One of the darkest periods in our history written about by a man who survived the mass genocide. The horrific events of the Holocaust experienced by a young survivor. Moshe Kessler told his story and what a harrowing story.
It tells of the tale from being a young boy prior to the war who had a loving family and a good childhood where he went about a kids business. He had a loving father and mother as well as younger siblings.
It then went on when he was a teenager and a very young teen at that and was rounded up with all of his family and was sent to Auschwitz one of the three camps. He talked about how he had to lie about his age and be split up from his mother and younger siblings. It showed through the writing that the poor boy was heartbroken at having to leave his family.
It talks about the harrowing times and how you were in fear every moment. The camp commanders were not good people and you could be out to death or punished in any way that they wished.
The loss of his childhood seems a big item and you see later on how he tries to make it so that his family has that childlike mindset for as long as possible. His innocence was stolen way too early and when you see how he talks you can see that while it bent him with love and support he was able to have a life that was happy.
While I won’t say it’s uplifting it is certainly a great book showing the bad and good in humanity all at the same time. It also shows that you can survive horrific events and aren’t going to only be negatively impacted by the past.
I found that his optimism is what made me appreciate the severity of what he went through. The fact he was able to find love and have a family after so much was taken from him shows the resiliency of the human race.
Crazy Canadian Writing 