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A review by katieejayne
Auschwitz and After by Charlotte Delbo
5.0
It's always difficult reviewing books that pertain to the Holocaust. Part of me doesn't feel qualified and part of me wonders if in some way it's disregarding the author's experience. With that in mind, as I mentioned in my 'review' for Night by Elie Wiesel (here) this will be more a discussion.
Auschwitz and After details the experience of Charlotte Delbo who was a French Resistance fighter that ended up in Auschwitz and a few camps before eventually being liberated. Interestingly, she was not Jewish and yet suffered similar but not exactly the same treatment. Within the book, she herself acknowledges that whilst the POW suffered terribly the Jewish prisoners suffered infinitely more so.
The book is separated into three difficulty sections, during Auschwitz, leaving Auschwitz and entering a different camp and ultimately the experience of those who managed to go home. It's a harrowing, but beautiful read. The chapters are broken into bits of prose, vignettes and poems. It's strange to call a book on this topic beautiful but it truly was.
The first book, None of Us Will Return was the piece I had to read for my course but I ended up finishing the book simply because I was captivated by Delbo's writing.
A truly astounding work.
www.a-novel-idea.co.uk
Auschwitz and After details the experience of Charlotte Delbo who was a French Resistance fighter that ended up in Auschwitz and a few camps before eventually being liberated. Interestingly, she was not Jewish and yet suffered similar but not exactly the same treatment. Within the book, she herself acknowledges that whilst the POW suffered terribly the Jewish prisoners suffered infinitely more so.
The book is separated into three difficulty sections, during Auschwitz, leaving Auschwitz and entering a different camp and ultimately the experience of those who managed to go home. It's a harrowing, but beautiful read. The chapters are broken into bits of prose, vignettes and poems. It's strange to call a book on this topic beautiful but it truly was.
The first book, None of Us Will Return was the piece I had to read for my course but I ended up finishing the book simply because I was captivated by Delbo's writing.
A truly astounding work.
www.a-novel-idea.co.uk