Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - The Librarian of Auschwitz

It must not be an easy task to write a respectful yet entertaining Holocaust story, but The Librarian of Auschwitz is one such novel. The framework of the story is based on a real Jewish girl, Dita Kraus who was 9 years old when the Nazis started their “final solution.” As a 15 year old, Dita became the Librarian of Auschwitz’s, very secret makeshift library that held 8 books. She was part of a secret school in the only camp that housed children, The Family Camp. It was a “front,” so that if a humanitarian group like the Red Cross were to do inspections the Nazis would show this camp where, they believed they were treating the inmates well. Many times survival was just a matter of chance, but on occasion if you were very clever you could workout a way to survive another day. While people lost faith in god and even their fellow man, someone would come along and surprise Dita in their humanity. This is a powerful story of strength and love, love of family and the power of friendship.

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mjwilliamson's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I enjoyed this book, though saying that makes me feel weird. It was very sad and thought provoking. The idea that these were real people, a real place and real stories was probably the most terrifying thing about it all. But that was also what kept me engaged. I needed to know what happened to these people through it all. Their surroundings were so desolate and depressing that it, in a way, made it feel like I needed to protect them. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

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juliannem's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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valeriabee's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I never understood the desire to be entertained by people's traumas? This book is based on the life of Dita Kraus, and the author took some artistic liberties by fictionalizing parts of her story. For this reason, it is hard to tell what is true and what is not. I have seen people complain that the narration lacks emotion or passion, but I don't see why that emotion needs to be exaggerated when you're dealing with the genocide of a people. Despite being uncertain about the accuracy of the details, I found the book to be honest. You get the sense of dejection, anger, fear, hopelessness, helplessness, rebellion, and perseverance from the prisoners of Auschwitz. The book is honest about deception, it is honest about the desire to be hopeful, the desire to escape, the desire to survive. There were disturbing moments when you realize some prisoners would take advantage of the more vulnerable for their own survival. At the end of the day, they were all desperate to survive.

I saw someone on GoodReads that they prefer this novel to The Diary of a Young Girl because they found Young Girl to be boring. It is icky to me to desire entertainment from a book about such terrible traumas. I was moved by the honesty of the narrative, independent of the accuracy. It is not five stars because the weird limbo between reality and fiction confuses the narrative.

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