I have read many accounts of the Holocaust, including testimonies of survivors. The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz is one of the most compelling of those testimonies, and was at times, both hard to keep reading and yet hard to put down. The text is accompanied by his drawings, now at Yad Vashem. Heart breaking at times. A book I will never forget.

My thanks to Goodreads for selecting me as a winner in the giveaway of this very important book. ( )

In The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz, Geve describes his life in 3 different concentration camps over 22 months. He provides details on the brutality, abuse, starvation, disease and murder devised and planned by the nazis. But his focus is predominantly on how he survived because of the kindness from many fellow prisoners, Jews, and non-Jews alike.

He believes learning in the bricklaying school at Auschwitz helped save his life. And opines that being young, and living/ working with other children and teens, with their natural curiousity, and before prejudice set in made a huge difference. Young prisoners accepted each other more readily than adults would have. That created a more unified, friendly and collaborative group amidst the deprivation and violence surrounding them.

Thomas used bits of paper to draw and write what he witnessed, hiding them in his clothing but when given disinfecting and delousing showers he couldn't keep his clothing, and his art was lost. But thankfully he was able to re-create much of what he saw and experienced when he lived in Buchenwald.

This book acknowledges the massive harm and evil of hate on everyone, perpetrator and prisoner alike. But the moving beauty of The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz is Geve's spotlight on the strength that hope and optimism offers all of us. A little bit of humanity and kindness can go a long way.

Excellent testament to Geve's experiences in a handsome volume.

The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz is the story of a young Jewish lad in Germany who was deported to Auschwitz at the tender age of thirteen-years-old. While it may not have gone as in-depth as some other books I have read, it had a poignancy and rawness to it that touched me very deeply. And because this was written from the point of view of a young teenager, the perspective was somewhat different, moving from naivety to maturity as Thomas learned to adapt and survive in the midst of horrors that were inexplicable. The author provided insights into many different aspects of camp life and explained quite a bit about the children's labour force which is not usually told from this perspective.

One of the highlights of this book is definitely the drawings. Childlike and colourful, they are deceptive in nature as they show the stark nature and the harsh reality of what life was like in the camps. The pictures of people being hurt, tortured, hung, shot, and so on, was utterly heartbreaking. There is something incredibly sad in these pictures: the lives of so many innocent people lost to a war machine that didn't care about what they destroyed, the lives and families they tore apart, and the innocence of childhood that was lost.

The writing style seems simplistic at first, but when you really examine the words and think about them, you realize how profound a lot of the statements really are. Sometimes its the simplicity of things that make the most impact and there were so many times I just had to stop and dwell on what Thomas revealed, in this sort of childish manner, but was in fact quite full of horror. Just the way he wrote about even the roll calls and how those people were never seen from again, all the while looking at the smoking chimneys of Birkenau.makes me shiver. Thomas was very observant and the amount of detail in this book is quite astounding.

Verdict
The Boy Who Drew Auschwitz has become one of my favourite books about the Holocaust, and I teach History and WWII so I am widely read in this subject having read some amazing non-fiction books. Thomas manages to show the hardship and brutality of the camps, but he also shows the humane side through his friendships; there is also this feeling of hope that flows through his words. So many people suffered horribly during this time period, and Thomas has dedicated his life into ensuring that his words, and his experience, as well as others, would never be forgotten. ( )