New Release

The Ghosts
on the Wall

After discovering a trove of letters to my father in the United States from his parents in Germany, the two ghosts who had stared at me from a lifeless portrait hanging on the wall in my childhood home became flesh and blood. They became the grandparents who would have loved me had they not been murdered in a concentration camp.
Curt and Regina Schönwald – Theirs is a tale of unfathomable loss and a race against time—but also of quiet resistance and resilience that would shape my parents’ lives in ways I could never have understood.
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About Kenneth Wald

The Ghosts on the Wall: A Grandson’s Memoir of the Holocaust is the story of the Schönwald family as told by academic and author Kenneth Wald. After a childhood of family stories hidden away for decades, Ken, inspired by letters from his grandparents to their son in America and video recordings of his parents recounting their experiences, embarked upon a search for more information in archives and from informants around the world. The result is Ghosts on the Wall, the story of how the Holocaust affected the lives of three generations of Schönwalds.

Released on November 9, 2024, in conjunction with the anniversary of the Kristallnacht riots that devastated his family’s lives, this book enabled Kenneth Wald to to finally process the pain of his grandparents’ absence from his life. Despite the passage of time, the author reminds his readers that “We are not done with the Holocaust and it is not finished with us.”

Kenneth Wald
Teacher, Writer and Speaker.

About the Book

My parents, Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, seldom discussed their experiences under Hitler nor spoke about my murdered grandparents. To me, they were just lifeless portraits hanging on the living room wall of my childhood home. As an adult, I became curious upon discovering a trove of letters to my father from his parents and subsequently visited my father’s hometown.

I soon heard from three residents, Christians, who were determined to right the historical wrong visited on the Schönwald family. Their efforts and my detective work uncovered my family’s Holocaust story, providing my grandparents with an after-life denied to millions of unknown Holocaust victims.
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Advance Reviews for The Ghosts on the Wall

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testimonial 1
“Even in a field as deservedly crowded as Holocaust literature, Kenneth Wald’s book is a genuinely singular — and shattering — addition. With an expert scholar’s rigor and a family member’s emotional stake, he has reassembled the saga of his grandparents and parents from the small town in Germany where they thought themselves fully accepted through the horrors of the Nazi regime, which only the author’s mother and father escape. And this is a book not only about the Jews of Germany, but the Christians, as well, both those who betrayed the family and those who have courageously kept alive its memory.”
“Even in a field as deservedly crowded as Holocaust literature, Kenneth Wald’s book is a genuinely singular — and shattering — addition. With an expert scholar’s rigor and a family member’s emotional stake, he has reassembled the saga of his grandparents and parents from the small town in Germany where they thought themselves fully accepted through the horrors of the Nazi regime, which only the author’s mother and father escape. And this is a book not only about the Jews of Germany, but the Christians, as well, both those who betrayed the family and those who have courageously kept alive its memory.”

Samuel G. Freedman | Columbia University

Author of Who She Was: My Search for My Mother’s Life

testimonial 2
“Ken Wald has given us a searching and sensitive account of three generations of his family’s history with the Holocaust—and of his evolving views of the nation that perpetrated it. This is a smart, touching, and open-hearted book that deserves a wide readership.”
“Ken Wald has given us a searching and sensitive account of three generations of his family’s history with the Holocaust—and of his evolving views of the nation that perpetrated it. This is a smart, touching, and open-hearted book that deserves a wide readership.”

Peter Hayes | Northwestern University

Author of Why?: Explaining the Holocaust

testimonial 3
“Bringing his impressive scholarly skills to bear on his own family history, the distinguished political scientist Kenneth D. Wald documents the fascinating story of his parents, Jewish refugees from Germany who came to America and established a new life in Lincoln, Nebraska. This is a story not only about persecution and emigration during the Holocaust, but also about life, memory, and identity among Jews in the American heartland in the second half of the twentieth century.”
“Bringing his impressive scholarly skills to bear on his own family history, the distinguished political scientist Kenneth D. Wald documents the fascinating story of his parents, Jewish refugees from Germany who came to America and established a new life in Lincoln, Nebraska. This is a story not only about persecution and emigration during the Holocaust, but also about life, memory, and identity among Jews in the American heartland in the second half of the twentieth century.”

Alan Steinweis | University of Vermont

Author of Kristallnacht 1938

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“At the heart of this illuminating memoir are Curt and Regina Schönwald, Jewish owners of a textile store in provincial Germany. Murdered in the Holocaust, they live on in their letters to their son in America, in their grandson's efforts to recover their story, and in a few Germans' dedicated memory work. An incisive and deeply moving book.”
“At the heart of this illuminating memoir are Curt and Regina Schönwald, Jewish owners of a textile store in provincial Germany. Murdered in the Holocaust, they live on in their letters to their son in America, in their grandson's efforts to recover their story, and in a few Germans' dedicated memory work. An incisive and deeply moving book.”

Doris Bergen | University of Toronto

Author of The Holocaust: A Concise History

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The Ghosts on the Wall
is available as e-book, paperback and hardcover.

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