Eva Marie L. (babyjulie) -
Helpful Score: 1
I like to read the blurbs on books. I like to see if I agree with the blurbs. Publishers Weekly says "The understated tone of this memoir adds to the author's powerful recreation of her life as a young Czechoslovak Jewish woman during the Holocaust." They forgot to add "pregnant".
Any victim of the Holocaust has seen and experienced things a person should never experience and never see. All Holocaust memoirs that pass through my hands are powerful in their own right. Even when a book doesn't coincide with how I like my books to read I can still appreciate the power inside.
The level of emotion inside this book is absolutely staggering. And I think, out of all the memoirs written by Holocaust survivors, I think I've never read one about a pregnant woman in a camp. Definitely not in this detail. I don't know how Mrs. Elias found the strength to write about that part of her life. Mrs. Elias' Holocaust experiences as a whole are horrifying but when she gave birth to her baby girl in appalling conditions and had to make an even more appalling choice for her and her baby - I cried. And I really cried. No woman, no man, no human should ever have to face this type of decision.
I don't believe there are many other books occupying our earth that can run through such a range of.... everything. I laughed out loud - loudly - at one part here and I cried at more than one part. I was maybe just a little in shock at a lot of parts.
There will always be so many important - and unanswered - questions. They'll never be answered so we're left to try to find the answers ourselves. Mrs. Elias should be applauded for writing this memoir and leaving it for future generations.
Her writing is very simple, very eloquent, and very, very powerful.
Sidenote: is it common knowledge that Ronald Reagan, in 1985, went to Bitburg to pay his respects..... to the graves of SS members? Is this shocking to only me? How utterly sad.
Any victim of the Holocaust has seen and experienced things a person should never experience and never see. All Holocaust memoirs that pass through my hands are powerful in their own right. Even when a book doesn't coincide with how I like my books to read I can still appreciate the power inside.
The level of emotion inside this book is absolutely staggering. And I think, out of all the memoirs written by Holocaust survivors, I think I've never read one about a pregnant woman in a camp. Definitely not in this detail. I don't know how Mrs. Elias found the strength to write about that part of her life. Mrs. Elias' Holocaust experiences as a whole are horrifying but when she gave birth to her baby girl in appalling conditions and had to make an even more appalling choice for her and her baby - I cried. And I really cried. No woman, no man, no human should ever have to face this type of decision.
I don't believe there are many other books occupying our earth that can run through such a range of.... everything. I laughed out loud - loudly - at one part here and I cried at more than one part. I was maybe just a little in shock at a lot of parts.
There will always be so many important - and unanswered - questions. They'll never be answered so we're left to try to find the answers ourselves. Mrs. Elias should be applauded for writing this memoir and leaving it for future generations.
Her writing is very simple, very eloquent, and very, very powerful.
Sidenote: is it common knowledge that Ronald Reagan, in 1985, went to Bitburg to pay his respects..... to the graves of SS members? Is this shocking to only me? How utterly sad.
Julie Z. (tink0813) reviewed Triumph of Hope : From Theresienstadt and Auschwitz to Israel on + 7 more book reviews
Wonderful outcome
