Aaron's Revenge

The extraordinary true story of Aaron Herskowitz—one of the only Jews who fought back against his Nazi tormentors and lived to reveal the long-suppressed secret of why so few others did.

In the waning days of World War II, deep in the occupied Hungarian countryside, something almost unthinkable occurred: a Jewish slave laborer seized absolute power over his captors and became their master. His name was Aaron Herskowitz, and his story has been a closely guarded secret—until now. Told by his son Howard, a trial lawyer who spent decades capturing his father’s testimony on video and audio, Aaron’s Revenge reconstructs one man’s harrowing journey from persecution to power. Aaron survived Nazi forced labor, multiple escapes from enemy soldiers, deadly hand-to-hand confrontations, and a brutal Eastern European winter—not by luck alone, but by cunning, courage, and an indomitable refusal to surrender. But this book offers more than a survival story. It answers a question that has haunted historians and survivors for decades: Why didn’t more Jews fight back? The answer, long suppressed and rarely spoken aloud, is finally revealed here. Verified by Col. David Glantz, U.S. Army (retired)—a leading authority on the Eastern Front—and fact-checked by General Albin Irzyk, U.S. Army (retired), Aaron’s Revenge is one of World War II’s great untold tales: a testament to resistance, justice, and the bond between a father and a son.