In the tradition of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, comes a heart-breaking true story of love, loss and survival against all odds during the Second World War.
Conscripted into the Polish army as Hitler’s forces draw closer, Jewish soldier Tolek Klings vows to return to his wife, Klara, and son, Juliusz. However, the army is rife with anti-Semitism and Tolek is relentlessly tormented. As the Germans invade Poland, he is faced with a terrible dilemma: flee home to protect his family – and risk being shot as a deserter – or remain a soldier, hoping reports of women and children being spared by the occupying forces are true.
What follows is an extraordinary odyssey that will take Tolek – via a daring escape from a Hungarian internment camp – to Palestine, where his ability to type earns him the title of ‘The Miracle Typist’, then on to fight in Egypt, Tobruk and Italy. A broken telegram from Klara, ending with the haunting words, ‘We trouble’, makes Tolek even more determined to find his way home and fulfil his promise.
This heartbreakingly inspiring true story is brought to life by Tolek’s son-in-law, Melbourne writer Leon Silver. In the Author’s Note, Silver shares how it took him more than thirty years to pen Tolek’s story, and it’s little wonder why – The Miracle Typist is a powerful story of immense scope that is told with such authenticity and vividness that you feel as if you were actually there with Tolek during each step of his journey.
In relaying his story to Silver, Tolek said that ‘the Second World War was above all a war of moral issues,’ and this is certainly evident when reading The Miracle Typist. The story raises many confronting human rights issues, such as the abominable treatment of Polish Jews, not just at the hands of the Nazi’s, but by their fellow countrymen, the army that conscripted them, and their own government. Your heart will go out to Tolek as you watch him endure anti-Semitic treatment from people that he had previously called allies, comrades and friends.
Another strength of The Miracle Typist is the way in which Silver portrays this terrible period in history. As a history buff and an avid reader of World War Two historical fiction, I thought I was already well-versed in this period, but I’ve learnt so much from following Tolek’s incredible journey. The story is brimming with contextual information, which Silver expertly weaves into the narrative, and I enjoyed following the perspective of a Polish soldier, rather than a civilian which is typical of stories within this sub-genre.
Incredible, heart-wrenching and inspirational, The Miracle Typist is an important story that needed to be told, and one that I will not soon forget.
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