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The Long Night: A True Story
The Night lasted five years and eight days.
Before the Night began, Ernst Bornstein was a precocious eighteen-year-old¬ who had an ordinary family with three siblings, two parents, and a large circle of friends and relatives. But in the autumn of 1939, decades of anti-Semitic propaganda turned into full-fledged violence. Bornstein’s family was subsequently sent to Auschwitz where his parents and siblings were gassed to death.
The Long Night is Bornstein’s firsthand account of what he witnessed in seven concentration camps. Written with remarkable insight and raw emotion, The Long Night paints a portrait of human psychology in the darkest of times. Bornstein tells the stories of those who did all they could do to withstand physical and psychological torture, starvation, and sickness, and openly describes those who were forced to inflict suffering on others. The narrative is simple, yet profound; unbridled, honest, and dignified.
The Long Night was written shortly after the war when the author’s memories were fresh and emotions ran strong. Originally published in German in 1967 as Die Lange Nacht, this is the first English translation of this work.
Before the Night began, Ernst Bornstein was a precocious eighteen-year-old¬ who had an ordinary family with three siblings, two parents, and a large circle of friends and relatives. But in the autumn of 1939, decades of anti-Semitic propaganda turned into full-fledged violence. Bornstein’s family was subsequently sent to Auschwitz where his parents and siblings were gassed to death.
The Long Night is Bornstein’s firsthand account of what he witnessed in seven concentration camps. Written with remarkable insight and raw emotion, The Long Night paints a portrait of human psychology in the darkest of times. Bornstein tells the stories of those who did all they could do to withstand physical and psychological torture, starvation, and sickness, and openly describes those who were forced to inflict suffering on others. The narrative is simple, yet profound; unbridled, honest, and dignified.
The Long Night was written shortly after the war when the author’s memories were fresh and emotions ran strong. Originally published in German in 1967 as Die Lange Nacht, this is the first English translation of this work.
254 pages, Paperback
Published March 15, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 11, 2018
AUDIO READ #11
2018 Reading Challenge: time of day in title
I think the most powerful statement anyone can claim is ,"I'm a survivor." But the atrocities of the death camps during WWII are overwhelming , and to have been a survivor through the beatings, starvation, forced labor, and marches is truly remarkable.
I always feel wrong reviewing a book about the Holocaust like I'm judging one's ability to express his horrors compared to another. Bornstein did talk about some camps about which I was not familiar. And there are several appendices.
2018 Reading Challenge: time of day in title
I think the most powerful statement anyone can claim is ,"I'm a survivor." But the atrocities of the death camps during WWII are overwhelming , and to have been a survivor through the beatings, starvation, forced labor, and marches is truly remarkable.
I always feel wrong reviewing a book about the Holocaust like I'm judging one's ability to express his horrors compared to another. Bornstein did talk about some camps about which I was not familiar. And there are several appendices.
March 18, 2018
I feel as though I have been invited in to the Bornstein family reading this book.
Ernst Israel Bornstein (d1978) was a successful young man swept up in to the Holocaust. His life between camps required a degree of wits and luck that kept him alive during the war.
Dr Bornstein's narrative of his wartime life is engrossing, painful but altogether human. He records Poles, Germans and other nationals that were human and kind, as well as those from the same groups that took pleasure in harming those in their charge. Most disturbing for me is the description of those that are corrupted by the system and whose morals are destroyed.
This is a very good book for those of all levels of knowledge of the Holocaust, translated in to English for the first time by the author's daughter, Noemie Lopian (named after the author's sister, who did not survive the Holocaust). I am proud to have met Noemie Lopian. May Ernst Israel Bornstein's family, so many of whom did not survive, live on with this work.
Ernst Israel Bornstein (d1978) was a successful young man swept up in to the Holocaust. His life between camps required a degree of wits and luck that kept him alive during the war.
Dr Bornstein's narrative of his wartime life is engrossing, painful but altogether human. He records Poles, Germans and other nationals that were human and kind, as well as those from the same groups that took pleasure in harming those in their charge. Most disturbing for me is the description of those that are corrupted by the system and whose morals are destroyed.
This is a very good book for those of all levels of knowledge of the Holocaust, translated in to English for the first time by the author's daughter, Noemie Lopian (named after the author's sister, who did not survive the Holocaust). I am proud to have met Noemie Lopian. May Ernst Israel Bornstein's family, so many of whom did not survive, live on with this work.
March 3, 2016
I find it hard to know what to say because I am not qualified to make any comments whatsoever about this precious book.
The one thing I will say is that the moment I held it in my hands I was overwhelmed with a feeling that I was holding something so scared in my hands that I wasnt worthy to read it. I was looking into the lives and sufferings of others so beyond description, the nakedness of their suffering that I looked down in respect.
The Long Night has enriched my life in a way I cannot describe.
The one thing I will say is that the moment I held it in my hands I was overwhelmed with a feeling that I was holding something so scared in my hands that I wasnt worthy to read it. I was looking into the lives and sufferings of others so beyond description, the nakedness of their suffering that I looked down in respect.
The Long Night has enriched my life in a way I cannot describe.
December 29, 2015
Since the author wrote this memoir shortly after World War, the emotions with which he writes are raw, unbridled; his thoughts clear. Bornstein's descriptions of the dynamic between the Nazi perpetrators and their victims dually offer a glimpse of the horrors and the humanity that he witnessed. Essential reading for any Holocaust education group.
November 19, 2016
I loved it. This book moved me with its heartbreaking recount of the author's time during the Holocaust. It amazes me how the survivors had a huge amount of will to stay alive. The bravery and strength,both mental and physical, is astonishing.
February 23, 2016
I have read several books about the Holocaust, including The Diary of Anne Frank, the story of her father, Journal by Helene Berr, and a further diary by a child, whose name escapes me at the moment. The diaries all ended when the young person was deported to concentration camps. Otto Frank was a survivor, so it details some of the suffering he went through, and also what happened to him following liberation. This book is an excellent addition to this collection. I recommend it highly.
This is a first hand account of a young, Jewish, Polish man who survived the slave and extermination camps of the Nazis. Shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, Ernst Bornstein and his father were rounded up in a night raid and taken away by the Nazis to work in a slave camp. They were to help build an Autobahn. The men were told that after a year of labor, they would be freed. This was not true. As it was still early days, they were still allowed to wear their normal clothing, send letters, receive letters and small parcels from home. Ernst managed to arrange favors and bribes to get his father sent home. When the Autobahn was finished, this camp was closed and the inmates were force marched to another one, which was much more brutal. While at the first camp, very few inmates died or were murdered, at the new one, it was order of the day. Here Ernst was taken as an apprentice by a kindly German electrician (who privately railed against what Germany had become). This was very important in improving his chances of survival, but also made it possible to send and receive illicit letters with his family. It was how he learnt that his mother, father, and younger sisters and brother were at the railway station, being deported to Auschwitz. Only one sister survived. We don't learn how, as this is Ernst's story.
And so it went, being moved from one terribly bad situation to an even worse one. As the Red Army moved west, the Nazis started forced marches, murdering anyone who could not either start the march or who could not continue on the way. The persecuted were also shuttled along in the most horrendous conditions in trains meant for good or livestock, sent from one camp to another, trying to evade the Allies. It was with good luck, resilience, a strong will to live, and foresight that Ernst Bornstein was able to survive. Of his extended (but close) family of 72, only six survived the Holocaust.
This book was written and originally published in Germany twenty years after the end of the war. It has only now been published in English in paperback. It was translated by the author's daughter.
I believe the author did a very good job, choosing just the right amount of information, condensing five years of slavery, deprivation, starvation, cruelty, and near death to 202 pages. He also did well to not just write about the immense cruelty of the Nazis, but also that of the fellow inmates as well as the kindness of some of the German master craftsmen at the second camp he was in, fellow inmates, and a farmer near Stuttgart the day before they were finally liberated.
While I steeled myself to read the harrowing story of Dr. Ernst Bornstein, somehow it was with even greater sadness I read some of the Addenda. In particular, Appendix C is a reprint of an article Dr. Bornstein wrote after visiting the concentration camp at Leonberg near Stuttgart eighteen years after Liberation. First he went to the Jewish Community in Stuttgart. The first person he spoke to didn't even know there had been a concentration camp at Leonberg, the second knew of it thought it had for the most part been for non-Jews. It had been mostly Jews incarcerated there. Nobody in the office was even slightly interested in this fact. Dr. Bornstein was most upset about this. The town council of Leonberg did somewhat better, the person Dr. Bornstein met and took him to the former camp was very kindly and even knowledgeable. Even so, everyone else seemed quite happy to forget and turn a blind eye to what had happened in that place. In another Appendix, Dr. Bornstein in an address at a remembrance service at Dachau laments the forgotten mass graves outside the camp proper.
Dr. Ernst Israel Bornstein achieved an amazing feat in surviving so many years at the hands of the Nazis. He has written an excellent account. His daughter has produced a wonderful translation. I highly recommend this book. Lest we forget.
This is a first hand account of a young, Jewish, Polish man who survived the slave and extermination camps of the Nazis. Shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, Ernst Bornstein and his father were rounded up in a night raid and taken away by the Nazis to work in a slave camp. They were to help build an Autobahn. The men were told that after a year of labor, they would be freed. This was not true. As it was still early days, they were still allowed to wear their normal clothing, send letters, receive letters and small parcels from home. Ernst managed to arrange favors and bribes to get his father sent home. When the Autobahn was finished, this camp was closed and the inmates were force marched to another one, which was much more brutal. While at the first camp, very few inmates died or were murdered, at the new one, it was order of the day. Here Ernst was taken as an apprentice by a kindly German electrician (who privately railed against what Germany had become). This was very important in improving his chances of survival, but also made it possible to send and receive illicit letters with his family. It was how he learnt that his mother, father, and younger sisters and brother were at the railway station, being deported to Auschwitz. Only one sister survived. We don't learn how, as this is Ernst's story.
And so it went, being moved from one terribly bad situation to an even worse one. As the Red Army moved west, the Nazis started forced marches, murdering anyone who could not either start the march or who could not continue on the way. The persecuted were also shuttled along in the most horrendous conditions in trains meant for good or livestock, sent from one camp to another, trying to evade the Allies. It was with good luck, resilience, a strong will to live, and foresight that Ernst Bornstein was able to survive. Of his extended (but close) family of 72, only six survived the Holocaust.
This book was written and originally published in Germany twenty years after the end of the war. It has only now been published in English in paperback. It was translated by the author's daughter.
I believe the author did a very good job, choosing just the right amount of information, condensing five years of slavery, deprivation, starvation, cruelty, and near death to 202 pages. He also did well to not just write about the immense cruelty of the Nazis, but also that of the fellow inmates as well as the kindness of some of the German master craftsmen at the second camp he was in, fellow inmates, and a farmer near Stuttgart the day before they were finally liberated.
While I steeled myself to read the harrowing story of Dr. Ernst Bornstein, somehow it was with even greater sadness I read some of the Addenda. In particular, Appendix C is a reprint of an article Dr. Bornstein wrote after visiting the concentration camp at Leonberg near Stuttgart eighteen years after Liberation. First he went to the Jewish Community in Stuttgart. The first person he spoke to didn't even know there had been a concentration camp at Leonberg, the second knew of it thought it had for the most part been for non-Jews. It had been mostly Jews incarcerated there. Nobody in the office was even slightly interested in this fact. Dr. Bornstein was most upset about this. The town council of Leonberg did somewhat better, the person Dr. Bornstein met and took him to the former camp was very kindly and even knowledgeable. Even so, everyone else seemed quite happy to forget and turn a blind eye to what had happened in that place. In another Appendix, Dr. Bornstein in an address at a remembrance service at Dachau laments the forgotten mass graves outside the camp proper.
Dr. Ernst Israel Bornstein achieved an amazing feat in surviving so many years at the hands of the Nazis. He has written an excellent account. His daughter has produced a wonderful translation. I highly recommend this book. Lest we forget.
August 13, 2022
I’m not sure whether this book is on the list of books that have to be read by students at school, but it should be.
It’s the descriptive testimony of an inmate in the concentration camps and death camps of Germany that is so relentless in its tale of horror. Just when you think that Mr Bornstein has reached the nadir of his experience, another layer of man’s ability to treat his fellow man as lower than an animal comes forth.
With its absence of conjecture as to why the Nazis and their lackeys did what they did the simple brutality is laid bare.
It’s the descriptive testimony of an inmate in the concentration camps and death camps of Germany that is so relentless in its tale of horror. Just when you think that Mr Bornstein has reached the nadir of his experience, another layer of man’s ability to treat his fellow man as lower than an animal comes forth.
With its absence of conjecture as to why the Nazis and their lackeys did what they did the simple brutality is laid bare.
July 7, 2017
Tremendously unnerving and powerful!
After reading many books on the Holocaust I found this the most important one of such a terrible time we can't forget ever. We have let it happen again elsewhere to our shame.
After reading many books on the Holocaust I found this the most important one of such a terrible time we can't forget ever. We have let it happen again elsewhere to our shame.
October 13, 2017
The title here refers, not to a special night on a personal scale, but one on an eternal scale, of time and world civilisation - not an earthly night, even a polar one, of either romance or horror or anything on a human scale, but one that descended on the earth from what one can only describe as pure hell, and not accidentally either, but with every intention and design of being wrought complete annihilation of human civilisation, by those that perpetrated it.
The Long Night is about the years of WWII.
If it is extremely hard to read this book, it is only because truth stares one in face the moment one begins reading, and it is neither exaggerated nor sparing, neither overdoing any emotion nor pretending a detachment except as experienced, and the author has simply documented what he went through, events and experiences and feelings and thought. And he writes sparingly at that, obviously - the wartime years of hell he and his people went through, with whole clans wiped out and subsequently either forgotten or advised forgotten for sake of forgiveness for the perpetrators, cannot be captured except a mere glimpse of, in a book of memoirs so small and spare as this one.
Somewhere in midst of reading it one realises with a shock that one knows this particular place he mentions, or that, and one passed it while driving on a holiday, never having any idea of what went on there. Most with any idea of history of past century do know about the half a dozen or so most known concentration camps used in killing over six million Jews and several million others, at least the names, but there were dozen more if not two, three or more dozen.
It isn't that nobody else went through such tortures, humiliations, massacres. It is more that this was so deliberately intended to extinguish a whole civilisation, a section of humanity. That too isn't uncommon in history, but all the more why one recognises the whole hell. One doesn't need to compare if one knew a hell worse, one simply knows in one's heart how it is to be subjected to it, and one is able to identify with the story.
And yet, there are details unimaginable that one recoils from, with all the more horror at what the author and his people went through.
After one is finished reading the main part it is necessary to read the several appendices and understand, if one doesn't already, why it is necessary to keep this knowledge, this memory of this history, alive, and why it is a horrible idea - usually preached by all the seeming or so called liberals - to forgive and forget the perpetrators and move on. One can forgive the victims for not wanting to relive such horrors and for wanting to forget them, but that is a different story from the doctrine of forgiving all such crimes that are perpetrated with every intention of wreaking hell on the victims.
July 23, 2019
The author appears to have been a Jewish Capo with full knowledge of German. It gets very boring with the same things happening over and over. It's not possible he could have taken so many beatings and not ended up permanently crippled.
I read the audio book and returned it in the middle out of total boredom.
I read the audio book and returned it in the middle out of total boredom.
March 11, 2019
While reading the survivor testimonies, I pay special attention to any mention of Poles. I'm trying to gain some understanding of how did the Polish non-Jewish inmates interact with Polish Jewish inmates. Polish criminals were often working as the camp's kapos - they are often desribed as the worst type. It's quite apparent how in each camp different religions and nationalities tended to stick together. Poles and Jews tended not to mix, even though shared a language. They were treated differently; Poles stood higher in the camp social strata structure - something not often pointed out in the Polish testimonies... Dr Bornstein writes about the Poles from the Warsaw Uprising in a way that makes me proud: "It was their bestial behaviour that convinced me that most Poles [who had been transferred from Grossrosen to Funfteichen] had chosen to become accomplices of the despotic national socialist ways of the SS in the process of our destruction. However, I was relieved to discover that this was a misleading generalisation. The fighters of the Polish underground did not fight on the side of the conquerors. They belonged to that large majority of Poles who hated this oppression and forcibly rebelled against it. They had felt compelled to totally commit themselves to years of underground resistance." A very somber book that through the methodical, detailed writing shows just how difficult it must have been for the author to go through these traumatic memories - we should all be grateful that thanks to his painful effort, this valuable testimony has been preserved and the memory of some of his companions was not lost forever.
September 25, 2021
This universal story of torture physical and psychological is common in today's world where there are some many wars and secret prisons etc. The human spirit overcoming evil of like torture is cruel, uncertain and filled with horrors of dehumanization of the human soul, spirit, body and mind. Prisoners of wars right now in secret prisons, a part of rendition program or in Guantanamo Bay without " Due Process": Never before known Military Courts that discredits Post WW2 agreements: A slippery slope: anyone can be put under surveillance, detained which includes torture, physical and psychological: No sleep, electric electrocutions, threatening your psychological being by threatening your safety: Your family, neighbors, friends, people you love and care about.
After a while one gets sick, soul sickness, trauma and change of world view, a human lost. The pain and degradation of the soul, the killing of all good and also of faith, God, and anything that inspires the spirit is made bad, negative, anything you love or loved is made negative.
The stories in Auschwitz etc. during WW2 are very real and painful to read: To stick with the story/ies and finish reading book/novel like A Long Night: A True Story is enriching. " God Crying" is hard and we believe it make us negative and maybe ruins our day, week, year, life etc. it is necessary to know about suffering especially when there are wars all around the world: We need to learn from people so we can help our world even if it not us that is caught in a nightmare like this.
September 10, 2024
Kniha Dlhá noc zachytáva jednu z najtemnejších kapitol našej histórie, holokaust. Autentické hlboké svedectvo autora Ernsta Izraela Bornsteina, ktorý prežil sedem koncentračných táborov je prostredníctvom knihy podané tak silno a emotívne, kruto ako aj samotná nacistická okupácia bola.
Najväčšou hodnotou tejto knihy je autorova osobná spoveď, jeho autentické podanie a svojský, priamy štýl, z ktorého cítiť strach, obavy, zhnusenie, ale rovnako aj túžbu po slobode a živote.
Dlhá noc nie je rozhodne ľahkým čítaním práve kvôli opisom neľudskosti, surovosti, trýznenia, opisov zničených tiel a krutosti. Častokrát sa práve preto stretávam s názorom, prečo čítať/čítam tieto knihy, keď sú plné smútku a ľudského trápenia? Na to je úplne jednoduchá odpoveď. Preto, aby sa nezabudlo. Aby neostali tieto silné ľudské osudy zabudnuté, aby sa to už viac neopakovalo, aby to ľudia nikdy nedopustili a aby nás neovládla nevraživosť, fanatizmus, nehnevala inakosť ľudí a aby sme si boli všetci rovní bez ohľadu na vierovyznanie, farbu pleti či národnosť. Každý jeden takýto silný príbeh ma prinúti zamyslieť sa nad tým, ako málo stačí k tomu, aby sa človeku zmenil život zo sekundy na sekundu a že ani sloboda nemusí byť ani v dnešnej dobe samozrejmosťou.
Práve preto čítajte tieto knihy, nech už nikto nikdy nespochybní, že holokaust tu bol už iba k úcty k toľkým zničeným životom. V ponuke @citadellapublishing nájdete rôzne druhy kníh s touto tématikou, od jemnejších až po tie ozaj hlboké, ktoré tieto zverstvá opisujú bez servítky.
Najväčšou hodnotou tejto knihy je autorova osobná spoveď, jeho autentické podanie a svojský, priamy štýl, z ktorého cítiť strach, obavy, zhnusenie, ale rovnako aj túžbu po slobode a živote.
Dlhá noc nie je rozhodne ľahkým čítaním práve kvôli opisom neľudskosti, surovosti, trýznenia, opisov zničených tiel a krutosti. Častokrát sa práve preto stretávam s názorom, prečo čítať/čítam tieto knihy, keď sú plné smútku a ľudského trápenia? Na to je úplne jednoduchá odpoveď. Preto, aby sa nezabudlo. Aby neostali tieto silné ľudské osudy zabudnuté, aby sa to už viac neopakovalo, aby to ľudia nikdy nedopustili a aby nás neovládla nevraživosť, fanatizmus, nehnevala inakosť ľudí a aby sme si boli všetci rovní bez ohľadu na vierovyznanie, farbu pleti či národnosť. Každý jeden takýto silný príbeh ma prinúti zamyslieť sa nad tým, ako málo stačí k tomu, aby sa človeku zmenil život zo sekundy na sekundu a že ani sloboda nemusí byť ani v dnešnej dobe samozrejmosťou.
Práve preto čítajte tieto knihy, nech už nikto nikdy nespochybní, že holokaust tu bol už iba k úcty k toľkým zničeným životom. V ponuke @citadellapublishing nájdete rôzne druhy kníh s touto tématikou, od jemnejších až po tie ozaj hlboké, ktoré tieto zverstvá opisujú bez servítky.
August 1, 2019
I thought I had a reasonable knowledge of Nazi treatment of the Jews, but this book gave me a lot of additional insight. It is all the more hard-hitting because everything is described in a very low-key, matter-of-fact way, and credit is given to a number of Germans (including those involved in the forced-labour camps) whop exhibited humanity and even kindness amidst the general awfulness of the regime.
One particularly chilling aspect is the way in which persecution of the Jews developed so gradually that it never seemed to be the right time to rise up and protest. At each stage, it appeared to be more pragmatic simply to keep their heads down and accept what was happening, for fear of making things worse by enraging their tormentors. There also seems to have been a (to me) surprising degree of trust that this sort of thing could not last forever and the Nazis would soon be overthrown. It makes me convinced that we all need to be very watchful that we put a stop to the first strings of racism before its effects become grave, because the longer it goes on and the more normalised it becomes the more difficult it will be to prevent it escalating.
One particularly chilling aspect is the way in which persecution of the Jews developed so gradually that it never seemed to be the right time to rise up and protest. At each stage, it appeared to be more pragmatic simply to keep their heads down and accept what was happening, for fear of making things worse by enraging their tormentors. There also seems to have been a (to me) surprising degree of trust that this sort of thing could not last forever and the Nazis would soon be overthrown. It makes me convinced that we all need to be very watchful that we put a stop to the first strings of racism before its effects become grave, because the longer it goes on and the more normalised it becomes the more difficult it will be to prevent it escalating.
April 17, 2024
Really 2 stars but gets three for being a Holocaust memoir. As Maude Findlay (Google her) might say, God is gonna get me. I think every survivor's tale deserves to be told, but this story could have used an editor or perhaps a better translator. The writing is just not terribly engaging, and, more important, this is a short book but the last sixty pages i.e. the last third concern the last five months of the war. And there's very little before and after story, which often makes for the most interesting part of these stories. I could possibly have Holocaust fatigue as I've read three true stories this year that all concern young men sent to labor camps. Maybe it's time for a break.
September 7, 2022
What a privilege to read this book. To understand that this isn’t a story, this harrowing tale is one young man’s life, virtually a child at 18 and taken away from his home to a ‘work camp’. It is written well. There is no hyperbole. There is no self pity. People Are named, their stories told for posterity, because this is all that remains of them.
Reading this book has given me an insight into how cruel humans can be. I’m grateful to Ernst and his family for creating and sharing this book.
Reading this book has given me an insight into how cruel humans can be. I’m grateful to Ernst and his family for creating and sharing this book.
June 18, 2019
A heart-achingly honest account of his experiences from normal life to the concentration camps. Mr Bornstein describes not only his day to day life but his feelings and frustrations as his life changed forever.
December 1, 2021
A very real account. This book is great meaning it is a very well wrote and laid out book. However it is not a easy book to read. The story it tells is real and is heart wrenching. But we have to remember and pass on what happened to the Jewish people. Well worth the read!
September 9, 2022
A heart-breaking account of Bornstein’s experiences, from his everyday life to his experience in the concentration camps. This is not an easy book to read, it’s real and heart wrenching, but well worth it. I am always amazed that people were able to live through these horrible experiences.
January 26, 2018
The long night
This book was so good. I've read a few war memoirs and this was the best book I've read in a while. I can't describe it, just read it.
This book was so good. I've read a few war memoirs and this was the best book I've read in a while. I can't describe it, just read it.
September 28, 2021
Heartbreaking and soul searing. May God help humanity.
Read
December 6, 2021Very detailed account of his time in multiple concentration camps... Highly recommend!
December 17, 2021
Absolutely riveting... Inspirational
March 22, 2023
If you decide to read just one book on the Holocaust, let it be this one.
April 3, 2025
Tough read; graphic and horrific details; some things are lost in translation
September 14, 2017
Honest and beautiful writing
This is one of the best accounts of the Holocaust, perhaps the best.
The author answers many unanswerable questions, just by telling the truth.
This is one of the best accounts of the Holocaust, perhaps the best.
The author answers many unanswerable questions, just by telling the truth.
July 11, 2021
Every time I read a book about the Holocaust, I swear I will never read another one. And yet I find myself drawn to them and I don’t know why. I certainly do not like reading about the atrocities of the concentration camps. They make me sick. I do not like hearing about families being torn apart. That is among the greatest of evils! And I inevitably end up in tears
Then, what is it? Maybe it is that I cannot believe that any human being could treat another one so cruelly as these people, and Jews in particular, were treated during WWII. They were beaten, starved and murdered. They did not have adequate clothing, food, bedding, medical care—they did not have adequate anything. They were made to work, hard labor, seven days a week on such little food and sleep, they were not allowed to talk to others, they had to follow strict rules of conduct which they often did not know until they broke them. Then they were beaten, kicked, and trampled until they died, or if they were lucky, they were just shot.
They were deprived of every personal possession and could not even claim ownership of a toothbrush. And perhaps worst of all, they were separated from their families. They did not know what had happened to their loved ones unless someone they knew who had a little news happened to be put in the same camp. The news was usually bad.
Maybe I keep going back to these books because I don’t want to forget what happened. Could it happen again? Oh yes! I think that has been proven recently. Our own government and many others around the world have shown how easily they can control a population by introducing a deadly virus into our midst. It is imperative that we remember how easily these people were tricked into buying the whole Nazi story until they were in so deep they could only get out through the chimneys of the crematories.
So yes, I am drawn back occasionally and i read the horrendous story and I cry and I wonder how people could treat one another this way. And something tells me it could easily happen again if we let it.
Then, what is it? Maybe it is that I cannot believe that any human being could treat another one so cruelly as these people, and Jews in particular, were treated during WWII. They were beaten, starved and murdered. They did not have adequate clothing, food, bedding, medical care—they did not have adequate anything. They were made to work, hard labor, seven days a week on such little food and sleep, they were not allowed to talk to others, they had to follow strict rules of conduct which they often did not know until they broke them. Then they were beaten, kicked, and trampled until they died, or if they were lucky, they were just shot.
They were deprived of every personal possession and could not even claim ownership of a toothbrush. And perhaps worst of all, they were separated from their families. They did not know what had happened to their loved ones unless someone they knew who had a little news happened to be put in the same camp. The news was usually bad.
Maybe I keep going back to these books because I don’t want to forget what happened. Could it happen again? Oh yes! I think that has been proven recently. Our own government and many others around the world have shown how easily they can control a population by introducing a deadly virus into our midst. It is imperative that we remember how easily these people were tricked into buying the whole Nazi story until they were in so deep they could only get out through the chimneys of the crematories.
So yes, I am drawn back occasionally and i read the horrendous story and I cry and I wonder how people could treat one another this way. And something tells me it could easily happen again if we let it.
May 17, 2016
This book absolutely broke my heart.
An incredible and harrowing true account of a young man forced out of his family life into concentration camps. The author perfectly describes the physical and mental hardships of those captured in the war. How him, and people like him survived, we will never know. There is strength in the man and his fellow prisoners that astounds me.
I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and I still can't get it out of my head.
An incredible and harrowing true account of a young man forced out of his family life into concentration camps. The author perfectly describes the physical and mental hardships of those captured in the war. How him, and people like him survived, we will never know. There is strength in the man and his fellow prisoners that astounds me.
I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and I still can't get it out of my head.
August 4, 2016
Overall good book about Bornstein's experiences in 7 different concentration camps over a 4 year period and his survival. We get to see more into the atrocities carried out, and even some of the hierarchy in the camp, how others did horrible things just to ensure their own survival.
March 17, 2016
"Informative vook
I found this book book very well written and highly Informative to what actually transpired during what happened behind the barbed wire
I found this book book very well written and highly Informative to what actually transpired during what happened behind the barbed wire
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