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Great books for the sports fan in your life

How I Survived Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter

The Survivor

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** 
 
'A riveting, compelling, mesmerizing journey. Josef Lewkowicz is a hero in every sense of the word. The Survivor both terrifies us and inspires us. It's a must read.' 
Tova Friedman, author of The Daughter of Auschwitz. 
 
One of the last great untold stories of the Holocaust, The Survivor is an astonishing account of one man's unbreakable spirit, unshakeable faith, and extraordinary courage in the face of evil. 
 
At only sixteen years old, Josef Lewkowicz became a number, prisoner 85314. Following the Nazi invasion of Poland, he and his father were separated from their family and herded to the Kraków-Plaszów concentration camp. Forced to carry out hard labour in brutal conditions, and to live under the constant threat of extreme violence and sudden death, before the war was over Josef would witness the unique horrors of six of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Mauthausen and Ebensee. 
 
From salt mines to forced marches, summary executions to Amstetten, where prisoners were used as human shields in Allied bombing, Josef lived under the spectre of death for many years. When he was liberated from Ebensee at the end of the war, conditions were amongst the worst witnessed by allied forces. 
 
With his freedom, Josef returned home to find that he was the only one left alive in an extended family of 150. Compelled by the need to do something to avenge that loss, he joined the Jewish police while still in a displaced persons' camp, and was recruited as an intelligence officer for the US Army who gave him a team to search for Nazis in hiding. 
 
Whilst rounding up SS leaders, he played a critical role in identifying and bringing to justice his greatest tormentor, the Butcher of Plaszow, Amon Göth, played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List. He then committed his life to helping the orphaned children of the Holocaust rebuild their lives. 
 
The Survivor is Josef's extraordinary testimony.

A remarkable story of fortitude and hope. Extraordinary. 
The Times

An incredibly powerful book. 
Good Morning Britain

A riveting, compelling, mesmerizing journey. Josef Lewkowicz is a hero in every sense of the word. The Survivor both terrifies us and inspires us. It's a must read. 
Tova Friedman,author of The Daughter of Auschwitz

A sickening personal tale of the depths of Nazi brutality. Harrowing 
Anne de Courcy, The Telegraph

Josef Lewkowicz's account of his journey through six concentration camps as a teenager makes for horrific reading. But what grips the mind is his Nazi hunting and capture of the despicable Amon Goeth, followed by his determination only to do, and see, good in people. His spiritual voice emerges from a history of pain and loss with a rare and admirable clarity. 
 
Baroness Julia Neuberger

One of the most miraculous and uplifting stories of the Holocaust. 
The Daily Express

A truly harrowing account, humanely told in fast-paced, affecting prose. You won't be able to put it down - even in those moments where the truth feels too hard to read. 
Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia

Heartbreaking and inspiring. Josef Lewkowicz's journey to freedom did not end with his liberation from the Nazi death camps. He witnessed the inhumanity of men who, when given the power, can be so evil as to choose who shall live and who shall die. With captivating realism, Lewkowicz recounts reuniting hundreds of displaced and abandoned Jewish children with their families, an enormous task. If that wasn't enough, he became a Nazi hunter and helped bring some of the worst men in Jewish history to justice. This is a profound and courageous book. 
Maxwell Smart, author of The Boy in the Woods

Josef's story is an account of his unbreakable spirit, unshakable faith and courage in the face of evil. 
The Jewish Telegraph

[A] story of survival and pursuit of justice. Remarkable. 
Jewish Tribune

'No wonder this book is attracting global acclaim. Every sentence is unforgettable.' 
Paul Hayward

Josef Lewkowicz (Author) Before the invasion of his hometown, Josef Lewkowicz lived with his family in Dzialoszyce, near Krakow in Poland. After the invasion, he spent three years in six different concentration camps before travelling around Austria and Germany as an intelligence officer. Josef is now 96, and living in Jerusalem, after working as a diamond dealer in South America. Michael Calvin (Author) Michael Calvin is an award-winning writer and Sunday Times bestselling author, whose books have been hailed for their insight and influence. He has collaborated with such celebrated sportsmen as Sir Alastair Cook, Dylan Hartley and Gareth Thomas, and is the only writer to win the British sports book of the year award in successive years.

The inspiring Special Forces soldier who cheated death and learned to live again

Never Will I Die

Toby's sheer grit and determination is a powerful testament to his character. His story demonstrates the true nature of inner strength and courage. I think he's an inspiration to all of us.

Visceral... utterly inspirational. A compelling tale of incredible determination. What makes this account of a journey to hell and back so fascinating is that the devastation of Gutteridge's body somehow triggered the unleashing of his mind.

Toby's truly humbling journey will realign your benchmark for the words determination, hero and inspiration.

'Toby has overcome more obstacle than anyone I know. His is a story of life triumphing over death, and shows the strength of the human spirit.'

'A truly inspiring story of an amazingly driven individual who refused to go quietly and fought back against all the odds.'

In international rugby we speak about putting your body on the line for your mates. Toby's inspirational story gives an unforgettable insight into the men who do that for real, in life or death situations. A remarkable book.

'Toby is one of life's most inspirational men with an amazing life story. He has endured great adversity but continues to face life head on.'

A compelling account of the commitment it takes to be a Special Forces operator and the very brutal consequence of laying it all on the line. Heroic.

Toby Gutteridge (Author) Toby Gutteridge left a difficult and destructive childhood to join the Royal Marines, before becoming one of the youngest-ever recruits to join the Special Boat Service. 
 
 In November 2009, he was shot through the neck during an operation in Afghanistan, and his life changed forever. 
 
 Today, Toby runs Bravery, an extreme sports brand that aims to support and empower those who have dug deep within themselves to overcome their own adversities by finding courage, strength and the resilience to bounce back stronger than ever. Michael Calvin (Author) Michael Calvin is an award-winning writer and Sunday Times bestselling author, whose books have been hailed for their insight and influence. He has collaborated with such celebrated sportsmen as Sir Alastair Cook, Dylan Hartley and Gareth Thomas, and is the only writer to win the British sports book of the year award in successive years.

There's no pain, no theatrical agony. No screaming, no shouting. The kill shot is catastrophic and conclusive. I slump silently on to my knees and topple forward, head first, into the dirt. The lads have seen enough death to assume mine is instantaneous. The lights are out. That's him gone. 
 
Toby Gutteridge was only 24 when he was shot through the neck while operating behind enemy lines in Afghanistan. He survived despite not breathing for at least 20 minutes. Back in the UK, doctors recommended that his life support machine be switched off, but with the defiant spirit that would define his recovery, Toby pulled through. 
 
Now quadriplegic, capable of movement only with his head, Toby has rebuilt his life. His is an extraordinary story of survival against overwhelming odds, and of the power of the human spirit to overcome extreme adversity. Brutally honest and authentic, he builds a compelling picture of the type of person produced by the Special Forces system, and tells of how one split second changed the course of his life forever. 
 
Powerful and inspiring, Never Will I Die is a universal story about our search for purpose, and explores what extreme experience teaches us about what truly matters.

A Year in Time

Michael Calvin is an award-winning writer and Sunday Times bestselling author, whose books have been hailed for their insight and influence. He has collaborated with such celebrated sportsmen as Sir Alastair Cook, Dylan Hartley and Gareth Thomas, and is the only writer to win the British sports book of the year award in successive years.

1966. As London is declared ‘a swinging city’ and John Lennon proclaims the Beatles ‘more popular than Jesus’, Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights Movement acts as a beacon of hope and possibility. Yet Cold War tensions, the escalation of the Vietnam War, and the space race between America and the Soviet Union project a different image. Meanwhile, China’s Cultural Revolution begins, and talks are initiated to reunify Germany, whilst Lyndon B. Johnson sits in the White House following the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. 
 
As tensions build between East and West and the great powers wrestle with the pull of social change, the year’s football World Cup has the potential to unite old rivals, whilst giving nations the opportunity to demonstrate their prowess amongst an international community standing at an inflection point, emerging from the long shadow of the Second World War and hurtling towards the future. 
 
Through the prism of the extraordinary tournament and the eight teams that reached the quarter finals – England, West Germany, Uruguay, Argentina, Portugal, Soviet Union, North Korea and Hungary – Michael Calvin provides a vivid portrait of a critical moment in world history. Examining the sporting, social and cultural significance of the competition and its backdrop, this hugely entertaining book brings to life a world and a sport caught in a tide of change, and shows how this critical year would change both forever.

Michael Calvin

Naftali Schiff

The Boys Who Escaped the Gas Chamber in Auschwitz

An unforgettable testament to hope and the bonds of brotherhood, Miracle reveals the untold story of the boys who escaped the gas chamber in Auschwitz, the only known Holocaust survivors to walk away from the jaws of the Nazi killing machine. 
 
Early on the morning of October 9, 1944, eight-hundred boys, aged between 13 and 17, were taken out of Block 11 at Auschwitz. The night before, during a visit by Dr Josef Mengele, their identification cards had been stamped with a solitary German word – gestorben – 'died' in English. They were then marched by 25 bayonet-wielding SS men to Crematorium 5, stripped, and herded into a gas chamber. 
 
This book is the story of a true-life miracle of the fifty-one boys who were pulled from that gas chamber – the only Holocaust survivors known to have escaped such a close brush with the Nazi killing machine – and given a second chance at life. A life, of course, that would be so horrifically snatched from those around them. 
 
Based on the first-hand testimonies of six of the boys, six survivors whose stories are shared in this book for the very first time, Miracle interweaves the lives of the boys and the grander sweep of history in which they were held. The result is an unforgettable tale of hope, faith and fortitude in the face of one of the worst crimes against humanity.

Michael Calvin

Books by Michael Calvin

Articles featuring Michael Calvin

Great books for the sports fan in your life

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