A true story of war, survival & a family that wouldn't be erased
Out of the
Fish Tank
A life reconstructed from fragments.
A personal archive. A historical mystery. The stubborn evidence love leaves behind.
Before he was Hyman in Brooklyn, before his family mistook him for a ghost, Chaim Zeidler survived a century determined to erase him — through war, captivity, exile, and a series of borrowed names.
Book Details
- Format
- Paperback, Kindle & Audiobook
- Published
- June 2026
- ISBN
- 9798199797306
- Category
- Biography & Memoir · Jewish Family History · Survival Biography
- Author
- Todd H. Albert
The Story
Chaim Zeidler survived two world wars, a Russian revolution, a Central Asian prison camp, and a death-sentenced existence — forced to abandon his name, his faith, and his identity more than once just to stay alive.
He was presumed dead by his own family. He returned years later.
They didn't believe their eyes.
This is the true story of a man who was knocked down by history again and again — and got up every single time.
A story of survival. Of silence.
Of love that refused to disappear.
From the Opening Pages
“To understand how a living man comes to be turned away as a ghost on his own family's doorstep, you have to go back past two wars, a Central Asian prison camp, and two borrowed names, all the way back to a tavern in a village on the eastern edge of an empire that no longer exists.”
How the Story Was Reconstructed
This book was built from fragments: family recordings, archival records, inherited stories, conflicting names, and the long silences that often surround survival.
The result is not a conventional memoir and not historical fiction. It is a reconstruction — an attempt to recover a life that history nearly erased.
Todd H. Albert, Ph.D., spent the first part of his career as a research glaciologist, conducting NASA- and NOAA-funded fieldwork from Greenland to the Peruvian Andes. Out of the Fish Tank turns that same investigative instinct inward — onto his own family's buried past, drawing on oral histories, archival transport records, and years of genealogical research to piece together a story his family nearly lost.
Why I Wrote It
I wrote this because some family histories do not disappear all at once. They disappear by omission, silence, migration, fear, and time.
Chaim Zeidler's life survived in fragments — names, recordings, records, memories, contradictions. This book is my attempt to gather those fragments before they were lost again.
— Todd H. Albert
For Readers Interested In
- Jewish family history
- World War I and its aftermath
- Survival stories
- Genealogy and archival reconstruction
- Immigrant identity
- Family memory and silence
Early Reader Response
“I have tears in my eyes and much gratitude for creating these memories.”
“I read it in one sitting because I could not stop.”
“Everyone needs to read this. Doesn't matter Jew or Gentile.”
About the Author
Todd H. Albert is an engineering executive, former NASA-funded scientist, educator, and author. His work often begins with complexity — systems, histories, organizations, and stories that appear fragmented — and looks for the structure that allows them to hold together.
Out of the Fish Tank is his reconstruction of a lost family history and the life of Chaim Zeidler, a man who survived war, exile, reinvention, and near-erasure.
Book Clubs, Podcasts, and Events
Todd is available to discuss family history, archival reconstruction, Jewish survival stories, and the process of turning inherited fragments into narrative.
Get the Book
A true story of war, survival, and a family that wouldn't be erased.