The Last Witness

The story follows the life of Jacob Nathan, a Neurosurgeon, from the time he became a concentration camp prisoner as a teenager, to his post-liberation period in France and his immigration and long life in America. The narrative begins when Jacob Nathan is 102 years old. He is the last person still alive, victim or perpetrator, from the Nazi Holocaust. Just as most survivors live two lives, so does Jacob Nathan, and the book depicts these two lives by means of a series of flashbacks that the main character experiences during his last walk in a trail in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. Lately, more and more his memories have assaulted him. On this particular morning, as he progresses on his daily walk, elements in the landscape bring flashes of his previous experiences to mind. These memories are told in the various chapters, in the form of a series of flashbacks, depicting his life, as a child, a prisoner, a young man, his most beloved friends, his becoming a famous neurosurgeon, his confrontation with his demons and eventually God. The surprising end brings the reader to one final realization and opens the mind to further insight as to the philosophical issues that have haunted for so long those that dare ask questions about the Holocaust. Above all, the novel reveals that survival, success and love can soothe and heal but cannot erase what hate of one human for another can carve on the soul.