SURVIVING NAZI CAMP FOCUS OF NEW BOOK

Herbert Hirschfeld, a retired Baptist minister, has written a book about the life of another Baptist preacher who survived a Nazi labor camp.

The book, "Planted by the Rivers of Water," recounts the ordeals "Pastor Brauer" endured because he refused to supplant the Bible with "Mein Kampf."

Hirschfeld invented a fictitious name for the minister because of strict German publishing laws.

The book was printed by the Concord Publishing House in Cape Girardeau.

Hirschfeld, whose son, Ted, is a professor of English at Southeast Missouri State University, said he wrote the book at the behest of other members of the First Baptist Church.

"I come from Germany," Hirschfeld said. "People in the church are always asking how it was. So I sat down and wrote it down."

Brauer was Hirschfeld's predecessor at a church in Nordenburg, a town of 3,000 in East Prussia. He was arrested, and an elder of the church was murdered by the Nazis, Hirschfeld said.

Hirschfeld, now 83, was forced to work behind barbed wire as well. "I had my share of that," he said.

The villain of the story is a Nazi political leader named Honigmann, who at one time was Brauer's friend. Hirschfeld says Honigmann, a 250-pound alcoholic, was responsible for the incineration of hundreds of people.

Brauer called Honigmann "a cold-blooded murderer" to his face, and two weeks later was jailed by the Gestapo, Hirschfeld said.

He was sentenced to 10 years at hard labor.

When the Russians finally marched into East Prussia in 1945, most of the Nazis fled. Brauer, a starved 90 pounds, was freed. But he was not done with Honigmann.

Brauer fled Germany and sailed on a refugee ship for Western Germany, which by then was occupied by the British. There, walking through a town, he saw his nemesis through the open door of a tavern.

Brauer told the British authorities about Honigmann. Hirschfeld says they arrested Honigmann and asked Brauer whether he wanted to have the Nazi shot or hand him over to the Russians.

Brauer at first favored the former because he was afraid Honigmann might be rehabilitated. "Brauer was opposed because (Honigmann) might get into heaven," Hirschfeld said.

Finally, Brauer relented. "May God do with him what he wants," he told the British colonel. "Revenge is his."

Hirschfeld is sure Honigmann lived out his days in a gulag.

The book's title is a biblical phrase that translates to "Faith keeps the people alive," Hirschfeld says.

"Without his faith, the preacher would have perished."

Hirschfeld came to America in 1951 with his wife, Ann. He was a minister at German churches in New Jersey, New York City, Michigan and finally Chicago before retiring in 1975.

He said Brauer died three years after the war. "He wanted on his tombstone, `He was not a traitor. He kept faith to the very end,'" Hirschfeld said.

The book is available by writing Hirshfeld at 1516 N. Henderston St., Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63701.