In his audiobook "Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad," political journalist and Conservative peer Daniel Finkelstein recounts the extraordinary survival of his parents and grandparents during the era of Hitler and Stalin. The narrative weaves through the harrowing experiences of his mother Mirjam, a German Jew who endured the Dutch holding camp Westerbork and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and his paternal grandfather from Lwów in Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine), who was imprisoned in a Soviet gulag while his family was sent to a Siberian farm.
Finkelstein's storytelling alternates between the dire predicaments faced by his grandparents and their relentless efforts to protect their children. Despite the immense hardships, Mirjam and Ludwik eventually found solace in Britain, where they met, married, and shared their values of political awareness and the importance of peace and freedom with their children.
Narrated by Finkelstein himself, the audiobook encapsulates both horror and amazement at his family’s resilience, concluding their journey from tragedy to a peaceful life in Hendon, England. "Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad" spans 12 hours and 12 minutes and is available through William Collins.