrowing true events experienced by Goldie and Sol. During the research process, the authors uncovered little known fragments of Holocaust history, such as the location of a secret V2 rocket factory, and discovered the existence of an unmarked grave and memorial monument in Wels, Austria, which gave Sol and his family emotional closure after more than 60 years of uncertain guilt.