A Story of Hope in I Have Lived a Thousand Years Could you imagine living through enough pain and trauma to last you a thousand years? The book by Livia Bitton-Jackson, I Have Lived A Thousand Years, is the story of 13-year-old Elli Friedmann and how she survived the holocaust. Throughout the book, there are many sad and awful times, but there are also moments filled with hope and miracles. For instance, Elli and her mother are able to stay together through everything, all the germans and soldiers who helped her survive, Elli and her mother being able to find and save her brother Bubi, and more. This story of hope is one you should remember. Through everything that has been thrown at them, Elli and her mother, Laura, have been able to stick …show more content…
Some of which, Elli encountered. When in the Ghetto, Elli had a little relationship with a guard. One day Marta Kalman and her mother, friends of Elli’s, were outside the fence and wanted to give Elli and her family a goose, eggs, and flour; that guard Elli befriended turned his cheek and allowed the materials to be thrown over the fence. When the Ghetto was being evacuated and loaded into trains, that same guard promised Elli he would keep her poems safe. When they arrive at Auschwitz the man who decided if you live or die if you can work or not, sees and acknowledges Elli and learns that she is only 13; despite the rule saying you must be 16, he tells her she is now 16 and allows her to live and go with her mother. Later in the book, Laura suffers a severe injury and is in the infirmary. Dr.Tauber, who is a friend from Samorja, gives Elli urgent news that “the selection is scheduled for tomorrow morning. All the sick in the Revier beyond three weeks will be taken to the gas chamber,” (Jackson 134). Elli, Mrs. Grunwald, Ilse Grunwald, and Yitu succeed in saving Elli’s mom. When 500 prisoners are shipped to a factory, they are treated like humans. They are given individual showers with warm water AND soap, more than one small meal a day, nice clothes, and even a little kindness. While at the factory, Elli and a guard have a small bond, he has given her bread and even brought her paper