Paul Kraus is a survivor and survival is a theme which runs throughout his searing memoir, as it ran through his own life. In The Perpetual Refugee, Kraus tells the story of growing up in Australia with his parents and siblings, a family of Jewish refugees.
Kraus's mother, pregnant with Paul at the time, was bound for Auschwitz and certain death, but shrewdly seized the opportunity to join another line and was instead sent to a forced labour camp. Against all odds she ensured that Kraus and his older brother not only survived, but were eventually re-united with their father, one of the few survivors of Mauthausen.
As a Jewish family surviving in Australia, themes of identity and fitting into a strange new society dominated the young family's life, as they do the stories presented here, written as a `discontinuous narrative' that considers a variety of issues from Kraus's challenging, wholly inspiring life.
His triumph over repeated terrible misfortunes is told here in an inspirational manner, and ought to be a positive lesson for everyone in adversity. He has made the world a better place.
