This was a pretty quick read, definitely one for YA, maybe a little younger than high school in the difficulty of reading, but still the topic or the age of the characters at the time and things they thought about could be considered more high school. But it you really read Anne Frank’s diary, you know she was definitely the age and thinking about things sometimes we think middle school age shouldn’t be reading, even if they are all thinking and wondering about some of that anyway at that age.

But I digress from my review. World War II and the holocaust especially is something that when I actually spend time reading about or thinking about, it’s just so hard to imagine the enormity of what happened. Yeah, I’ve seen the pictures, and I’ve been the holocaust museum in DC. But every single time I read or hear about the experience from an actual survivor it just completely messes up my brain trying to even imagine what it could be like. Some of the things the author talks about, how in the camp they were able to ignore or learned to not be in so much pain from things like that, and then once they had been liberated immediately those pains and hunger came back. Thinking of how the body adjusts to things in even that type of situation, the hunger that I can’t imagine. Being able to have hope in the concentration camp and even while on the march or while they were forced to ride on top of a train car to protect weapons. Yet when they were finally free it was hard to hold onto that hope thinking about things they’d lost. 

It’s hard to write a review of a memoir like this. Just know that it is one worth reading if you want the basic story. I feel like I would probably want to read the full adult memoir called The Choice at some point. If you’ve read the adult memoir, I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.