This month’s book review is The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield. The book is a true story and while it mostly covers the stories of Fritz and his father, Gustav, in the camps, it also tells the stories of the rest of the Kleinmann family.
The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield
Blurb from The Back Cover
“Everyone thinks tomorrow it will be my turn. Daily, hourly, death is before our eyes …”
Gustav and Frtiz Kleinmann are father and son in an ordinary Austrian Jewish family when the Nazis come for them. Sent to Buchenwald concentration camp in 1939 they survive three years of murderous brutality. Then Gustav is ordered to Auschwitz. Fritz, desperate not to lose his beloved father, insists he must go too. And though he is told it means certain death, he wont back down. So it is that father and son together board a train bound for the most hellish place on Earth.
This is the astonishing true story if horror, love and impossible survival.
My Thoughts on The Book
I went into The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz expecting it to be a difficult read. Now don’t get me wrong, the book doesn’t hold back on the horrors the people in the concentration camps faced, but it is so much more than a doom and gloom book.
It tells of the bad – the torture, the murder, the starvation and the inhumane treatment – but at the same time, it is a story of love and bravery and yes, hope.
Fritz and Gustav’s mostly positive outlook and their will to live is inspiring and I started to feel that every day they survived was another small victory for them. I loved how both men refused to let their circumstances define them and become the animals they were treated like.
Conclusion and Rating
I think books like this one are important because we can never ever forget what happened in those camps, and I think when the stories are presented this way than as a non fiction book, where we get to know and like the characters, they make a much bigger impact.
This book is well written and for all of the horrors contained in it, by the end of the book, you really appreciate that somehow, despite everything, it’s a story of love that knows no bounds. 5/5
You can grab your copy of The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz here.
Have you read The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments 🙂
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I’ve not heard of this – it sounds interesting (tho a little upseting…) Will check out. #AnythingGoes
It is a bit upsetting, but it’s also inspirational to see their strength and how they don’t give up
Sounds like a compelling read.
It really is!
Wow sounds like an interesting book! #anythinggoes
It is 🙂
This seems to be a very compelling story about a horrific era in world history. One can only feel deep sadness for the unthinkable suffering and horrors the father and son go through. I only hope that love conquers all and they survive Auschwitz together. I have read several other books on this topic.
It’s really compelling and although they suffer so much, there is so much hope in the story too
Sounds like a very interesting read. I recently read the Tattooist of Auschwitz which was also eye opening and awful, but the underlying themes of hope and love also prevailed. Not long after finishing the book I took a trip to Krakow and seeing the effects that the war had in this area are deeply saddening. #AnythingGoes
I have The Tattooist one in my tbr pile. I’d love to go and visit Krakow – it would be really interesting, but I think it would be so sad as well.