In 2019, Holocaust survivor Max Eisen's memoir won Canada Reads. Defended by science journalist Ziya Tong, By Chance Alone tells a moving and heart-wrenching story of luck and survival.

Now, that story will be made accessible to younger readers in the new By Chance Alone: The Young Readers' Edition.

By Chance Alone: The Young Readers' Edition is Eisen's experience after he and his family were forcibly removed from their home in Czechoslovakia and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Eisen lost his whole family and endured painful labour, but eventually survived.

His final promise to his father was that he'd tell the stories of what happened — and this book is the result of that promise.

"I lived through a traumatic and cruel period of history. There are important lessons to be learned and personal accounts to be recorded," said Eisen in a 2017 interview with CBC Books. "I am inspired by the need to document my story so others may learn from the past."

Eisen was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2021 and died at age 93 in 2022. He was a writer and educator, spending over two decades travelling to schools and community hall across the country to tell his story.

By Chance Alone: The Young Readers' Edition was adapted for a young adult audience by Kathy Kacer.

Kacer is a Toronto-based author of fiction and nonfiction for children about The Holocaust. She is the author of over 20 books and has won the Silver Birch, Red Maple and Jewish Book Awards in Canada and the U.S.

By Chance Alone: The Young Readers' Edition will be out on September 3, 2024. You can read an excerpt below.

Prologue

March 1944

Our last Passover Seder together as a family is stamped into my memory forever. We were seated around a beautifully set table—my grandfather and grandmother, my father and mother, my uncle Eugene and aunt Irene, and my two younger siblings, Eugene and Alfred. Baby Judit was in her crib. The candles burned in their candlesticks, the fine dishes were laid out, and the heads of the family — my grandfather, my father, and my uncle — were leaning on cushions to symbolize relaxation and freedom from slavery in Egypt. After the reading and singing of the Passover story, we had a dinner of several courses that lasted about four hours.

I glanced around the table, thinking about all the troubles we had faced in the last years while this terrible war raged around the world. I hoped that my father and Uncle Eugene would soon be permanently released from their labour battalion far from our home in the country once called Czechoslovakia. I hoped that we would soon have more food and clothing, just as we'd had before the war began. I hoped that I would no longer have to wear the Star of David on every article of my clothing: the badge that made me and other Jews feel like second-class citizens, made us feel as if we didn't belong.

We weren't aware then that many Jews in other countries had it so much worse than we did. We didn't know that Jews were being tortured and killed in terrible prisons called concentration camps. We hoped that the Russian Red Army would soon free us from the rules and laws that restricted our own freedom — rules that had been put in place by the evil Adolf Hitler. We hoped the war would end soon.

We had no idea that something terrible was coming. We were here together and celebrating on this special night. When the meal ended and everything was cleared away, we washed the dishes and prepared the table for the second Seder the following night. Around midnight, we went out into our yard to get some air before finally going to bed.

At 2:00 a.m., we were awoken to the sound of someone knocking at our gate. Farkas, my loyal Alsatian dog, began barking furiously as if he sensed there was trouble. We all got up and gathered together. Father opened a window and leaned outside to see who was there at this early hour.

"I need to speak to you right away!" a man called out to my father. He wanted to get through the gate so he could enter the property with his horse and wagon. The visitor turned out to be a man we knew well. Father opened the gate, and the man sped in. "I've just come from the pub," he said, breathlessly. "I overheard several police say that they were planning to round up all the Jews from town and remove them from their homes. I have no idea where they'll take you. But it's not good."

What does this mean? I looked at my father and grandfather, pale in the dim light. My mother wrapped a protective arm around my two brothers.

"I'm here to help you," the man continued. "You must come with me in my wagon. I'll drive you to the forest and find you a safe place to hide until the danger passes." Then he added, "Please, we don't have much time."

My father, grandfather, and uncle huddled in a corner, heads together while I watched and waited. Finally, they turned to face the visitor.

"Thank you for the offer, but we can't come with you," my grandfather said firmly. "It's Passover, and it's the Sabbath. It's impossible for us to travel on this important holy day."

The man's face fell, and he hung his head. "Please reconsider! I think you are all in danger."

Father shook his head. "It's hard to imagine something so terrible is about to happen," he said. Then he thanked the man and lead him to the door.

As I lay back in bed, my mind was spinning, reliving the man's warning over and over. What if the man is right? I wondered. Should we have listened to him? Should we have left? But there was nothing I could do. Father and grandfather were the decision-makers in my family. We had to listen to them.

I had no idea that this decision would change our lives forever.

Excerpt from By Chance Alone: The Young Readers' Edition by Max Eisen ©2016, 2024. Adapted for Young Readers by Kathy Kacer. Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.