I don't like history, for the most part. I don't know much about it so I don't read anything that deals with it. World War II and the Holocaust are the exception. I will read anything about the Holocaust. Fiction or not. I will read it and I will never seize to be amazed by it. I know this book is fiction, but I had to keep reminding myself of that with every page.

This book is wonderful. I have never read a Holocaust book that has been so full of hope, religion and God's mercy. It's a book that makes you think and I love those kinds of books. There's social commentary about religion of course, but the author is a Christian so it makes sense that he would bring his worldview into his writing.

I was able to relate to Jacob Weisz. I understand his frustration, I feel his pain and then I meet Luc. Luc is a Christian and a very devout one at that. He has no reason to be in Auschwitz, except that he has been hiding and saving Jews. Why? Why would he risk his life and his family's life for those people? Luc's answers are amazing and simple at the same time. He's the kind of Christian everyone should be, he's not preachy, he's not pushy, he teaches by example, much like the Savior did. I loved him. That said, apart from Jacob and Luc, there isn't much character development.

The format is easy to follow. You get to see everything through Jacob's point of view, meaning you see a lot of things from the point of view of a person who had no idea what was happening in Auschwitz. Things like "I'm sure the people who are going to the left are going to get easier jobs" or "What's that smell?" That was a bit irritating to me because I thought I knew enough to be spared the explanation. That was true in some aspects, but I also learned why the Canada command got its name and I learned about the experiments the doctors were doing, I learned new things about the Jewish Resistance that I didn't know. So the format ended up working out in the end.

The part when Jacob doesn't want to have to escape with Luc because he's not Jewish was powerful. Here's Jacob, a Jew who has been singled out for being Jewish and it's in a terrible place, suffering because of the German's discrimination. Here's Jacob judging Luc and taking away his chance of escape because he's not Jewish. He's, in a small way, doing the same the Germans are doing to him. That scene is so eye-opening for me about human nature. I was glad to see Jacob learn to care for Luc and seeing that it didn't matter where he was from and that he believed other things, he was a person and he was his friend. I loved that.

The last action scene was okay. It was a bit confusing to me and I couldn't picture it as well. That was a bit rushed. I also wanted to find out what happened to Leszek and that was never addressed.

The epilogue made me cry, no, it made me bawl. It's the best ending I have read in a book concerning the Holocaust. People have argued that this book teaches that it's okay that the Jews died because God saved them in the end, but I don't see it that way. I believe in Christ, so I think that this book teaches you to see that God is real and that God is there, and has been there through it all. If you look closely at the little things, you can see that God was there as much as He could. Without getting too much into my personal religious beliefs, I can say that the author did a beautiful job with his epilogue, one that has stayed with me and not in the haunting, depressing way that other books have.

I recommend this book. If you're not a Christian, you might not enjoy its focus on Christianity as much, but the story, aside form religion, is interesting and moves fast.

The Auschwitz Escape - Likewise Book Reviews

4 Reviews