Let's face it, a book about the Holocaust and it's survivors are grim. It is a period in our world's history that is so undeniably wrong and filled with horror that to read any account is heart wrenching.
This is a very short read and I completed it in less than two hours. However, unlike other stories told on this subject this one did not bring me to tears, it is told in a pointedly direct manner and almost devoid of emotion. I dare not suggest that the experience was less emotive, it's just the way the story is told. In all fairness, I would expect any survivor of Treblinka, as there were very few, to process their time spent at this slaughter camp in a way that no other human who has not experienced the same atrocities could probably imagine. So to have the story (which was originally written in Yiddish and subsequently translated) to be blunt is almost welcoming. I am not sure if this particular account was shared more deeply on a different level if reading it would not leave the reader with nightmares.
If you are interested in the history of this general time period in Germany and the leadership and actions during that time, it is well worth adding this to your library.
Stories like this become embedded in your person and part of the learning experience then becomes part of you. Perhaps I am fascinated with this as I come from some German heritage, I joined the military and specifically asked to be stationed in Germany; it is part of my "cleansing of guilt" for the behaviors of those who shared some of what my ancestors may/may not have agreed with?
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