This book is the author's attempt and duty to, in the words of Elie Wiesel, ""Bear witness for the dead and for the living”. Through extensive research in archives, family documents, and literature, Laufer unearthed his father’s lost biography as a slave in the Hungarian forced labor battalions and in German concentration camps, his return to Hungary, and his daring escape from Stalinist Hungary to Israel. Laufer's father's experiences mark one of the saddest points in Jewish history. The story is contrasted with his own in Israel during the Six Days War, a pinnacle in Jewish history and during the Israeli wars that followed.

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“This work [is] a unique and important addition to Holocaust study and Jewish history generally. … Laufer notes in the foreword of his book how it is a ‘duty’ that ‘memories of our experiences [both of father and son] and their lessons’ be communicated ‘to our children and the generations to follow’—just as Elie Wiesel felt. As far as this reviewer is concerned, the author of A Survivor’s Duty: Surviving the Holocaust and Fighting for Israel—A Story of Father and Son has most definitely done his duty.” —Diane Cypkin, Pace University, Martyrdom & Resistance January/February 2019