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Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Storyteller of Auschwitz in Books

Jul 16, 2023

Oh my word, I am an emotional wreck after reading this book!

Let's be honest, books about the Holocaust are always difficult to read and although this is a work of fiction, the story is inspired by a mix of real authors from that time and real events that actually happened which are taken from the witness statements from the people who were there and survived that horrendous period. It has been said before many times but we can never let something like this happen again ... we just can't!

I fell in love with all the main characters in this book but admit to Solly and Danielle being my favourites apart from Etty of course and became totally immersed in their stories and I am not ashamed to say that I cried on more than one occasion and had to actually put the book down and stop reading as I couldn't read the words for the tears in my eyes but there were also parts that made me smile.

The Storyteller of Auschwitz is a powerful story of hope and friendship, bravery and survival and how powerful stories can be.

Many, many thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of this fantastic book that is a must-read.

Kudos

From Day to Day: One Man's Diary of Survival in Nazi Concentration Camps

Odd Nansen and Timothy J. Boyce

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In 1942 Norwegian Odd Nansen was arrested by the Nazis, and he spent the remainder of World War II...

Dianne Robbins (1738 KP) created a post

May 26, 2019

Renia's Diary: A Holocaust Journal by Renia Spiegel.

I read about this diary, the history of its author and poet, and an excerpt of the diary in Smithsonian Magazine earlier this year. I'm so excited that I get to read an advanced copy. It isn't released to the public until September 2019.

This is the first time it has been translated into English. It covers 2 years in the life of a 16-year-old Jewish girl living in Poland before and during the German occupation. In it, she records her life, falling in love, and life in a Jewish ghetto, before she was cruelly executed.

She had given the diary to her boyfriend for safekeeping. He recorded the events of her death at the hands of the Nazis. He gave the diary to a friend before he was sent away to a concentration camp and it was returned to him after the war when he was living in the United States. He eventually gave it to her mother in the early 1950s.

Renia's sister, Elizabeth, was unaware of its existence until after her mother passed away in 1969. Elizabeth put it in a safety deposit box for many years because she couldn't bear to read it. However, knowing the significance of it, she eventually had it published and includes her remarks and memories of the events in an epilogue.

Kudos Comment

ames_morgan (8 KP) rated Educated in Books

Jun 19, 2018

Educated

Tara Westover | 2018 | Biography

9.3

(9 Ratings)

Book Rating

Wow what a story is all I can say! This book totally blew my mind and at times I had trouble believing parts of it were real and it terrified me even more to know that they were.

Tara Westover never set foot in a classroom until she was 17 years old. Raised by Mormon survivalists in the mountains of Idaho her life was incredibly different than anything I can even imagine. With a midwife/herbalist for a mother and a father who operated a junkyard and prepared for the end of the world and was obsessed with the Illuminati Tara was horribly unprepared for life as she set foot into the academic world.

With no one to make sure Tara and her brothers and sisters had an education or even basic healthcare Tara decided to educate herself. At the age of 17 she had never even heard of the Holocaust much to the shock and disbelief of her fellow students and professor. With determination and perseverance Tara went on from never being in a classroom to receiving a a PhD from Cambridge University.
All the while Tara still struggled with a sense of loyalty to her family yet a desire to recreate herself into something more.

This was an incredible journey and I thank Tara for sharing it with us!