Thanks to My Mother
By Schoschana Rabinovici
Summary
Susie Weksle, an eight year old Jewish girl from the Lithuanian city of Vilnius, is forced to move out of her home and be sent away with the rest of the Jews. Slowly her family gets torn apart with all the "actions" at the ghetto where they resided in, after being forced to go there. The new environment and lack of privacy was all new to Susie, and this made Susie very uncomfortable, she couldn't even use the bathroom when people could see her. They also hid in a place hidden from the Germans when they were going through another action. But this place had no vents so the amount of oxygen was very limited, so a child suffocated and died.
Later she and her mom get sent to a concentration camp after fighting against a crowd of Jews being forced to the left, the left being death. At this camp the woman are forced to shave their heads and suffer from hunger and the cold. But even in these harsh conditions, her moms courage and will to survive, brightens up Susie's future or survival. Even when everyone she knew where dying, and when she fell ill from depression, her mom never gave up and even stopped Susie from becoming a mussleman. A mussleman is someone who gives up on survival and life itself.
Three real facts
- Woman had to shave their heads in the concentration camp, and only had light head scarves to cover it from the cold.
- Jews who were sick and didn't recover in a week were taken away to be killed.
- anyone on the death march who fell away from the rest of the group were shot and killed, many died trying to get to bread that was away from the group.
Who would enjoy this book
The people who would enjoy this book are people who like non-fiction, journal type reading. There is hardly any dialog so it can become long to read. but if you enjoy this type of reading then this book is for you. Also things can get quite depressing, but its the Holocaust so that's bound to happen.
Rating
3 out of 5