This is an accurate and harrowing first-hand account of the suffering of Elli Friedmann, a 13 year Jewish old girl, and her family, living in Nazi-occupied Hungary in the Spring of 1944. Within a few months, Elli's secure and happy world was rocked by a series of events driven by the Nazi hatred of the Jewish race and culminating in the death and destruction of most of her family.
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Jewish families were forcibly removed from their homes following a period of deprivation and humiliation. They were interned in an overcrowded ghetto prior to their transfer to the death camps of Auschwitz and Krakow. Weak and battered, they were stripped of their clothes, hair and dignity, and forced to exist in unimaginably harsh and unhygienic conditions. The weak got weaker and were ultimately put to death in the notorious gas chambers when it was felt by the SS that they served no further use to the state. Little children and old people often suffered this fate on arrival.
It is only through her courage, strength, teamwork and love for her family and trust in her closest friends that Elli manages to retain her will to live and ultimately survive these atrocities. Although graphic and brutal in parts, the book is written with positive compassion throughout. It is awe inspiring because it demonstrates the absolute strength of the human character in adversity. Elli was a normal, bright teenager no different to any other but her experiences remind us that even the worst suffering can be overcome.
The review of this Book prepared by Fiona Laws
Elli Friedmann is just a little girl, she and her family are Jews. They are taken and put in an prison camp with other Jews by the Nazi's. They are tortured, and many Jews were executed. Her Father was taken away and put in to a seperate camp and so was her brother Bubi. Elli and her mom only had each other and they had to survive togather. I Have Lived a Thousand Years is about her time being persecuted by the Nazi's.
The review of this Book prepared by tessa harvey
This is a heart rendering account of one family's terrible terrible time in the Holocaust and how they survived. The story, an autobiography, begins with Elli L. Friedmann, telling her story. They were a Jewish family.
Eli daydreams of her life as a celebrated poet, has a life rich with family, school and thoughts about boys. But all that changes quickly in March of 1944, when the Nazis invade Hungary. First Eli can longer attend school, have possessions, or even talk to her neighbors. Then she and her family are forced to leave their homes behind and move into a crowded ghetto, where privacy becomes a luxury of the past and food becomes scarcity.
She and her mother are treated very cruelly, and they were separated from the rest of their family. At one point they were forced to shave their heads and wear ugly prison garb.
The least little infraction of the rules in the various prisons they were in would mean the gas chambers.
Eli's mom was badly injured, and almost did not recover. But through strong faith, and a will to survive, they both lived through the tortures they had to endure in a concentration camp.
The review of this Book prepared by Boppy
