Book #66 of 2021:Chance: Escape from the Holocaust by Uri ShulevitzThis 2020 title is a little unusu
Book #66 of 2021:Chance: Escape from the Holocaust by Uri ShulevitzThis 2020 title is a little unusual among Holocaust memoirs, both for its aim at a middle-grade audience and for its depicting a life more distantly touched by Nazi violence. Jewish author Uri Shulevitz and his family fled German-occupied Poland into the Soviet Union, where they continued to face antisemitic persecution and starvation-level poverty, but their struggles obviously do not reflect the full horror of the era. I wouldn’t want this to be the first / only book that a young reader encounters on the subject, but I’m also not sure how many will be interested enough to give it a try once they’ve already been introduced to the visceral evil of Hitler’s extermination program.I struggle with the fundamental accuracy of the contents here too, as the 84-year-old writer looking back over the decades can’t possibly be remembering all the events he describes from age 4 to 12 — and indeed, he notes in an afterword that he’s relied on later conversations with relatives as well as his father’s written account to reconstruct this tale. I assume the broad strokes are fine, but the details may be shaky and the emotion sometimes feels artificial for the child perspective he’s relating.As such, while this is still an important look at a historical refugee experience, I don’t think I can offer my unqualified recommendation.[Content warning for cannibalism.]★★★☆☆–Subscribe at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke to support these reviews and weigh in on what I read next!–Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter -- source link
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