The Boys: The Untold Story of 732 Young Concentration Camp Survivors
- Book Review,
by Martin Gilbert
Amazon.com
Auschwitz, Treblinka, and other Nazi death camps were places of death--not only of the body, but also of the spirit, for the German captors sought to rob their prisoners of their very humanity through routine torture and terrorism. Only a fraction of those who entered the camps survived to bear witness to that brutal regime. Martin Gilbert, the distinguished English historian, gathers the testimonials of 732 men who spent their early teens in the camps. Most have dedicated themselves to good works, he writes, organizing humanitarian relief efforts in Israel and elsewhere, for instance, and otherwise pledging themselves to noble causes. This is an important contribution to the literature of the Holocaust--and to the possibilities of the human soul. --Gregory McNamee
From Library Journal
In this work, based on interviews, letters, and unpublished reminiscences, historian Gilbert (Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century, LJ 10/1/96) competently weaves together the experiences of 732 young Holocaust survivors. They depict scenes ranging from life in pre-war Poland and Hungary to the ghettos, camps, and death marches, and, finally liberation. Known as "the boys" even though they include about 80 girls, these young people survived unspeakable horrors, often seeing family members and other loved ones killed in front of them, and many came perilously close more than once to dying. After the war, with legal emigration to Palestine almost impossible, the boys made the journey to Britain through the efforts of government officials and charitable groups and managed to keep in touch, even forming the '45 Aid Society. These inspiring stories of survival and courage should appeal to general readers as well as scholars.-?John A. Drobnicki, York Coll., CUNYCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times Book Review
"A compelling, moving narrative."
The New York Times Book Review, Michael R. Marrus
The Boys is about survival and painful, vivid, individual memories of surviving, told to Martin Gilbert, one of the most seasoned and sympathetic custodians of our memory of the Jewish catastrophe. . . .Using the historical method that worked so brilliantly in his multivolume life of Churchill, Martin Gilbert seldom intrudes, and lets the survivors speak for themselves. To be sure, he is always there, assembling the thousands of scraps of memory into a coherent, compelling, moving narrative. The result is undoubtedly part of the healing process, still under way, after so many years.
The Washington Post Book World
"A story not only of the horrors of the Holocaust but also of the triumphs of the human spirit."
From Kirkus Reviews
A group memoir by younger Holocaust survivors, as assembled by one of the period's premier historians. At first it seems unsettling to flit from the recollections of one young Polish or Hungarian Holocaust survivor to another. But because Gilbert (The Holocaust, 1986; The Day the War Ended, 1995; etc.) has done such a superb job of weaving together the memories of some 730 children (predominantly boys) who survived the war and were rehabilitated in Britain, we get an effective overview of the experience of the Holocaust. Some of the stark details of the memories speak volumes: A mother, selected for death by Dr. Mengele at Auschwitz, turns to her panicked offspring with the austere words, ``Let us say goodbye, my children.'' These recollections of events and people are also historically significant and fresh. The diversity of the many voices offers a considerable range of experience. For example, did ``the boys'' (as they called themselves) turn to vengeance when the eleventh-hour death marches, the beatings, the executions, the starvation, finally ended in liberation by American troops? Yes and no. Michael Etkind pointed out escaping SS men to American troops and pleaded, ``Boom, boom.'' In contrast, when Jack Rubinfeld was confronted with a German woman with children who hadn't eaten in a day, he shared his stash of bread with them. Descriptions of the slow rehabilitation of the children in British facilities takes up the final third of the book, and this material is unique and particularly powerful: It took a while for some of the boys to learn how to wait for their food and not vault over the table to seize it. It took even longer to rekindle self-confidence. Dr. Fridolin Moritz Max Friedmann, himself an ‚migr‚ and a skilled educator who headed a British residence devoted to easing the boys back into the world, noted that ``the habit of hope is still so new to them.'' A uniquely effective addition to Holocaust literature. (40 b&w photos, 8 maps, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
San Francisco Chronicle
"A harrowing and heartbreaking oral history."
Elie Wiesel
Thank you, Martin Gilbert. Thank you for listening with your heart and soul to these 'boys' who remained compassionate human beings in a dark world dominated by violence and cruelty. Thank you for your talent in giving a gentle voice to their burning memories.
Review
"A story not only of the horrors of the Holocaust but also of the triumphs of the human spirit."--The Washington Post Book World
"Thank you, Martin Gilbert. Thank you for listening with your heart and soul to these 'boys' who remained compassionate human beings in a dark world dominated by violence and cruelty. Thank you for your talent in giving a gentle voice to their burning memories."--Elie Wiesel
"A harrowing and heartbreaking oral history." --San Francisco Chronicle
"A compelling, moving narrative."--The New York Times Book Review
Book Description
Fewer than 100,000 Jews survived the death camps. This is the story of 732 of those Jews--all under the age of sixteen in 1945. It is the story of what they lost, of what they, as children, suffered, and, most of all, of what they overcame. Robbed of their childhoods, orphaned by violence and bestiality, they ought to have become sociopaths. Instead, they rebuilt their lives and dedicated them to the memory of those who were not as lucky. Told in their voices, The Boys bears witness to the power of the human spirit.
About the Author
Sir Martin Gilbert came to know "the boys" over twenty years ago when he began attending their annual reunions. In The Boys, he proves that he is not only a distinguished historian, he is also a good listener whose narrative sweep is magisterial.
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