readingwithwrin
Written on May 4, 2015
I wouldn’t have complained about brushing my teeth, or taking a bath, or going to bed at eight o’clock every night. I would have played more. Laughed more. I would have hugged my parents and told them I loved them.
But I was ten years old, and I had no idea of the nightmare that was to come."
This was a very intriguing account of the holocaust based off of Jack Gruener life.
At the start of the story the war is just beginning and the Nazis have just invaded Krakow, from there they live in the ghetto for three years, trying to
survive and hoping that the allies will come. After that, he gets moved from 10 different concentration camps and 2 death marches. Throughout this whole time
you feel like you are in his mind seeing what he sees and feeling the way he does. In one of the camps he finds his uncle who tells him they are the only
family left and that they must survive and to just do their work and help no one. His uncle dies shortly after this and he is the only one left of his
family.
When the Americans finally do arrive we see how they liberated the camp, and how they helped the survivors get back some of what they had before.
A couple of months after Liberation he meets his old neighbor on the street who tells him that he is not alone, his cousin and his cousin's family
had also survived. His cousin encourages him to get the right papers and to move to America to get the life that he had dreamed about as a little boy.
All in all I really did enjoy this book. While I was reading it, it did keep me hooked, but at times it all felt so rushed especially towards the end.
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