The Boxer's Story: Fighting for My Life in the Nazi Camps

Once in a while there comes along a story so powerful and so emotive that it makes you rethink your own values. This is the story of Nathan Shapow, a young Latvian, born in Riga, with nothing more on his mind than becoming a world-renowned boxer. However, the sound of jackboots marching across Europe and the systematic extermination of the Jews put an end to his boxing dreams. He was to fight a different sort of fight: one for survival. The prize? His life. Seeing his youth disappear in the squalor of the ghettos and the horror of the concentration camps, Nathan fell back on his previous existence to sustain him. The years of training, the running, the speed of work, the three-round amateur fights in the gym, the street fights in Riga, and the sheer competitive nature he developed saved him on more than one occasion, especially when he was forced to box for his life against a top German fighter in a concentration camp. The Boxer's Story is an extraordinary and powerful true story that reads like a thriller. It will deeply affect everyone who reads it.

Nathan Shapow was born in Riga, Latvia, and survived various camps including Birkenau and Stutthoff. After the war he went to Palestine, where he fought for the creation of Israel. He lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and family.

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The Boxer's Story: Fighting for My Life in the Nazi Camps

Once in a while there comes along a story so powerful and so emotive that it makes you rethink your own values. This is the story of Nathan Shapow, a young Latvian, born in Riga, with nothing more on his mind than becoming a world-renowned boxer. However, the sound of jackboots marching across Europe and the systematic extermination of the Jews put an end to his boxing dreams. He was to fight a different sort of fight: one for survival. The prize? His life. Seeing his youth disappear in the squalor of the ghettos and the horror of the concentration camps, Nathan fell back on his previous existence to sustain him. The years of training, the running, the speed of work, the three-round amateur fights in the gym, the street fights in Riga, and the sheer competitive nature he developed saved him on more than one occasion, especially when he was forced to box for his life against a top German fighter in a concentration camp. The Boxer's Story is an extraordinary and powerful true story that reads like a thriller. It will deeply affect everyone who reads it.

Nathan Shapow was born in Riga, Latvia, and survived various camps including Birkenau and Stutthoff. After the war he went to Palestine, where he fought for the creation of Israel. He lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and family.

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The Boxer's Story: Fighting for My Life in the Nazi Camps

The Boxer's Story: Fighting for My Life in the Nazi Camps

by Nathan Shapow, Bob Harris
The Boxer's Story: Fighting for My Life in the Nazi Camps

The Boxer's Story: Fighting for My Life in the Nazi Camps

by Nathan Shapow, Bob Harris

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Overview

Once in a while there comes along a story so powerful and so emotive that it makes you rethink your own values. This is the story of Nathan Shapow, a young Latvian, born in Riga, with nothing more on his mind than becoming a world-renowned boxer. However, the sound of jackboots marching across Europe and the systematic extermination of the Jews put an end to his boxing dreams. He was to fight a different sort of fight: one for survival. The prize? His life. Seeing his youth disappear in the squalor of the ghettos and the horror of the concentration camps, Nathan fell back on his previous existence to sustain him. The years of training, the running, the speed of work, the three-round amateur fights in the gym, the street fights in Riga, and the sheer competitive nature he developed saved him on more than one occasion, especially when he was forced to box for his life against a top German fighter in a concentration camp. The Boxer's Story is an extraordinary and powerful true story that reads like a thriller. It will deeply affect everyone who reads it.

Nathan Shapow was born in Riga, Latvia, and survived various camps including Birkenau and Stutthoff. After the war he went to Palestine, where he fought for the creation of Israel. He lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and family.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781849541909
Publisher: Biteback Publishing, Ltd.
Publication date: 11/12/2013
Pages: 256
Sales rank: 268,680
Product dimensions: 5.30(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vi

Foreword vii

Chapter 1 Murder in the Ghetto 1

Chapter 2 A Brief Childhood 18

Chapter 3 The Soviet Occupation 33

Chapter 4 The Riga Ghetto 44

Chapter 5 Ducking, Bobbing and Weaving 58

Chapter 6 The Empty Grave 78

Chapter 7 Changing Weight 90

Chapter 8 The Freedom Fighters 98

Chapter 9 The Life and Death of Herr Harr 104

Chapter 10 Spilve 116

Chapter 11 The Cruise to Hell (Stutthof) 125

Chapter 12 Magdeburg and Liberation 141

Chapter 13 The Path to Palestine 159

Chapter 14 Hela 171

Chapter 15 Blood in the Sand 191

Chapter 16 Leaving the Front 212

Chapter 17 The New World 226

Afterword - The Son's Tale 237

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