Book Review: salt to the sea
The Wilhelm Gustloff. A ship designed to hold 1,880 passengers. A ship weighed down by about ten thousand. The torpedoes came.
Two hit their mark.
How many survivors? Less than maximum capacity.
Book title: Salt to the Sea
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Rating: Five stars!
This is an incredible story. Have you ever heard of the ship called "Wilhelm Gustloff"?
I hadn't. And that's what makes reading this book so much more startling.
Mention the name "Titanic" and a flood of images will cross your mind varying from a fancy ship, a dark cold night in the middle of the ocean full of freezing bodies, or a certain fictional (potentially real) couple from James Cameron's film Titanic.
But mention Gustloff, or Wilhelm? For me, my mind came to a blank. The words sound German. They are German.
According to a quick search online, the Titanic lost, respectively, about 1,503 people (please forgive any inaccuracy), but the Gustloff lost at least 9,343 people, and it's suggested around 5,000 were children. The ship's maximum capacity was 1,880.
I didn't learn or even hear about the Gustloff in school. I say this novel should be required reading for High School across the country. This book, based on true events, drives us deep into the lives of four different young adults/teenagers. Within the beginning chapters, after placing the bookmark for the day, I suddenly appreciated an aspect of my life I daily took for granted: my family.
These children, twenty-one and younger, have been ripped away from their homes, and most traumatically, their parents. They travel on foot toward a last shred of hope: The ship called Wilhelm Gustloff. They most likely will never see their parents again. They, if they survive, will have to start over, and start over alone.
It makes me thank God I wasn't born in a time of war; I didn't grow up surrounded by fear of bombs falling from the sky, men knocking at my door, taking us away. Thank God, thank God, I say at work as I think over the chapters I had read the night before that still affect me with their truth of the past.
Knowing this tragic story makes me want to spread the word of the ship's history. Because it's not enemies inside those ships. Yes, there are evil men and women in the world, but not everyone who fought in war was evil. Many fought for their families, their countries, and many were just caught in the middle. Innocents trapped in the webs of evil. Their stories need to be told so that history isn't repeated.
This book, I think, is a great tool to open young adult eyes today to the history and brutality of war for people who were their age when it occurred. Read the book—if you agree the story needs to be shared, along with other histories you know, please spread the word. Lend/give the book. It could one day land in the hands of the right person capable of making a change for good; not letting history be repeated—again. This story of course isn't the only tragedy of war/other/, there are many others, from many different time periods and they should be made known.
I recommend it to everyone.
Two hit their mark.
How many survivors? Less than maximum capacity.
Book title: Salt to the Sea
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Rating: Five stars!
This is an incredible story. Have you ever heard of the ship called "Wilhelm Gustloff"?
I hadn't. And that's what makes reading this book so much more startling.
Mention the name "Titanic" and a flood of images will cross your mind varying from a fancy ship, a dark cold night in the middle of the ocean full of freezing bodies, or a certain fictional (potentially real) couple from James Cameron's film Titanic.
But mention Gustloff, or Wilhelm? For me, my mind came to a blank. The words sound German. They are German.
According to a quick search online, the Titanic lost, respectively, about 1,503 people (please forgive any inaccuracy), but the Gustloff lost at least 9,343 people, and it's suggested around 5,000 were children. The ship's maximum capacity was 1,880.
I didn't learn or even hear about the Gustloff in school. I say this novel should be required reading for High School across the country. This book, based on true events, drives us deep into the lives of four different young adults/teenagers. Within the beginning chapters, after placing the bookmark for the day, I suddenly appreciated an aspect of my life I daily took for granted: my family.
These children, twenty-one and younger, have been ripped away from their homes, and most traumatically, their parents. They travel on foot toward a last shred of hope: The ship called Wilhelm Gustloff. They most likely will never see their parents again. They, if they survive, will have to start over, and start over alone.
It makes me thank God I wasn't born in a time of war; I didn't grow up surrounded by fear of bombs falling from the sky, men knocking at my door, taking us away. Thank God, thank God, I say at work as I think over the chapters I had read the night before that still affect me with their truth of the past.
Knowing this tragic story makes me want to spread the word of the ship's history. Because it's not enemies inside those ships. Yes, there are evil men and women in the world, but not everyone who fought in war was evil. Many fought for their families, their countries, and many were just caught in the middle. Innocents trapped in the webs of evil. Their stories need to be told so that history isn't repeated.
This book, I think, is a great tool to open young adult eyes today to the history and brutality of war for people who were their age when it occurred. Read the book—if you agree the story needs to be shared, along with other histories you know, please spread the word. Lend/give the book. It could one day land in the hands of the right person capable of making a change for good; not letting history be repeated—again. This story of course isn't the only tragedy of war/other/, there are many others, from many different time periods and they should be made known.
I recommend it to everyone.
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