A Lucky Child
A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as A Young Boy
Book - 2010 | First Back Bay paperback edition.
Thomas Buergenthal, now a Judge in the International Court of Justice in The Hague , tells his astonishing experiences as a young boy in his memoir A Lucky Child . He arrived at Auschwitz at age 10 after surviving two ghettos and a labor camp. Separated first from his mother and then his father, Buergenthal managed by his wits and some remarkable strokes of luck to survive on his own. Almost two years after his liberation, Buergenthal was miraculously reunited with his mother and in 1951 arrived in the U.S. to start a new life.
Now dedicated to helping those subjected to tyranny throughout the world, Buergenthal writes his story with a simple clarity that highlights the stark details of unimaginable hardship. A Lucky Child is a book that demands to be read by all.
Now dedicated to helping those subjected to tyranny throughout the world, Buergenthal writes his story with a simple clarity that highlights the stark details of unimaginable hardship. A Lucky Child is a book that demands to be read by all.
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Publisher:
New York : Little, Brown, 2010.
Edition:
First Back Bay paperback edition.
Copyright Date:
©2009
ISBN:
9780316043397
0316043397
0316043397
Branch Call Number:
940.5318092 Buerg
Characteristics:
xix, 230, 20 pages : illustrations, maps
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Add a CommentHolocaust memoirs are so important and become more over time. They are the eye-witness reports of atrocities that would otherwise have been forgotten and swept under the rug. The memoirs show us what truly happened and how people's lives were affected, both during and after.
Thomas Buergenthal tells his story from a distance of 55 years. This gives his memories a somewhat unemotional telling but one that is deep and touching. One can see the pain he witnessed and experienced through that filter of time.
From this atrocity of the Holocaust, Thomas emerged as a wonderful human being who understands that the cycle of horror and pain has to be stopped. He's doing his part to stop that cycle of hatred & retaliation and turning it to understanding and acceptance.
Heartbreaking but powerful memoir.
"A judge at the International Court in The Hague who was rescued from the death camps of Auschwitz at the age of eleven by Soviet and Polish troops presents the story of his extraordinary journey--from the horrors of Nazism to an investigation of modern day genocide." Biography and Memoir April 2014 newsletter http://www.libraryaware.com/996/NewsletterIssues/ViewIssue/43337901-34d1-4c84-b134-32954b837d7d?postId=71b729f6-9022-4878-baad-967f3a6f4063
I read this book and I loved the simplicity of writing yet the raw reality of what Buergenthal went through. He makes you invision what happened through his writing - how he felt and the true horrors he experienced. He made me cheer when I realized how far he has made in life after such an awful, yet ever changing life event. I could not put the book down.
A simply written book it doesn't have the eloquence or intensity of Wiesel's novels and yet each survivor, including this author, has a narrative unique to himself of Holocaust experience. Buergenthal's description of his re-union with the Norwegian architect Nansen moved me to tears. He describes himself as 'lucky' to have made it into Auschwitz because he did so without going through a 'selection' which was the normal entry procedure and which would have elimited a boy of his age.