Memoirs of a Child Holocaust Survivor (Hardback)

A very quick and compelling read, and I am now interested to find the BBC movie about the Windermere Children, of which the main character was one!

NetGalley, Sally Bell

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

A story of a young Poland boy from WWII auntie he was liberated. It told me more about the survivors and those who didn’t make it. Heartbreaking.

NetGalley, Susan Benedict

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This was such an emotive and well written read. it was horrifying, heart wrenching and full of hope all in equal measure. I can't even begin to imagine how much strength and resilience it took at that time to just survive. I would highly recommend.

NetGalley, Kirsty Montgomery

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This book is so powerful I appreciate it discusses the time before and after, the holocaust. Many books get right into the nitty gritty but don't explain these were people that had families. Many were wiped out and some never saw or found out what happened to each other. I also found it interesting as I'm not very familiar with the polish invasion, I'm more familiar with what happened in Germany, Austria and Italy.

NetGalley, sarah hoover

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Every time I come across books on the Holocaust, I am wondering how humanity could do something like that and how I’m fortunate to be in my life.

This is the story of a nine-year-old boy living in central Poland before and during World War II. How his life was completely turned around being captured, his whole family killed by Nazis and his ability to face horror and coming out alive at the end of all this. How he was rescued and brought to England and how his life was forever influenced by these events but was successful in keeping joy in his life.

This book is personal to the author. The nine-year-old boy became his husband and she wrote his story and his memory.

If you want to read something that makes you reflect on your life or how it’s still important in today society to learn about these events, this book is for you. It’s important to honour what happened and the people who lived it.

NetGalley, Jeannine Dumouchel

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

A wonderful addition to the library of Holocaust literature. The Boys were a group of Jewish refugees with a unique experience and perspective and to read the account of one of their lives is a great privilege. That it comes from the perspective of his wife, including information about their later years, just adds to the sense of a complete story. It’s very well written, with care taken to immerse the reader in the story by ensuring that pronunciation is made clear, and I particularly appreciated learning the details of life before the war including the sad experiences of anti-semitism and how that formed a basis for later cruelties.

NetGalley, Louise Gray

This memoir written by the wife, a former nun, of the main character, is a tale of the sorrow, the fear, and the ability of the human spirit to survive and overcome the worst the world has to offer. This is a story of a nine year old Jewish boy living in Poland before and during the Nazi war years. For this young man living a good life he eventually experienced the loss of his family, friends, and also the traditions that carried back hundreds of years. He went through hell but came through a resilient boy who eventually was rescued and brought to England through the behest of King George V!.

He and his brother were the only living members of their family, the memoir tells of his life in Poland, in the camps, in England, his ability to rediscover life and eventually even discovering he had one other cousin who survived.

Lovingly written by stories from her husband we see life in Poland, life in the camps, and life after being recused. It is a tale of sadness and yet there is joy in this man's life. His memories was the fuel behind this book.

NetGalley, Marialyce Weinreich

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Memoirs of A Holocaust Survivor is written by A. M. Fox, on behalf of her Polish Jewish husband Harry who survived incomprehensible horrors as a child (political!) prisoner at Czestochova, Buchenwald, Dora, Nordhausen and Hertzung. His father died at Nordhausen. Dozens of other family members died or were murdered except for Harry and his younger brother, Jona, and a cousin. After miraculously surviving the camps, the brothers were forced on a death march and taken to Theresienstadt Camp where they finally liberated. They and other "Boys" were taken to England where they were treated with care. Harry even met British royalty later!

The author describes Harry's energetic childhood, school, his loving parents Jossel and Ruchel, and siblings. Though antisemitism always simmered, it worsened drastically one night when Nazis arrived and ordered everyone in their small community to leave in two hours or be shot. Their lives changed forever that day. First came forced labour then worse.

Photographs add a personal poignant and tragic layer. It is difficult to see smiling faces, carefree life, love and loyalty knowing most of them...real people...would brutally suffer and die at the hands of evil. The hatred for the innocents is impossible to fathom.

Harry traveled to Auschwitz in 2011 on a March of the Living and to Treblinka in 2012 on another March of the Living. Though he endured what most of us cannot even contemplate, he always, always chose life. This book is supremely important and I am grateful it was written. I like that his wife honoured him this way. Her story is very interesting as well! Her impactful writing gripped me and in spite of deep sorrow and tragedy, there is no self pity in her words. An incredible book!

NetGalley, Brenda Carleton