From Publishers Weekly
This recollection of a youth in the Nazi concentration camps is remarkable for its straightforward reportage. Geve (a pseudonym) was 13 years old when, in 1943, he arrived at Auschwitz. His story begins with the break-up of his family, the departure from Berlin of his father, a well-known Zionist who was among the few to find refuge in England in 1939. Geve, caught up in the liquidation of Berlin's Jewish community, spent a total of 19 months in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Recuperating at Buchenwald after the Allied liberation, he began a series of watercolors of camp life, 16 of which will illustrate this edition. What remains most with the reader, however, is the schoolboy voice reciting, with astonishing equanimity, the conditions he survived. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
First published in Israel in 1958 as Youth in Chains (without illustrations). Geve was 13 when he came to Auschwitz. After liberation he drew dozens of pictures of his nearly two years in various camps. His book shows concentration camp life from the unique perspective of a young boy, one of the very few who survived. The pictures, simple stick-figures, show daily life; the text is riveting. Geve is unemotional, factual, and thorough, though his Englislh is at times stilted. He recalls, among many incidents, the camaraderie with other teenage laborers, the 15-second meeting with his mother, the death march. Gerda Haas, Holocaust Human Rights Ctr. of Maine, Auburn
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
