Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93548 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Synopsis
A total of 15000 children under the age of 15 passed through Terezin camp between 1942-44. Less than 100 survived. In these poems and pictures drawn by the young inmates we see the daily misery of these uprooted children, as well as their courage and optimism, their hopes and fears.

Customer Reviews

Guiding children's minds in the face of abominable evil.
This is one of the most remarkable works to come out of all the Holocaust literature. Both the drawings and paintings and the poetry and occasional prose would be impressive under any circumstances. That they were created in Terezìn makes them all the moreso. After rereading this volume all through my growing up years, I discovered much later as an adult visiting there and going through the exhibits, that there was a larger context to these images and words. There was an entire community of artists and musicians and composers, of teachers and educators who not only pursued their work while incarcerated, they also integrated the children into the creative process. The children were trained to perform an operetta so popular even the Nazis enjoyed it, enough to exploit it for propaganda purposes - contributing ironically to the dark fait awaiting nearly all the children who ever had filled its constantly rotating cast: eventual deportation to Auschwitz. What remains on these pages is a reflection of discipline and maturity in putting words on a page, in fixing the lines just right, in communicating the innocence and the agony of children - precious children - of various ages, trying to save a scrap of sanity, of meaning, of hope and beauty, of memory, in the darkest night of human transgression. These images we are left with are a testimony to art and to the souls of these little ones, that through their work they not be forgotten, and a testimony to the so-called "culture of poets and thinkers" as the Germans insisted on viewing themselves even then, while they systematically and with great zeal went about exterminating every one of these children.

The saddest book you will ever read
How does one review something like this? I only wish I could give it 6 stars, or 10 or a million.

The Holocaust - one of the most incomprehensible and evil acts of the 20th century - like all terrible events is something that we don't like to talk about, in the same way that we turn the TV over when reports showing famime and death in third-world countries come on. This book does not show the horrors explicitly - it shows them through the poems and artwork of the children at Terezin Concentration Camp. Terezin was a stopping point where jews were sent before being sent to Auschwitz. The book tells us that of the 15,000 children sent to Terezin, only 100 survived.

A person would have to have a heart of stone to read this book without the tears flowing. Especially when you see things like the drawing of Jana Hellerova, who was sent to Terezin at the age of 5, and died in Auschwitz at the age of 6.

The title of the book comes from one of the poems in the book, which is deeply, deeply moving. Another remarkable piece of work is 'Terezin' by Hanus Hachenburg who was 13 and died in Auschwitz at 14.

The World must never let this happen again.

I will never forget about this book for as long as I live.
How do you rate a book like this?! There is no way to say whether a child's poem or picture is a 5 or a 10. Every page is exquisite, filled with the shocking reality that childhood existed during the Holocaust, even if brief. I first owned this book as a child. It haunted me then, and still does. What a blessing to rediscover it! I would say this book is appropriate for all. Truly, it is an intimate look at how the Holocaust affected our children. The power evoked from some of the pieces leaves a person very introspectrive. I remember bringing this book into show and tell, both in Hebrew school and elementary school. My teachers were able to use it as a good starting point for the discussion of the Holocaust, and other genocides. Use this book to educate yourself, and use it to educate others.