Thanks to My Mother

This book carries you through this Author's life time ! Start to finish it is both horrific and spellbinding, keeping you turning to that next page . I love that it was just as she wrote it, including her hand written page numbers on the sides. A MUST READ if this is a subject you are deeply committed to understanding . No one enjoys this subject, but I read because I want to Honor these people and what they survived.

This is an incredibly well-writtten and involving account of how young Susie Weksler was able to survive the Shoah because of her mother's determination, love, courage, and hope. For someone who was as young as Susie was when they were in the Vilnius Ghetto and later the three camps, there are a lot of details about just about everything; these people, places, and events are doubtless so strong and vivid because one is more likely to remember traumatic memories than mundane everyday ordinary things, even at a young age. One really comes to feel for and to know Susie's many friends and family members, and feels sorrow that so few of them managed to survive. It even works in the other way; there were many times I just wanted to shake some sense into her older stepsister Dolka, who didn't seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation the way she was acting on numerous occasions, like she didn't want to preserve her own life even if it meant doing things like eating disgusting-looking soup or working in indoor quarters despite how she wasn't feeling very well. One also gets a vivid picture of how a child as young as Susie was able to survive three camps; there were actually a number of children in the first camp, Kaiserwald, but before long Susie was the only one left. And she didn't think it was all part of some elaborate game and stay unaware of what was really going on, untouched by the horror around her, like the kid in the unrealistic movie 'Life Is Beautiful'; this is a real portrayal of what life was like for one of the lucky few children who made it through the camps. She was worked as hard as any adult, be it in the battery factory, standing naked in the snow for hours before starting a death march, or getting beaten by guards. It's also a change of pace to read about a Lithuanian survivor; most Shoah memoirs are written by people from other places in Europe, so here we have a different perspective and experience, such as being transported from camp to camp by ship, the selection taking place in a graveyard during the liquidation of the ghetto, and a camp where a number of young children were initially allowed entry to.

Wow. This book was so good that it was at the same level as Anne Frank's diary. Susie Weksler is only 8 years old when the war starts. She has to move many times. As the war goes on many horrendous things happen. Susie has seen more than 20 people shot right in front of her eyes as a 9-10 year old. Susie has to disguise herself as an adult to keep herself alive and at one point has to pretend her mother is her sister. This book was very, very, sad and out of Susie's huge family only her mother, her uncle, and she herself survived. The story does stick by the title, Susie's mother is the one who always keeps going, she is the one who always pushed Susie to keep going till the end of the miserable war.

This is a great but sad book because of the significant details on how life was being Jewish during the Holocaust. In this book Susie and her mother escape death but are sent to various concentration camps to work. There are many close encounters for both of them, especially Susie. Susie's mother was very courageous and persistent so that's how they both stayed alive during the Holocaust.

I am in the 7th grade. Most people might think i'm too young to read this, but belive me, i've read much more mature stuff. You should also believe me when i say that this is a really good book. I read this for an English report and i will never forget what i read. what the author went through was a horrifying experience and i hope that something like the holocaust never happens again.