Half-Jew--Full Life: The Unlikely Journey of a Voluntary Jew from Nazi Persecution to the American Dream - Hardcover

by Georgette Bennett (Author)

From Berlin to the Bronx, from Holocaust survivor to American success story, this riveting, fast-paced biography traces the extraordinary life of Gary "Pips" Phillips who defied the odds at every turn. With an Aryan mother and Jewish father, Pips could have escaped much of the Holocaust's horrors. Instead, he made a fateful decision at age 13 to become a bar mitzvah just as the Nuremberg Laws were enacted, effectively choosing to be labeled a Jew under Nazi rule. Pips's wartime experience is marked by daring escapes, improbable rescues, and survival while hiding deep within Nazi Berlin. Captured four times, he escaped thrice, choosing to remain in Nazi custody the fourth time as there was nowhere to run in bombed-out Berlin. At his place of confinement, he met his future wife, Olga Horvath, who had been imprisoned after surviving Auschwitz and the Death March to Bergen Belsen. After their marriage in chaotic post-war Berlin, they emigrated to the USA to start a new life.

Arriving in New York with nothing, Pips rose from waiter to co-owner of the world's largest photo agency--despite never owning a camera. Unlike Pips, Olga was unable to escape the shadow of her Holocaust experiences, and in a horrifying twist, she threw herself off the roof of their gleaming luxury high-rise after more than 50 years of marriage, leaving Pips grief-stricken, but also able to reinvent himself one more time. This cinematic life brims with chance, love, loss, resilience, and reinvention, culminating in a poignant exploration of Jewish identity, memory, and legacy. Pips's story is a tribute to the power of choice, endurance, and the human will to belong.

Author Biography

Georgette Bennett is a TED speaker, an award-winning sociologist, widely published author, popular lecturer, and former broadcast journalist. In 2021, she was selected as one of Forbes' 50 over 50 Women of Impact ("Bennett joins Condoleezza Rice, Dr. Najat Arafat Khelil, and Susan Rice as women who helped shape the course of modern American foreign policy and human rights"). Bennett served with the U.S. State Department Religion and Foreign Policy working group on conflict mitigation, tasked with developing recommendations for the U.S. Secretary of State on countering religion-based violence. She is Past Chair of the Jewish Funders Network and serves on the Board of Third Way. In addition, she is an Advisory Board member for the International Rescue Committee and the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Bennett was a winner of a 2020 AARP Purpose Prize for her work with MFA. She is involved with dozens of organizations, having served on many boards, and she has been honored by numerous organizations, all of which gives her powerful leverage for publicizing the book.