A BOOK REVIEW BY BARB SNELGROVE
104732. That is the series of numbers permanently tattooed onto the arm of Siggi B. Wilzig, a perpetual reminder of his years spent as a young man in the worst concentration camps of WW2’s Nazi regime.
Whatever you think you know about the Jewish “Final Solution”, WW2, Wall Street business or even biographies of memorable people, reading UNSTOPPABLE – The unbelievable true story of Siggi B. Wilzig’s astonishing journey from Auschwitz survivor and penniless immigrant to Wall Street Legend, will leave you staring at the indomitable young face on the cover and crying out for more of his incredible story.
Joshua M. Greene, the Author of UNSTOPPABLE, brings his considerable background in holocaust history, war crimes trials and the documenting of holocaust survivor testimony to the telling of Siggi’s life story in this riveting 2021 read from Insight Editions.
The book starts upon young Siggi B. Wilzig’s arrival to Ellis Island N.Y. (shortly after WW2) on a visa supplied by the US Army for services performed hunting down Nazis after the war. He came to America practically penniless, armed with nothing but an exceptionally sharp mind, determination and three vows: to never go hungry again, to support the Jewish people and to speak out against injustice.
Fortified with all of the above, this emboldened holocaust survivor with barely an education started his new life in the U.S. humbly enough, selling neck ties. Within the span of a decade Siggi went on to become the CEO of both a publicly traded oil company and a bank with assets of $4 billion dollars.
This well researched book quickly returns to his youth in Europe, and his deportation to two of Nazi Germany’s concentration camps, Auschwitz and Mauthausen. It provides a terrifyingly vivid first-hand account of the daily struggles and survival in the concentration camps that is beyond the understanding of many future generations. Statistics from WW2 show that nearly all Jews deported to Auschwitz died within 4 months of arrival. While in the camps, Siggi lost fifty-nine family members. Fifty-nine members, and by all accounts, Siggi should have perished alongside his family.
But as this book quickly establishes from the very beginning, Siggi B. Wilzig was no ordinary man. The reader rides the coattails of Siggi’s camp survival, near starvation, two death marches and his ultimate passage to America and a new life.
His rise to fortune and fame is marked by his trademark quick mind, nightmares of time in the camps and valuable lessons learned. The chapters on his rise to the top as one of America’s pre-eminent businessmen are every bit as enthralling as his early years in the camps as he continues to fight anti-Semitism throughout a career in the predominantly WASP world of oil and banking.
UNSTOPPABLE also unveils the inner workings of a man who accurately understood human nature and the old school mores of loyalty to family and friends and treating the customer like royalty. But his story also returns time and again to the unforgettable journey that got him there, a past that forever haunted him and infused all he did with a sense of urgency.
It tells the story of a remarkable man who defied the odds of life’s battles, carrying with him the demons of a horrific time in everything he did throughout his career. He was a bulldozer. He was a comic. He was a storyteller and most importantly, a survivor.
This book, above all else is a teaching tool for future generations. Siggi’s memory as told in this memoir prompts us to be mindful always of what mankind is capable of at the worst of times, and of human resiliency. It is an inspiring read about overcoming insurmountable odds to finding your place to teach others, build an empire, raise a family and most importantly, to remind us that we “should never forget”.
UNSTOPPABLE envelops you in a mesmerizing story of heartbreak, inhumanity, survival against all odds, living life to its fullest and ultimately, accolades.
In the end, through a lifetime of trials and tribulations, it can be said of Siggi B. Wilzig that he truly was UNSTOPPABLE.
I thoroughly enjoyed UNSTOPPABLE, a spellbinding read from start to finish (even the acknowledgements and bibliography at the end are addictive). UNSTOPPABLE is definitely, #megamouthapproved.
Find out more information about Siggi’s incredible journey at https://unstoppablesiggi.com/
Click here to order the book or click here to download the FREE guide and the first two chapters.