This one you'll have a hard time putting down. I didn't realize the survival instinct could be so strong. How did this ten year old boy survive starvation, freezing weather filth, abuse and abject inhumanity for 6 years? The book details the cruelty of the guards and the games they played with the prisoners simply for their pleasure and way to further administer torture. The book is a work of fiction, but based on the life of (Yanek), Jack Gruener, (his Americanized name), son of Oskar and Mina.
The events i have listed below are described in the book and did in fact happen to Jack in his 6 years of horror.
Jack did in fact; survive he harsh conditions of the Krako ghetto by living in a pigeon coop with his parents, He baked bread under cover of night with his aunt and uncle, had his bar mitzvah in a basement under threat of execution and watched as his parents were deported by the Nazis, never to see them again.
At Plaszow, Jack hid under the floorboards from Amon Goeth and was spared by the madman when he emerged. Jack actually worked for Oskar Schindler in his factory, but sadly he was transferred a mere three months before Schindler began protecting his workers form the Nazis. He went on to survive nine more concentration camps. At Auschwitz, Jack came face to face with the infamous Nazi monster Josef Mengele and lived. Jack endured slavery and starvation, death marches and cattle cars, Allied bombings and Nazi beatings. Of the more than 1 1/2 million Jewish children living in Europe before the war, Jack was one of only a half million to survive.
The last chapter will bring tears to your eyes after they are rescued by the Americans.
Read the Afterward to learn where Jack is today.(less)
