A Brief Review Of Alici My Story By Alicia Appleman-Jurman

Those who take the time to fully examine the Holocaust, and its exemplary survivors deal with the unsettling knowledge that those before them over looked. Between the years of 1933 to 1947, the holocaust prospered through many countries in Europe, including the proximity of one survivor’s homeland, Poland. Alicia: My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman is historically famous for it’s shocking relevance throughout its background. It has also been infamous for its brutal unvarnished truth by well-known book reviews, but overall it’s cultural impact on the world has shown it is a lesson that should be known by all.

Before there were survivors of the appalling Holocaust, there was the emanation of this fledgling abomination. It began in September 1st

It went from them wearing gold stars strangely on all of their clothing to being isolated from their very neighbors they knew from earlier years especially their Polish neighbors (“HISTORY” 3). It went from that humiliating accommodation to being forced into congested ghettos where Alicia, and her family were hackneyed in unhygienic environments with many others. During this period of anguish, “Alicia 's parents, four brothers and close relatives numbering about eighty were all killed by Germans” (Appleman-Jurman 1). This is one of the many examples of what exactly happened during Alicia’s time during the Holocaust. From the absolute efface of her family to her own childhood friends abandoning her for the “better cause” caused Alicia to be physically, and mainly mentally changed forever. When Alicia tells her story, she describes how she broke apart only to re-adjust to the harsh reality of what truly was to happen with the Jewish such as her. How she became the person she is today by only adapting to dead bodies all the way until the end of the Holocaust in the year of

From the hard decisions on whether she ate or gave to her family to whether or not risk her life to help the Russians, I asked myself the same question “Would I be willing?” Almost immediately, I felt the throbbing pains of guiltiness for my own answers to that question just like Alicia did. Before reading other Jewish survivor novels like Alicia's’, I had read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and also watched the heartbreaking movie of Anne Frank’s Journey as well. That is when my obsession with learning more of the Holocaust, and its victims became almost natural for me to obsess with. That is also around the same time I found Alicia’s novel, and what captured me even more to Alicia’s autobiography besides the setting was the fact that it was well over 200 pages. I have always been attracted to heavy-set books especially ones that involved the courageous souls of the Holocaust, and the painful truth on the ways of death upon Jewish victims across Europe. This is exactly what Alicia gave me, and I have had many times where I will reread certain parts to ponder upon my character if I was to be in her place. Her actions, and her bravery have had its’ very own impact on myself as a person due to the fact that she was able to have so much bravery at the very young age of nine. For this reason alone, when I have my small moments on making a difficult decision, I reflect back upon what Alicia went