Genre: Adult, Memoir
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my
review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Once I
started this book I couldn’t stop reading it.
At times it was difficult to read.
The fact that someone as young as Krystyna was when she went through all
of these terrible events survived is a testament to her faith. Raised a Jew she was interested in her
Catholic friends religion. She kept her knowledge secret. This and her mom’s
statement that “God protects orphans”,
helped carry her through this hardship.
For those who want to read a
clean cut memoir that takes them from point A to point B smoothly, you need to
know that this doesn’t happen in this book.
I believe that is why I enjoyed it.
It reads like someone who is telling a story and remembers it in bits a
pieces. The author has done an excellent job of putting things in chronological
order. However, It is obvious that there are gaps in her memory. This makes it
seem even more authentic. We remember things
and then what we remember triggers another memory. However, we don’t
want to interrupt our story so we throw that thought in and tell our audience
we will discuss it in more detail later.
So many people who have survived the Holocaust came out bitter. No life was not easy and was not fair to the
author. However, she took the lessons learned and used them in a positive way
to shape her life.
We
teach about the Holocaust in our eighth and ninth grade English Language Arts
Classes. This is definitely a book I
will put on my shelves at school. It is another voice added to so many. Yet
this is told in a manner my students will definitely be able to
understand. I highly recommend this
book.
