Wow. It's hard to find words to describe this book. Mr. Leyson's memoir chronicles his experiences in the Holocaust as a Polish Jew. His survival is nothing short of a miracle, and is due in large part to Oskar Schindler, Leyson's amazingly close family, some luck, and his incredible bravery and will to live. There were a few times while reading this book that I actually felt physically ill. We all know what happened in the Holocaust. We know what the Nazis did, and that it was horrible. But reading a first-hand account like this made it feel more real to me than it ever has. It's beyond horrible. We need to read books like this, so nothing like the Holocaust ever happens again. One part particularly stood out to me. At one point in his ordeal, Leyson asked the cooks to save the water they used to clean out the soup pots. (Soup consisted of water, salt, pepper, and a few slivers of potato skin.) He would take that water, and set it on the steam pipe in the factory. When the water evaporated, sometimes there would be tiny bits of dehydrated food left in the bottom. This, to him, was a treat, and this occurred during one of the brighter spots of his ordeal. Simply an amazing story.
