As modern-day observers of the events of the Second World War and the persecution of the Jewish people, we somehow always feel compelled to read literature of the era, particularly when it is with regards to the Holocaust. The Holocaust an era, that has somehow imprinted within our hearts, the pain endured by the many victims and survivors. This is overwhelmingly highlighted in Tomi Reichental’s I was a Boy in Belsen and Thomas Buergenthal’s A lucky child: A memoir of surviving Auschwitz as a young boy. Both of which, gives us readers a frightening reminder of the savagery experienced within the concentration camps, through the eyes of two young boys who survived the Holocaust. The following review shall explore these memoirs in detail with an attempt to differentiate the experiences of both authors.
Tomi Reichental’s I was a Boy in Belsen, is a biographical account of the unforgettable life he endured in the Concentration Camp. A Slovakian Jew, Tomi spent the last few months of the Second World War in a Concentration Camp at Bergen-Belsen. His Mother and brother alongside
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For example, the major theme in A Lucky Child is the belief of maintaining hope and believing in the self. Buergenthal uses this theme to showcase that there is good in all humans. He does, however, use another minor theme to display that to get on with life, then changes are necessary, yet also highlighting the fact that some events cannot be changed. For instance, the Germans massacre of the Jewish community. The same themes can be seen in Reichental’s memoir also. One difference is, where Tomi is concerned, no luck was endured. Another difference was that Tomi could remember his turmoil more chronologically than Thomas could. The most similar motive of both memoirs lays on the strength of the will to live and being able to forgive. Both innocent boys in a time of pandemonium who have come through stronger than their