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Echoes of My Footsteps: An Autobiography

by Ivan Z. Gabor (Goodreads Author) , Jeffrey Beal (Contributor)

4.4 of 5 stars 4.40 · rating details · 5 ratings · 2 reviews

This amazing epic spans fifty years, four continents, three wars, and the multiple identities of one man who had to adapt to survive. As a little boy he endured the holocaust, from shootings on the bloody banks of the Danube to a frustrated rescue attempt by Raoul Wallenberg. From unprecendented stardom in the theater to abandonment on the streets of a strange land, combat ...more

Paperback , 344 pages

Published December 22nd 2009 by Authorhouse

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Feb 02, 2010 Shalee Lindey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow, what a great book! I will say that I usually do not read books of this type. But when a friend gave it to me, I thought I'd give it a shot. I couldn't put it down. The authors way of taking you back and forth from turmoil to love just kept you wanting more.

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about life during the Holocaust and how strong we are as humans to overcome some of the most tragic of events!

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Ivan Z. I do not wish to bear witness to atrocities already so well archived. My tale comes to your eye and your ear by way of a voice that has grown within m I do not wish to bear witness to atrocities already so well archived. My tale comes to your eye and your ear by way of a voice that has grown within me for over sixty years. It’s an emotional aching separate from the horror of violence and death. The suffering caused by World War Two is immeasurable, and it’s documentation vast. Countless survivors have described in detail the mindless carnage that permeated their pitiable existence, as painful to recount as it was to endure. So, what can I add that might make any difference? What contribution to man’s moral education can I express in a slim volume such as this? Why should I put myself through the agony of traveling back to a time of barbarism? And does anyone even care? But whenever I hurl such challenges at myself I’m reminded of the unconditional love of my family, and I am obliged to admit that, at least to a few people, it does matter. And if it is of some consequence to them, then perhaps elsewhere it might matter as well.
My trauma grew in the shadow of the war at a time when the exhilaration of liberation swept the world. While a whole planet immersed itself in jubilation I found myself on a path that led to a lifetime of anguish from which there has never been any release. No righteous army has been able to deliver me from this torment. No heroic general has conquered the demons within me. Yet, this is still a narrative of World War Two. It’s about a soul forever tortured as a consequence of the immense madness that swept the European continent in that era, and of all the things to which it ultimately gave rise. Maybe by sharing it I’ll attain some degree of refuge. Toward that hope I shall expose my heart as a memoir to generations unborn. Perhaps then I can come to understand the turmoil that has taunted my consciousness for three score. And if another being is better for this comprehension then I’ll have to admit that is does indeed vale la pena; it’s worth the grief.

Ivan Z.Gabor
Sunny Isles, Florida ...more
Mar 15, 2010 11:37AM

Ivan Z. KIRKUS DISCOVERIES REVIEW<

A fascinating memoir that details the personal anxieties and triumphs of an iconoclastic 20th century life.
Gabor’s youth KIRKUS DISCOVERIES REVIEW<

A fascinating memoir that details the personal anxieties and triumphs of an iconoclastic 20th century life.
Gabor’s youth won’t surprise World War II buffs—but his unique literary consciousness immediately sings through the din. Born Jewish in idyllic middle-class circumstances in Hungary, the author’s life is changed forever with the heinous advent of the Nazis. He and his mother are placed at the end of a firing line but are saved at the last moment from the spray of bullets when the firing squad is called away. Gabor doesn’t call it a miracle, and he doesn’t call it fate. The author finds only one word in the lexicon that can reference his relationship with the universe—surreal. He returns to this metaphor often. For Gabor, history, trauma and love are mere players in the drama of a life, juxtapositions that are at times beautiful and often horrible. Staying away from queasy moralizing, the author doesn’t fit his adventures in the Israeli defense force and his career as a clothier into a sensible showpiece displaying perseverance and faith. Rather, he sees his life as an encounter with the brutal and the beautiful, the real and the illusory, the senseless and the sensuous. Both brazen adventurer and historical pawn, Gabor reinvents the stoic postwar consciousness and confesses that he finds it impossible to wax nostalgic about those traumatizing years. It’s difficult to find this brand of harrowing honesty in almost any popular book about those years, and the author is haunted by anxiety to this day. Though Gabor finds stunning success after the war in Argentina as a children’s fashion designer, anti-Semitism once again enters the scene. Only after the “Dirty War” does he find his way to Miami and claim one of his life’s greatest prizes, the lovely Rebequita. This ethereal Latin beauty is half his age and initially involved with another man (his employee), but the author’s unabashed vitality will not be deterred, and again he fails to make any real apologies. This refreshing resistance to political correctness or stock theology reminds readers of why an individual’s life is relevant for memoir in the first place—the lasting mystery.
An autobiography as compelling for its narrative as it is for its masculine attitude and vigor. ...more
updated Mar 27, 2010 11:19PM

Feb 18, 2010 Ivan Z. added it · (Review from the author)

Echoes of My Footsteps my autobiography it was not an easy task for me but I finally did and hopefully it will ease my tensions . The book is mostly dealing with the survival of the Holocaust in Budapest, being in the Danube
River bank when the massacre occured in 1944, Raul Wallenbe...rg rescue i...n part, but mostly my life and the consequenses of the Holocaust. The name of the book "Echoes of My Footsteps" was published in December 29, 2009. My website is www.IvanGabor.com
Jeff Beal wrote the ...more

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