Vera P. (verap) reviewed A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy on + 30 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I've read quite a lot of literature on the Holocaust, and I keep reading because each book teaches me something new. My recent read was "A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz" as a Young Boy by Tom Buergenthal. Buergenthal currently serves as the American judge on the International Court of Justice, and wrote the memoir to describe his experiences in concentration camps when he was just a child.
Few children survived the concentration camps - especially Auschwitz - making Buergenthal truly lucky. As children were systematically exterminated by the Nazis, he managed to escape death time and time again. Buergenthal was raised in captivity, traveling with his parents and then alone from a ghetto in Kielche to German labor camps, to Auschwitz, and finally to Sachsenhausen. At every turn, Buergenthal survived due to a mixture of wit, determination, and sheer luck. Oddly, even getting into Auschwitz was luck, since he was not subjected to selections that most prisoners arriving there went through, and narrowly escaped being sent directly to the gas chambers. Buergenthal was finally liberated at the age, and luck struck again when he was miraculously reunited with his mother almost two years later.
Buergenthal's Holocaust memories are brief, but he makes a point of all the kind acts in the midst of misery. There was the Nazi soldier who handed over his coffee to him when he was cold, the infirmary orderly who changed Buergenthal's admittance card and hence saved him from the gas chamber, and the Norwegian prisoner Odd Nansen who bribed officials to keep Buergenthal alive. I think each Holocaust memoir has a message, and I felt that Buergenthal's message was that people can be selfless and good even when they themselves are struggling to survive.
Few children survived the concentration camps - especially Auschwitz - making Buergenthal truly lucky. As children were systematically exterminated by the Nazis, he managed to escape death time and time again. Buergenthal was raised in captivity, traveling with his parents and then alone from a ghetto in Kielche to German labor camps, to Auschwitz, and finally to Sachsenhausen. At every turn, Buergenthal survived due to a mixture of wit, determination, and sheer luck. Oddly, even getting into Auschwitz was luck, since he was not subjected to selections that most prisoners arriving there went through, and narrowly escaped being sent directly to the gas chambers. Buergenthal was finally liberated at the age, and luck struck again when he was miraculously reunited with his mother almost two years later.
Buergenthal's Holocaust memories are brief, but he makes a point of all the kind acts in the midst of misery. There was the Nazi soldier who handed over his coffee to him when he was cold, the infirmary orderly who changed Buergenthal's admittance card and hence saved him from the gas chamber, and the Norwegian prisoner Odd Nansen who bribed officials to keep Buergenthal alive. I think each Holocaust memoir has a message, and I felt that Buergenthal's message was that people can be selfless and good even when they themselves are struggling to survive.
Mary S. (mscottcgp) -
I tend to read many accounts of people who were survivors of the Holocaust and this is one of the best ones I've listened to. The author speaks in the prologue and epilogue but has a professional narrator relating the rest of the book. This was a good decision since nothing detracts from the story itself but you still get to hear some of the story in the author's own words.
That being said, it is an amazing story of a 10 year old boy being transported to one of the most infamous concentration camps of the Holocaust,Auschwitz, and surviving through a combination of street-smarts, help from compassionate fellow prisoners. and, as he admits himself,no small measure of luck.
Mr Buergenthal also tells of his emigration to the US, becoming a lawyer andd serving as an American judge on the International Court of Justice.
So glad I got a chance to listen to this amazing story.
That being said, it is an amazing story of a 10 year old boy being transported to one of the most infamous concentration camps of the Holocaust,Auschwitz, and surviving through a combination of street-smarts, help from compassionate fellow prisoners. and, as he admits himself,no small measure of luck.
Mr Buergenthal also tells of his emigration to the US, becoming a lawyer andd serving as an American judge on the International Court of Justice.
So glad I got a chance to listen to this amazing story.
John O. (buzzby) -
One of the better books I've read in a while. The best adjective I saw in reviews was "non-hectoring". He wrote it 60 years after the war, and he is now a lawyer, which may explain why it isn't maudlin, self-pitying, religious, or vengeful. The "luck" he had consisted mostly of knowing German and Polish, and looking like an echte deutscher, as well as parents who were pretty practical when it came to survival.
Ann N. reviewed A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy on + 14 more book reviews
This book depicts an honest report from the viewpoint of a child at Auschwitz. Mr. Buergenthal included many details of how the Hitler regime forced their agenda on the Jewish race with cruelty beyond the imagination.
