Close cookie details

This site uses cookies. Learn more about cookies.

OverDrive would like to use cookies to store information on your computer to improve your user experience at our Website. One of the cookies we use is critical for certain aspects of the site to operate and has already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but this could affect certain features or services of the site. To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them, click here to see our Privacy Policy.

If you do not wish to continue, please click here to exit this site.

Hide notification

  Main Nav
Mitka's Secret
Cover of Mitka's Secret
Mitka's Secret
A True Story of Child Slavery and Surviving the Holocaust
Borrow Borrow

The remarkable life story of Mitka Kalinski, who survived seven years of enslavement—while still a child—to a Nazi officer during and after World War II 

Mitka Kalinski had never revealed his past to anyone. Not even to his wife or his four children. 

But in 1981, three decades after it had all ended, Mitka finally broke his silence about the horrors he had endured during the Holocaust and in the years immediately afterward: not only German concentration camps and sadistic medical experiments but also seven years of enslavement in the household of a Nazi officer, “Iron” Gustav Dörr. 

Having been orphaned before the war, Mitka did not know his origins or even his name. Torture, slavery, and a false name stripped him of his identity entirely. Thus, when he immigrated to the United States in 1951, Mitka seized the opportunity to bury his past and forge a new life. He lived the American life in all its fullness and moved to Nevada with his beloved wife, Adrienne, and their children. But the secret he carried became an increasingly heavy burden, preventing wholeness and healing. 

This is Mitka’s account of facing the past, confronting his captors, connecting with lost relatives, and finding peace in the rediscovery of his origins. For Mitka, this also meant reclaiming his Jewish heritage—a journey that gave him a new sense of purpose and freedom from the lingering effects of trauma that had filled his life to that point. By the end, Mitka’s Secret is less a story of survival and more one of redemption and transformation—from hidden suffering to abundant joy.

The remarkable life story of Mitka Kalinski, who survived seven years of enslavement—while still a child—to a Nazi officer during and after World War II 

Mitka Kalinski had never revealed his past to anyone. Not even to his wife or his four children. 

But in 1981, three decades after it had all ended, Mitka finally broke his silence about the horrors he had endured during the Holocaust and in the years immediately afterward: not only German concentration camps and sadistic medical experiments but also seven years of enslavement in the household of a Nazi officer, “Iron” Gustav Dörr. 

Having been orphaned before the war, Mitka did not know his origins or even his name. Torture, slavery, and a false name stripped him of his identity entirely. Thus, when he immigrated to the United States in 1951, Mitka seized the opportunity to bury his past and forge a new life. He lived the American life in all its fullness and moved to Nevada with his beloved wife, Adrienne, and their children. But the secret he carried became an increasingly heavy burden, preventing wholeness and healing. 

This is Mitka’s account of facing the past, confronting his captors, connecting with lost relatives, and finding peace in the rediscovery of his origins. For Mitka, this also meant reclaiming his Jewish heritage—a journey that gave him a new sense of purpose and freedom from the lingering effects of trauma that had filled his life to that point. By the end, Mitka’s Secret is less a story of survival and more one of redemption and transformation—from hidden suffering to abundant joy.

Available formats-
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB eBook
Languages:-
Copies-
  • Available:
    1
  • Library copies:
    1
Levels-
  • ATOS:
  • Lexile:
  • Interest Level:
  • Text Difficulty:


About the Author-

  • Steven W. Brallier is both a collector and a teller of stories, qualities he developed in his childhood on the western highlands of Kenya. After life in Kenya, Steve had a long career in the entertainment industry as a promoter, agent, and writer, which exposed him to many people with amazing stories. None was more compelling than Mitka's. Almost immediately a deep trust developed between Steve and the Kalinskis, a trust that provided the essential foundation for the powerful story that is Mitka's Secret.
Table of Contents-
  • Table of Contents

    Preface
    Part One: Slavery
         1. Kinderheim: Bila Tserkva and Kiev, 1939–1941
         2. Camps: Birkenau, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Pfaffenwald, Autumn 1941–Winter 1942
         3. Iron Gustav: Rotenburg an der Fulda, December 1942
         4. Moly: Rotenburg an der Fulda, 1942–1943
         5. The Voice: Rotenburg an der Fulda, 1944
         6. A White Flag: Rotenburg an der Fulda, Spring 1945
         7. Amis: Rotenburg an der Fulda, 1945–1949
         8. Bad Aibling: Bad Aibling, 1949–1950
         9. Demitro: Bad Aibling, 1950–1951
    Part Two: Secrets
         10. America: The Bronx, February 1951–1952
         11. Tim: Baltimore, 1952–1953
         12. Adrienne: North Tonawanda, 1953
         13. Marriage: North Tonawanda and Lockport, 1953–1959
         14. Heading West: Reno and Sparks, 1959–1963
         15. The Sixties: Sparks, 1963–1969
         16. The Seventies: Sparks, 1970–1981
    Part Three: Redemption
         17. The Phone Call: Sparks, 1981–1982
         18. Citizenship: Sparks, 1982–1984
         19. Back to Germany: Rotenburg an der Fulda, Early November 1984
         20. Fobianka: Rotenburg an der Fulda, Late November 1984
         21. “My Brother”: Sparks, 1997
         22. Reunion: London, Summer 1997
         23. Bar Mitzvah: Mineola, Long Island, 2001
    Afterword

Reviews-
  • Publisher's Weekly

    May 24, 2021
    Researcher Brallier, religious scholar Lohr, and Beck, dean at Pacific Lutheran University, present a moving account of the story of Mitka Kalinski, who survived seven years as a Nazi’s slave before building a life in America. Mitka fled Poland for Ukraine with relatives in 1939, only to be captured and sent to four concentration camps before turning seven. Unsurprisingly, the most harrowing and impactful scenes are from his time in the camps, particularly Mitka’s vivid memories of a stack of corpses and his thought that puppies—not fetuses—were being removed from women’s bellies. In 1942, he was selected to join the household of Gustav Dörr in Rotenburg, Germany to serve as a child laborer. Treated as a slave, Mitka was deprived of sleep and food, becoming so desperate that he’d sometimes sample the pigs’ slop before delivering it to their pen. After the war ended, he was sent to America, where despite being illiterate and not knowing English, Mitka found work and love, and fathered four children—keeping his past a secret until 1981, when the thought of dying spurred a desire to record his life’s history. Mitka’s remarkable story harrowingly demonstrates the horrors and personal repercussions of the Holocaust.

Title Information+
  • Publisher
    Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
  • OverDrive Read
    Release date:
  • EPUB eBook
    Release date:
Digital Rights Information+
  • Copyright Protection (DRM) required by the Publisher may be applied to this title to limit or prohibit printing or copying. File sharing or redistribution is prohibited. Your rights to access this material expire at the end of the lending period. Please see Important Notice about Copyrighted Materials for terms applicable to this content.

Status bar:

You've reached your checkout limit.

Visit your Checkouts page to manage your titles.

Close

You already have this title checked out.

Want to go to your Checkouts?

Close

Recommendation Limit Reached.

You've reached the maximum number of titles you can recommend at this time. You can recommend up to 0 titles every 0 day(s).

Close

Sign in to recommend this title.

Recommend your library consider adding this title to the Digital Collection.

Close

Enhanced Details

Close
Close

Limited availability

Availability can change throughout the month based on the library's budget.

is available for days.

Once playback starts, you have hours to view the title.

Close

Permissions

Close

The OverDrive Read format of this eBook has professional narration that plays while you read in your browser. Learn more here.

Close

Holds

Total holds:


Close

Restricted

Some format options have been disabled. You may see additional download options outside of this network.

Close

MP3 audiobooks are only supported on macOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) through 10.14 (Mojave). Learn more about MP3 audiobook support on Macs.

Close

Please update to the latest version of the OverDrive app to stream videos.

Close

Device Compatibility Notice

The OverDrive app is required for this format on your current device.

Close

Bahrain, Egypt, Hong Kong, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen

Close

You've reached your library's checkout limit for digital titles.

To make room for more checkouts, you may be able to return titles from your Checkouts page.

Close

Excessive Checkout Limit Reached.

There have been too many titles checked out and returned by your account within a short period of time.

Try again in several days. If you are still not able to check out titles after 7 days, please contact Support.

Close

You have already checked out this title. To access it, return to your Checkouts page.

Close

This title is not available for your card type. If you think this is an error contact support.

Close

An unexpected error has occurred.

If this problem persists, please contact support.

Close

Close

NOTE: Barnes and Noble® may change this list of devices at any time.

Close
Buy it now
and help our library WIN!
Mitka's Secret
Mitka's Secret
A True Story of Child Slavery and Surviving the Holocaust
Steven W. Brallier
Choose a retail partner below to buy this title for yourself.
A portion of this purchase goes to support your library.
Close
Close

There are no copies of this issue left to borrow. Please try to borrow this title again when a new issue is released.

Close
Barnes & Noble Sign In |   Sign In

You will be prompted to sign into your library account on the next page.

If this is your first time selecting “Send to NOOK,” you will then be taken to a Barnes & Noble page to sign into (or create) your NOOK account. You should only have to sign into your NOOK account once to link it to your library account. After this one-time step, periodicals will be automatically sent to your NOOK account when you select "Send to NOOK."

The first time you select “Send to NOOK,” you will be taken to a Barnes & Noble page to sign into (or create) your NOOK account. You should only have to sign into your NOOK account once to link it to your library account. After this one-time step, periodicals will be automatically sent to your NOOK account when you select "Send to NOOK."

You can read periodicals on any NOOK tablet or in the free NOOK reading app for iOS, Android or Windows 8.

Accept to ContinueCancel