Shoah memoirs do not have to be extended on too many pages. Sometimes, the scarcity of words covers in fact a complex story of pain and resilience. This Auschwitz memoir is a moving account of the story of the then 22-year old Isabella Katz, from Hungary, whose fate was sealed in August 1944, when Hungarian Nazis decided the deportation of Jews.
The book is an account of disparate memories, from short fragments from the life in then Hungary - 'the land of hate we were born' - , until the wandering to various concentration camps, including Auschwitz. The text might look a staccato of not always chronologically-set stories, but in the literature of Shoah survivors, such literary formula is quite common. The flux of memory is very often obstructed by the impossibility of sharing the full truth, as it really was.
Memories of the permanent camp terror will never leave the survivors and change completely the perception of things. Personal moments associated with various persecutions and trauma are never the same. In Isabella's case, her birthday ceased to be a moment of celebration, but an event to be forgotten.
'Germany was one grant concentration camp, with Jews marching the length and breath of the country, but these refined, sensitive Germans never saw us'.
Surviving is a commitment to make a difference, to show to the oppressor that despite of all the pain and humiliation and the crimes, the good prevails. 'We are pure and beautiful. We have nothing in common with them. They are Germans'.
Revelatory of this state of mind is, in my opinion, the account of the episodes of Isabella's meeting with Germans during her post-war trips to Europe. Fear and disgust and anger for those who, maybe, were among the opressors.
This book is not only a memoir to be read by anyone interested in WWII and Shoah history, but equally can be used as a school material for contemporary history lessons.
Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher via NetGalley.com
