The life in the Holocaust, Book review for Thanks to My Mother

  First, the author mentions details about her family, and relatives that weren’t with her anymore. I could experience her feeling by reading the poems and I could feel that these written arts are her ways to escape her painful incidents. When Susie Weksler was eight years old, Hitler’s forces invaded her city. In this memoir she explains how brutal life in the camps was and how hard it was to survive in the camps for many years. Also, she tells her how brave her mother was during the period when she was in the concentration camps. Her mother brought her food, helped her survive by creating travel passes that let her move safely, and by giving her a fake age. During the years in the camp, she grew taller even though she wasn’t eating well and she was very skinny.

In this memoir, which was mostly organized in chronological order with poems written in the ghetto, all the way to the camps and the hospital where she recovered; reflected the feelings and thoughts from the point of view of an uneducated child trying to forget and ease her fears. Also, she sang songs during the hours when the German guards weren’t around. In the camp, there were some doctors that came and checked the people to see if there were any old and sick people. After having a cursory look around the camps, they would choose them and take them to another place and kill them. This occurred every two weeks. When it was a Jewish festival day the German’s would give them bacon (pork) soup for food knowing that this was against their religion but everybody ate it because that was the only meal they could have. The author experienced several dreadful events such as: one of her relatives and other people in the camp were taken to a gas chamber and were killed very painfully. She said that she could hear them scream in her dreams. Also, during winter she and her mother had to undergo on the “Death March” which was a long and almost endless march to Stutthof; many people succumbed during their way there. During the March the people in the camps were stripped naked and were left outside in the square. Many people gave up and died few minutes later because of the cold, but Susie and her mother survived.

The line I loved was a sentence in which Susie described how her mother impelled her to not give up in any condition.

 “She shook me with her strong hands; she hit me in the face with all her might and screamed, “Shut up! Stop crying! Jump; move; wave your hand; don’t breath with your mouth open!”  

I especially liked this because I could see how people can act in extreme conditions like this situations. It might be interpreted as cruel and detached but she was being extreme under the pressing circumstances.

After the march, the survivors were taken to a camp and were fed very with only a hand full of food a day. In 1945 the survivors were rescued from the main camp by the Soviet Army and were taken to a safe place.

I thought that this book was quite touching because I could imagine easily with the descriptions given by the author, how tough it was for her and her mother to survive the Holocaust. In the memoir I found craft moves such as: Flash backs, Excessive description, Photos, Names, Dates, Giving hints of age and many other descriptions. However, I thought the most imminent craft moves were the Excessive Descriptions and the Flash Backs. She compared the meals she got at home with the ones at the camp (flash back). Also, she describes the Ghetto, her dad, and the beds that were in the concentration camps with a lot of details. She also has a difference in mood when she sees the light come in from the open lid of the truck, she feels that her freedom is close but when she gets out she was forced to work. These events made her realize how important her mother was and how people in extreme situations can behave completely differently from the way they usually do. For example: She gave her own food to make her strong and grow in a condition were it was hard to find food. She also put make up on her to trick the guards and Susie’s mother put her in a bag to carry her to a labor camp.

By just reading the title of the book “Thanks To My Mother”, you are aware of two things, first: her mother was extremely important and second her mother survived, since she is thanking her. 

Overall, I loved how the author told the story, mainly about her mother taking care of her and I could draw in my mind the people getting shot when they were tricked with food. As well, the craft moves really made the whole story come together very well. I really enjoyed it and in the end it wasn’t so sad after all because Susie and her mother got to live a free life in Israel.