In what ways did this story broaden your understanding of life during the Holocaust?

In what ways did this story broaden your understanding of life during the Holocaust?

I have avoided reading many books written about the Holocaust because they are so difficult to read and so sad. This one was entirely new to me in that I have never read about the Warsaw ghetto, so it gave me another piece of this painful history. I did not know that many Jews were kept alive within their own country before being sent to the camps. I also learned about the Judenrat and all the levels of privilege that existed in the ghetto.

i have read numerous books about the Holocaust. However, there was an intimacy in this novel that I felt was somewhat unique. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the shared apartment brought out the individual natures of its residents. While whole-scale deaths surrounded these people, we could sense how the situation had specific effects on each of them. The framework served to add to the horror through a different perspective.

I knew of the Warsaw ghetto but I didn't really know anything about the life within the ghetto. It was interesting to learn about the continuous attempts at maintaining "normalcy" , for example, by offering the foreign language classes, the Judenrat and the soup kitchen. I was stunned by the role of the children and their successful smuggling which also lead to complete heartbreak when they were caught.

I hadn’t known about the attempt, within the ghetto, to keep a record of daily life there. Possibly because of those records, this novel also had many more details of daily life than I’d seen before.

I have read many books about the Holocaust, including about the
Warsaw ghetto. However, this is the first one I have read that explored the archivists. It provided another dimension to my understanding of the tragic experience of that time.

Each Holocaust story is singular in its importance. Learning about daily life in the ghetto was enlightening. This was such an intimate treatment of the Jewish family relationship within the community. Their ability to find sweetness and celebration in small daily activities was inspiring.

In so many WWII novels the characters do brave acts to save lives. This novel seemed so much more realistic in that the characters were just trying to survive. The grimness of the ghetto as food becomes more scarce, illness takes its toll and evacuations begin was so gradual that even those who might have tried to escape missed their opportunity.

I've studies enough history to have known about the Warsaw ghetto. But this books makes it more real because it tells us stories of the people who lived there based on the author's research. It brings to light the reality of the starvation, of being forced to leave your home and possessions, of fighting to survive every day.

I know this may be odd, but I enjoyed this book more than the Diary of Anne Frank. Yes that book was horrible and sad. But this book told the story of many people trapped in a Ghetto without food, clean water, medicine. Anne frank was so personal for a young girl,but this gave me a much larger picture. I have never read any information about the Warsaw Ghetto, besides that it happened. I assumed that all the people diedand the Nazis hunted them down and left them there. It does make me wonder what else do we not know about regarding WWII and the Nazis??

I read a lot of WWII historical fiction because I am a daughter of the Greatest Generation. My father served in WWII but never spoke about it, although I heard the details of my mother's experiences as she waited for his safe return.

I have read many stories about life in the Polish ghetto, but this was the first that incorporated the Oneg Shabbat ptoject, about which I had no previous knowledge. That added a rich dimension to and greatly enhanced the story.

This view focusing primarily on one or two households within the ghetto made for a good character study. I would categorize it as ghetto "lite" which I was glad of really. Reading between the lines one can imagine the unfortunate lengths people meaning -family against family and friends against friends - had to go to in reality to survive, and often times, to what tragic end anyway. But this character study did reveal circumstances new to me with heartwarming sensitivity.

This view focusing primarily on one or two households within the ghetto made for a good character study. I would categorize it as ghetto "lite" which I was glad of really. Reading between the lines one can imagine the unfortunate lengths people meaning -family against family and friends against friends - had to go to in reality to survive, and often times, to what tragic end anyway. But this character study did reveal circumstances new to me with heartwarming sensitivity.

Perhaps because I am Jewish I have always gravitated to books about the Holocaust. I have read many and each one gives a slightly different perspective even if the subject matter is pretty much the same. I felt that this book explained more of the day to day experiences of the people in the Warsaw Ghetto. Especially when it came to describing the children’s roles.

For me, what made this book special was it became the personal history of each individual living in the ghetto. It wasn't the starvation, it was the pain in Jakub's stomach. It wasn't the disease, but Sala's attempt, as a mother, to keep her children clean. Down to shaving her own head.
Yes, the ghetto was a horrible place, but now the reader is seeing the daily lives of the people forced into that place.

I have read many books about the holocaust and it seems each one comes with an individualized story and circumstance. This one was interesting to me because of the personal histories of the people living in the ghetto and the people trying to archive the events. It was also very descriptive of the day to day lives of the people... the stories of the children who were killed because of the bartering, the many families living in one apartment together, the fact that there were still schools and teaching..it was very interesting.