Thursday, February 7, 2013

Mauz

the main person in this book is Artie. He went to see his farther to find out about his past. there is a lot of cussing in the book.

Kacie's Book Thingy! :)

Luncia (Ruth) Gruener had a very normal but happy life living in a Polish town called Lvov. She has the perfect life, but things go downhill from there when she finds out she has to hide from the Nazis. First, all the Germans want their jewelry, then all their stuff made of metal, then all their furniture. Luncia and her parents can't even do anything about it. They just have to sit there and watch them take whatever they want. But after the Germans take al of that stuff, they decide they wanna start taking all the Jews away as well. Luncia and her parents along with Luncia's grandmother, try to stay in hiding as best as they can without the Germans finding them. They all try to stay as quiet as possible and hope that things get better. But they don't. Luncia has to stay VERY quiet and hide in this trunk for so long that she has to learn how to walk again. Luncia's parents want her to stay safe, so they take her to the Szczgiel family to stay in hiding for awhile. While the Szczgiel mom went to the store, she had run into Mrs. Oyak who worked with Tatu (Lunica's father) in his candy shop. And apparently, Tata had arranged for Mr. Oyak to hid Luncia's mother at their house. Then came more good news. The Oyak's were hiding Tatu too! Then, the Szczgiel family decided to take Luncia to go hide with the Oyak family. When Luncia arrived at the Oyak house and saw her parents, she was overwhelmed with love and joy! They reached out and hugged her all over. They were so happy to finally be reunited again. And then one morning, they woke up to gunshots. They looked out the window and noticed that it was the Russian army. They were being liberated!!! It was safe to go outside after that, so they went outside and looked in their old apartment where they used to hide, to see if anybody survived. Unfortuneately, everybody else had died. But soon, little bits of pieces of their life started slowly coming back together. Luncia started going to public school again and even started taking piano lessons. Then, they decided to go to New York City in America where the rest of their family was. Even though Poland was their true home, they were excited to be going to America. It was a long and complicated journey to America, but finally, they had their first look of America on January 7, 1949 at about 11 in the morning. After they had moved in and everything, Luncia went right back to school in 1952, she graduated Thomas Jefferson High School. Then after that, she continued her education at Brooklyn College and at the New York School of Interior Design. While doing this, Luncia and a boy she met a long time ago named Jack, exchanged letters all the time. Her and Jack started a successful interior-design firm together, and had 2 kids. And then after that, they thought life couldn't get any better. <3

Wednesday, February 6, 2013


the book that I am reading is called The Girl Who Survived. In the begging of the book it starts to tell you were they live and what they did for fun. The first chapter just tells about her grandfathers house and the second chapter is about her family. Her brother Mendek took the place of his sister Mila. He took it by going to the concetration camp and not letting her go to it. So he had gone to nine camps through out the war. One time he was in Flossenburg, a concentration camp in the oberpfalz region of Bavaria, it was established in March 1938 and liberated in April 1945. 96,000 prisoners passed through Flossenburg and approximatley 30,ooo people died there. It tells you about how she had to go and get food and sneek it back into the ghetto. hen if you got cought then you would br killed on the spot. She had to go through snow to her knees. Then it tells you a bout the work that they do in the camps like it tells you what they do when they get there. when they get off of the train there is a german guy that woyuld be there and he would put people into two lines, one line was to the gas chambers and the other one was for the people that were to work until they died. Kids were suposed to go to the gas chamber and not go to work but the german guy sent her to work and she was happy because she went there with here sister so that she had someone there that she new but, they really didnt talk as soon as they were there for a couple of days.But she survi ved an her sister died. Then later on after they all got out she was with this girl that saved her life and then her cousin found her and took her to her brother and from there they continued to find more and more of there family

Friday, January 25, 2013

Survivors: True Stories of Children of the Holocaust, Allan Zullo

The first story is aobut an 8 year old girl named Lunica Gamzer whose town is being invaded by the Nazis. She lives with her mother and father. One night across the street Lunica's neighbors are being rancsacked by the Nazis, and she is starting to realize that her home isn't as safe as it was. The next day the Nazis come to her house and they are taking valuables and anything they can use to help out the soldiers fighting. On the stove is thier lunch, a pot of potato soup. The Nazi guy walks over to the stove, picks up the pot, and dumps the soup down the drain. Then takes the pot. A coupe of days later an Aktizia takes place, which is a rounding up of Jews taken away that were either immediately shot or taken to a concentration camp. This time they're rounding up Jewish kids. Lunica and her friend hide in the bathroom with a dresser coveirng the door so the Nazi soldier won't see them. I think the Nazi soldier knew the kids were there but he just acted like they weren't because he didn't want to take those kids away form their parents. Lunica's father realizes staying at home, Lunica will not be safe, so he finds a place where she will be safe. He hides her in his coat and takes her to if office where Mrs. Szczygiel will take her in as her own with the rest of her family. The Szcyzygiel family do not like Lunica because they're afraid she will be a threat to them and get them all killed. So Mrs. S. says she found Lunica a home, but really Lunica was hidden in a dresser in the attic, but one Mrs. S. daughters found her and Mrs. S. just took Lunica back to her parents where they were hidden. Lunica and her family were reunited. In the end Lunica lives and so does the rest of her family. They finally moved to the U.S. to New York. Where she changed her name to Ruth. She met and married a Holocaust survivor. On the cover Ruth is the girl.

The next story is about Herbert who is a 12 year old boy. He was leaving Germany on a the S.S. St. Louis to Cuba and then eventually the U.S with his family. Before they left their store was ransacked on the Night of Broken Glass. That's when they decided they better leave, to live. As soon as the St. Louis had reached Cuba the government wouldn't take them. They're were millions of stories of why they wouldn't take them. Finally four countries would take at least 200 passengers from the St. Louis. The Karliners were sent to France. France was soon invaded by the Nazis. The Karliners split up to stay safe. The boys went to the Chaumont Children's Home in Creuse. Herbert broke out and just left to find his family. It was killing him to not talk to his family. He finally got back to his family, and left after a short visit. On his way to Children's Home, he was captured while sleeping in a Hotel. He was returned back to the Home, and any boy turning 16 were to be sent to work camps. Herbert was lucky because the next week he was going to turn 16. He escaped in a French tunnel where he was given a new identity as Paul Brun with another Jewish boy. Some other stuff happened but in the end he and his brother arrived in the U.S. He became a baker. He served two years in the U.S. Army. He finally moved to Miami Beach his "paradise". (Of the 937 passengers of the St. Louis about half died in concentration camps.) 

This book has 9 stories of children survivors of the Holocaust ranging from 4 to 18 years of age. I loved every story, but some of my favorites are If They Find Us, They'll Kill Us: Sarah Engelberge's Story, How Can the Stars Seem so Happy in This Horrible Place?: George and Ursula Levy's Storyand No Wonder They Call This A Death March: Jack Gruener's Story. 

Sarah's story is a lot like Anne Frank where she and others go into hiding in an attic or shelter. They must be completely quiet for a long time till no one is around, but in this case it's a friend, Stanislov, of Sarah's Mother, Tsivia, whom which Tsivia's parents had taken when Stanislov was young and his parents died. They're was Sarah, her sisters, her Mother and Father, and five other relatives hid out in Stanislov's attic of his house, but before they got to hide out in the attic they were hiding out in haystacks out in fields and at night they would sleep in them. The farmers they met were nice enough to let them have some food and sometimes would allow them to sleep out in their barn. Also the nice farmers would let the family know when the Nazis were close or were searching an area to say away from there. When living in the attic life was hard. They couldn't walk around or make a lot of noise and the children couldn't even play. To communicate they often used sign language. They all mainly slept and took naps because they were afraid to be heard and captured. Stanislov would bring them a pot of boiled beans and potatoes at night and dump their "toilets" which were just these little buckets they could do their business in. The conditions just started to get really bad for them living in the attic and they all just slowly just started to die. Sarah's father whom she counted on to be her rock, actually told her he thought he wasn't going to be able to make it and left it to her to take care of her Mother and sister when he died. Sarah isn't even that old and to take on that responsibility would really be huge. They were cooped up in that attic for 2 years and they were informed that they are free it's safe. Since they were confined for so long in the attic they didn't really respond. It took a while for them to realize that they were finally safe and could go home. When Sarah finally came home she was expecting to go home and everything would be the same. She waited at home for her Jewish friends and relatives to come home but they never did. She and her family had no knowledge of Nazi death camps or the the millions of Jews who had been murdered. She realized she had no one to tell of her survival. Sarah and her family finally moved to the U.S. There she changed her name to Sally, in honor of her favorite aunt, and chose not to talk about her horrid past to anyone she met. she became a high school teacher and married Ken Frishberg and raised two children. Her children finally asked her about her history and she decided to tell them the whole truth of her past. In 1986 she and her familly returned to Poland to show her family her past. Her niece-Debbie Goodstein award winning documentary of Voices from the Attic, told her Aunt Sarah's story in that book. That's pretty much all about Sarah.

George (8) and Ursula (4) Levy are brother and sister. Their Mother sent them away from home to live in Holland to live with a man who helped milllions of other Jewish children escape this time of hardshipe from the Nazis. The man to help them is Joseph van Mackelenbergh took them to St. Jacobous Children's Home in Eresel. They at first had a hard time there, but it started to get better. Ursula had cried herself to sleep at night during the first few weeks. After a couple of hours later Germany invaded Holland. soon after that the Levy children were ordered to be sent to Camp Vaught. There they first learned of the Nazi brutality, ecspecially officer Etlinger. He would just randomly hit people over the head with a club. He would use any exuse to hurt people. On Ursula's 8th Birthday they were orered into the Etlinger's office. There they were greeted by Joseph who was trying to help get them out of the camp by lying that they were part American. People in the camps who were part American were treated better. It worked too. They were transfered to nicer baracks. There they were assigned Florence to act as the Levy's guardian. Soon though they were tranfered to another camp, Westerbork. They stayed there in an orphanage run by religious Jewish prisoners who conducted school. After four months there they were herded onto a train to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. There they were in the Star Camp where those prisoners either had connections with the U.S. or its allies and might one day be exchanged for imprisoned German citizens, but they had to wear the yellow Star of David on their chest on their own clothes instead of the striped prisoner uniforms. There were no cleaning faciltiy for their clothes so they were very dirty. They lived in teh men's barracks, where they shared a same bunk. They were always hungry and always cold. they recieved a cup of chicory coffee for breakfast, a bowl of watery rutabaga soup for lunch, and bread in the evening. It was just enough to keep them alive but to slowly die. George stole from the kitchen to get food but was got. The guard let him go because he was just a little boy, and told him to come back the same time tomorrow night and he would bring him some food. At night they would pick lice off eachother, and take turn rubbing eachothers back. They started to get people out of camps to be transfered to Theresiendstadt where they were going to be gassed. Many died of starvation and illnesses on the carts. Every stop bodies were taken off the train that were either dead or were going to be shot because they were almost dead, and then replaced with other prisioners. Finally at one stop they were stopped for good. There was news that they were liberated. They then walked to Trobitz to get food. The Soviets were there to help in any way. They deloused people, and Ursula howled and cried the whole time they shaved her head to get rid fo the lice. They soon contracted typhus. It starts out with a dark red rash, followed by a hight fever, stupor, and restlessness. George got it first and recovered. Ursula was hit hard and almost died. In June 1945
they took a train to Holland where they were reunited with Joseph van Mackelenbergh. He took them to a hospital to be treated for malnutrition. They soon boarded a plane to Chicago to live with their Aunt Irmagard and Uncle Dr. Joseph. George became the owner of a pharmacy. In Glen Ellyn, Illinois married and raised five children. Ursula became a nurse and got married. This is probaly my most favorite story because those two stayed together the whole time and George looked after Ursula and never let anything happen to her. He protected her and stayed by her side the whole time even though he could have left her, and went by himself to escape. But he didn't. He stayed there just like I would have done with Mechelia if we had gone through that. It's my favorite story.

Jack 17 years old among hundreds of others was sent on a march to be transfered. They were given one loaf of bread that was to last the two week journey. Before he was captured he and his family hid out in a little room. They cleaned it, put a few possions and furniture in it and put a good lock on it so no one could get in. One day there was a trick to get them all to come out, but Jack was smart enough to keep his familly in. Good thing they listed to Jack because they would have been killed or sent to a concentration camp. One day he decided to get out to visit a friend and on when he got home his family was captured when they went to get food. One by one the rest of his relatives who were in hiding with him was captured till he was the last one left. A year later he was nabbed and was forced to work in a labor camp. Then he was sent on his death march to another camp. When he had finally reached the camp the officer was not happy about the condition that they were in and were to be fed and taken care of. He was then shipped to Bergen-Belsen after he was better. On the way there they were packed tightly to where no one could lie down. He heard that workers were needed at a small camp and were tested of the strongest. He was told to stirp off his clothes. He was afraid of what he saw. He was afraid they were going to kill him and they told him to run. That was is test. He passed. After his arrival at the small camps he was awoken by blasts. They were told that they were free. There were no more guards or Nazis. He had survived! He moved to Munich and met Lunica Ganzer, and stayed in touch with her after he emigrated to New York in 1948. A year later Lunica and Jack began dating. They were married in 1953. (Lunica is the girl whose story was told earlier.) Together they built a successful interior design firm and raised two sons.

I read the Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It actually wasn't all that bad I thought is was pretty good. It takes place in Germany. Its about a 9 year old girl named Leisel. In the beginning she looses her mother and she and her brother are taken to the Hubermanns. On the train ride to their new house and foster parents her brother ends up dying. After her brother is buried in some snow she finds a book laying near by called The Grave Digger's Handbook she picks it up and takes it with her. At first she isn't too happy about having to live with the Hubermanns she throws a fit and refuses to go in the house. She ends up going in and she grows to like them. She called them Mama and Papa. After her brother died she had a bunch of nightmares that scared her to death. When she woke up in the middle of the night Papa comes in the room too soothe her and get her back too sleep. They end up having that all the time and to get her mind off the nightmares Papa reads The Grave Digger's Handbook to her and teaches her to read and write. Once she turned 10 she goes into Hitler Youth. She meets Rudy, her best friend, and they always are playing soccer or walking somewhere. Her mother has a job of washing and ironing the clothes of richer people. Leisel ends up helping her mother and she picks up the clothes and takes them back. When Leisel goes into the mayor's house she sees a book on a table and she takes it. Leisel's not aware but the mayor's wife sees her take it and the next day the mayor's wife takes Leisel into her library, it is a huge one, and she tells Leisel she could read some. In the middle of the book Leisel's mother is cut from her work because of the war. No one can pay for something like that, and when the mayor's wife tells Leisel that she gets mad at her. She ends up going back a few days later to take the book the mayor's wife offers to her. She ends up making a thing of going back and taking another book once she's finished with the one before. The mayor's wife knows that she's doing it and one day she puts an Dictionary/Thesaursus. During all this a Jerman man, Max, comes to live with the Hubermanns'. He lives in the basement during the warmer times and during the cold he sleeps by the fireplace in Leisel's parents room. At first Leisel doesn't really like him but they end up liking each other and becoming friends. Max starts to write a little book of his own by painting over another books pages. It becomes too dangerous and he ends up leaving the Hubermanns'. Their lives get harder and Leisel's father ends up having to go and help in the war. He comes back because he ends up breaking his leg and can't be their anymore. At the end, in the middle of the night a bomb is dropped on the street they live on and everyone is killed except Leisel because she walked a far ways away. She's really upset but she gets over it. Later on when Leisel's older Max comes to her. Not really sure what happens to Max but Leisel grows up, gets a husband and has some kids and some grandchildren. She ends up dying of old age. I thought is was a pretty good book and would be a good choice for someone who likes to read about World War II.

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