5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A poignant novel that explores the Holocaust from a different angle, January 4, 2007
Ellwangen, Germany, 1933. Erich Levi is a normal 12-year-old boy. He's a good student, enjoys spending time at the local pool with his two best friends, and is looking forward to his bar mitzvah next year. Slowly, his life begins to change for the worse when the National Socialist Party under the direction of Adolf Hitler is elected to power. His German teacher ridicules him and accuses him of cheating. The few classmates who will still talk to him, the ones who haven't joined the Hitler Youth, are often torn between what their families and school expect of them and their loyalty to Erich.
At home, Erich's father is under a lot of stress from his job. People won't buy his products at the local market, and he worries about supporting his family. Friends are turning into enemies, and family members speak in hushed tones about what might become of the future. Though he faces oppression with determination, Erich's father knows that his beloved housekeeper Fanny speaks the truth: Things are going to get worse for the Jewish people of Germany before they get better.
Using real-life events and people (some names have been changed), Inge Barth-Grozinger has recreated a coming-of-age novel that moves from normal to terrifying. The result is something that, if it happened today, might read like a diary. From our outsider's perspective more than 60 years after the end of World War II, it's almost easy for us to follow the progression of events that led to Erich having to sacrifice everything he knew and loved. But we must remember that Erich and his family could not predict the future.
This story of a boy who tried to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary, terrible time is both hopeful and saddening. Erich and his family were lucky enough to escape the concentration camps, but they lost an important part of their lives: the home, friends and family they had known for years. They were fortunate enough to have help in their escape from Nazi Germany, something too many families did not have.
SOMETHING REMAINS is a slightly different Holocaust book from others you might have read. Rather than deal with the large-scale consequences of Hitler's Third Reich, it is a look at the beginning, at all the small changes that allowed Hitler to build the foundation for his Final Solution.
--- Reviewed by Carlie Webber
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Erich Levi, April 30, 2008
I just finished reading Nothing Remains. It is a wonderful resource book for classroom teachers. It gave me a better understanding of Jewish life in a small town before WWII. I was transported back in time and got a glimpse of the impact that a teacher has upon a child. Being a classroom teacher, this was enlightening for me. It reminded me of young love and the scars that go hand-in-hand with youth.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will read it again. It was a good choice and I am glad that I bought it.
Mary
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Nazi Noose Tightens, September 2, 2011
This story tells how the Nazi menace gradually affected the life of a 12 year old boy and his family in Ellwangen Germany. Ellwangen was a small town in rural Germany which had only a few Jewish inhabitants. There were not enough men for a Minyon. A Minyon requires 9 Jewish males over the age of 13. Erich Levy attends school, has friends, and is preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. Still while the owner of the town inn and tavern and their landladies are true friends some townspeople merely tolerate the Levys. The Levys invite Mr. & Mrs. Noll, the town lawyer whose son is best friends with Erich, the town doctor and his wife, and the town pharmecist and his wife to dinner at their house. They all politely decline. None of them become persecutors when the Nazis come to power, but it is clear they do not want to be more than acquaintances. Mr. Levy's customers accept his yearly dinner invitation, but they are all farmers. When the Nazis come to power, there is a gradual albeit fatalistic change in Erich's life. His father, Julius, is a local cattle dealer. His mother is a homemaker and his brother also attends school. Slowly he is isolated in class. Then he loses all his friends. The Nazis prevent his father from doing business and their fortunes slowly erode. Their beloved housemaid must leave their employ. Even those people who still remain friends with the Levys do so at their own peril. Some are penalized and interrogated. Eric and his cousin Erwin are asked to leave high school and Eric's dream of becoming a lawyer is crushed. Totally isolated except for their few realtives in the area, the Levys, their aunts and uncles and the grandmother emigrate to the U.S. The life as they knew it was completely destroyed. They lost all their property and belongings, and these were the lucky ones who escaped the death camps. This book is appropriate for young adults, but it is not young adult literature. It is perfectly acceptable for adults.
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