Max Eisen
Author of By Chance Alone, defended by Ziya Tong
Max Eisen's memoir By Chance Alone won Canada Reads 2019, defended by Ziya Tong. Eisen died at the age of 93 on July 7, 2022.
The debates took place March 25-28, 2019 and were hosted by Ali Hassan.
About Max Eisen
Max Eisen was a Hungarian Jew who was deported to Auschwitz in the spring of 1944. He was a passionate speaker and educator who volunteered at the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center in Toronto.
His memoir By Chance Alone was a finalist for the 2017 RBC Taylor Prize and for the 2017 Non-Fiction Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature.
- Max Eisen shares the hardest thing about being a writer
- Max Eisen on how a love of literature was key to his healing process as a Holocaust survivor
- How a promise to his father inspired Holocaust survivor Max Eisen to tell his story
- 5 books make the 2017 RBC Taylor Prize shortlist
- Max Eisen, Matti Friedman among finalists for 2017 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature
Why Max Eisen shares his story
"I was in Auschwitz with my father and uncle. There was a selection process in the middle of the night. It was July 9, 1944 and my father and uncle were selected out. I only had a short time to say goodbye to them.
He told me that if I managed to survive, I'd have to tell the world what happened there.
"Through the wire — they were in a quarantine area — my father gave me his blessing. He told me that if I managed to survive, I'd have to tell the world what happened there."
See more in Max Eisen's Why I Write episode.
Max Eisen on what keeps him writing
"I lived through a traumatic and cruel period of history. There are important lessons to be learned and personal accounts to be recorded.
I am inspired by the need to document my story so others may learn from the past.
"I am inspired by the need to document my story so others may learn from the past. On a personal level, I have a highly developed sense of observation of the world around me, which constantly inspires and motivates me to take action."
Read more in Max Eisen's interview with CBC Books.
- Read an excerpt By Chance Alone
- Why Ziya Tong is defending By Chance Alone by Max Eisen on Canada Reads
- Holocaust survivor Max Eisen on sharing a cautionary tale through Canada Reads
Books by Max Eisen
Interviews with Max Eisen
