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5 comments about Hope Is the Last to Die: A Coming of Age Under Nazi Terror : A Classic of Holocaust Literature.

1. One of the BEST first hand accounts of the holocost and life inside Auschwitz. I bought my copy at Auschwitz and every detail from the book is superimposed with the memory of the camp as it is today. The imagery the author uses is mesmerizing. This is a truly moving story full of hardship and courage. Even through all of the trials and tribulations of life in the camp of death, the author shows us the beauty of companionship and hope. I wondered at this book. How one individual could servive those around her dying and still have the desire to live. It is through the hope and courage that she can live and it is through this book that the problems of my life seem so insignificant.



2. I have read many books about the holocaust, but this one is special to me. After having the honor of actually meeting the author and hearing her story told first-hand (twice), I felt like I had to get her book. I did, and it changed me. Reading it was an experience which was almost too difficult for me and yet, I didn't want it to end.

   It is written like a story -you go through everything she goes through, you sort of relive it with her. That is why, when you finish the book, you feel like she is your best friend. I wish she was.




3. I have read many books and seen many movies about the Holocaust; have visited Auswchwitz and Dachau, but I have never felt the horror of the camps as I did while reading this book. The reader is there with Ms. Birenbaum, feeling the cold, the hunger, the constant terror and rage. It is unimaginable that this woman survived 6 years of inhuman treatment--but she did.

   Because Ms. Birenbaum describes her own experiences as a Polish Jew coming of age during the Third Reich, she has much to teach us. The author expresses her emotions so simply and beautifully that the reader feels joy at her triumphs and while crying at her losses, emotional pain and humiliation. This remarkable woman, who was a child (between 9 and 15 years of age during the war), was wise, strong, resourceful and brave beyond all expectations. She watched almost all those she loved disappear. While standing in line at a "selection" at the Majdanek Camp, she turned around to talk to her beloved mother who had for years emotionally sheltered her young daughter from the inevitable (a la "Life is Beautiful"), and found her gone. She never saw her again, never said good-bye. In the camps she created new families for herself, only to loose these people, as well. Most touching was Ms. Birenbaum's first experience of falling in love and the loss of that man. And through all this, she was never able to mourn. Emotions had to be pushed deep inside because the focus had to be on survival.

   On several occasions, the author expressed her need for dignity and self-respect by standing up to her captors and, unbelieveably, was not shot for her defiance. She describes her indifference to the pain of others as a way of coping with the near certainty that she would loose them, while also expressing her longing to be touched and held and by someone.

   After reading this book, I think about all the little annoyances of daily living, and how meaningless they are. I wonder how many of us, in our pre-teens, could have dealt with the protracted horror of the ghetto and camps as Ms. Birenbaum did. How many of us would have had the will and fortitude to live through the experiences described in this book? Ms. Birenbaum, you were a remarkable child and are a courageous woman!




4. I also bought this book in Auschwitz. I read is as soon as I bought it. While touring through the concentration camps you see all the horrible things that these people had to go through. But when you read the book, you experience the whole thing again, but with more heart. You go through the steps with Halina, you cry and you can almost feel what she felt. She is a remarkable woman for not possessing hatred, instead she encourages love and wisdom. Because of Halina I have become a more understanding person.



5. Imagine trying to survive 3,153,600 minutes of hell, with each minute seeming as if it was a year long. That's what Helina Birenbaum describes in her autobiography about surviving the holocaust, Hope is the Last to Die.
   The book and its author are remarkable, as Joan Martorelli, notes in her review on Amazon.com (June 15, 2003). Going over the descriptive passion Halina writes with, Ms. Martorelli introduces ideas about how an everyday person could cope with the Holocaust and also looks back on times she visited concentration camps.
   One point that Ms. Martorelli makes in this review is that her descriptions of the trauma, the joy, and the anger are so vivid and expressive that they simply draw you in and make you feel as though you are almost there with her as she goes through the manic changes of emotion. I completely agree with this. I also think (though the writer of this review doesn't contradict this) that it would be impossible to fully experience any pain Halina went through just by reading a book about the troubles, But acknowledging that brings us one step closer to comprehending.
   Halina did not get a chance to grieve about a lot of the loss faced. She was not able to sit down and cry even for a minute because it would jeopardize her chances of survival. In the loss of both her dear mother and of her first love, she isn't able to say goodbye. They are both taken so suddenly and forcefully. She had to tune out her urges to mourn. If she had not done that, I believe she would have died along side the millions of other persecuted.
   A book so filled with love, character, hope, and that's so easy to follow and get caught up in should not be kept of your bookshelf. Hope is the Last to Die fits that description perfectly, and I recommend this book to everyone.
   
   Grand Rapids, MI

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