The Contract

"Who am I? Where do I belong? Should I hide or reveal my identity? What if we

have another Holocaust? How can I continue to live clandestinely?"

Anguish, hardship, and the courage to survive flow through Joseph Kutrzeba's veins

as he grows up under Nazi occupation in Poland. From a prominent Polish-Jewish

family, Joseph is barely fifteen years old and yet is driven to participate in the

resistance movement of World War II's Warsaw Ghetto. During one of the Nazi's

numerous raids, Joseph is packed into a cattle car bound for the Treblinka gas

chambers, but he manages a hair-raising escape from the moving train. Following

his turbulent and dangerous wonderings, an idealistic young priest introduces him

to the Catholic vernacular; ostensibly to help him disguise his true identity.

Following escape after miraculous escape, Joseph is finally liberated by U.S. troops

in Germany. Just weeks after coming to America, he is drafted and ends up in the

battle zone of the Korean War. On his discharge, Joseph graduates from Yale and

later from NYU. Still, his entire life he's tormented by the gnawing, unremitting

question: Who am I?

This beautifully lyrical memoir describes Joseph's persistence and bravery as he

struggles to understand his true self.