Horrific story recounted

On Sunday I went to a book reading at a small bookstore that just opened last year. I had never been there before, but now plan to return. It was a friendly place.
The author, Connecticut resident Martin Schiller, is a Holocaust survivor who wrote of his horrific boyhood memories of living in concentration camps.

"Bread, Butter and Sugar" is the story of the sheer cruelty Schiller witnessed, and somehow survived.
"Writing that book was an emotional roller coaster," Schiller told the audience of about 60 people. "I discovered it was impossible for me to write in the first person, so I wrote in the third person."

For the reading, however, he shifted back to first-person narration. He read a chapter, "The Train Ride," which was a gripping tale of being "sardined" with other Jews into a cattle car and taken to Buchenwald, a concentration camp in Germany.

One woman asked him if he had been "emotionally scarred."
Schiller replied: "I still wake up with nightmares. Traumatic situations may diminish with time, but they never go away."

When the camp was liberated, Schiller was 12. "I was emaciated," he said. "I was only 48 pounds. I almost died."

Now 75, Schiller is a retired electrical engineer. He and his wife of almost 50 years raised three children. When he returned to Buchenwald in 2004 with several family members it was cathartic for him, he said.

Another audience member asked him if he experienced "survivor's guilt."
Schiller replied, "Absolutely. But I turned that into obligation. That's why I'm here."