The Girl Who Lived

I've read lots of great books for young readers, but this for me is one of the very best: using the simple, direct language of children's literature to convey an almost unspeakable horror. And to convey it from the viewpoint of a child. Which is why this month, for this blog, I'm simply going to repeat what I wrote about it a few weeks ago. 

 

This adaptation of Tova Friedman’s The Daughter of Auschwitz is intended for children*, to convey more of what it was like to be a child living through the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews, first in the Polish town where she lived with her parents, and then in Auschwitz itself. 

And it is superb. As history. As a piece of writing.

The prose is clear, simple and straightforward, and never, ever fails to put across the horror of what is happening, from the first arrival of the Nazis in the town, to the establishment of the ghetto, and then the final journey to, and survival in, Auschwitz. The crash of boots in the street. The sound of gunshots. Barking dogs straining at leashes and the stench of open latrines. Little Tova’s gradual, numbed acceptance of the daily deaths in her children’s hut and how she’d drag the bodies to the door for removal with all the thought we might give to disposing of an old newspaper.

I’ve read many books and watched just as many films and documentaries about the Holocaust. Some are more horrific. Others are more analytical. But I’ve never read one that’s told the story from the point of view of a child and done it with such skill and power.

Easily, easily one of the best books I’ve read all year.

 *A shout out to Hilary Freeman, the adapter, whose name really out to have been on the cover too.