Monday, August 2, 2010

The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Publisher:  Scholastic, 2008
Pages:  202
Source:  My shelves
Genre:  Young Adult Historical Fiction

I love reading anything to do with World War II or the Holocaust.  This book came as quite a surprise.  This book was a fictionalized telling of the last day in Helmuth Hubener, age 17.  Helmuth grew up in Germany as Hitler came to power.  A strong Mormon  in his beliefs he stood against the teaching of Hitler.  He thought he would be working for the "Fatherland" if he told the truth.  What he didn't know was that most people didn't want to know the truth.  Susan Bartoletti has done extensive research to track down as many facts as she can to tell the story that Helmuth didn't live to tell.  Although it is a fictionalized account, as she says, no one can know his last few hours, we can imagine based on other testimonies of those who did survive that this is pretty accurate.  I believe this should be a part of all history lessons.  We never want to forget the atrocities against the Jews, and anyone else Hitler decided he hated.  However, few know of the atrocities against Germans loyal to their country who did not agree with Hitler.  This is not a book you can sit and read just a bit and then leave.  You must sit and read until you have finished this book.  It is that powerful.

No comments:

Post a Comment