Uff!
I still find it very hard to grasp that it isn’t fiction - because the things Lale and Gita and thousand others had to endure are just so terrible and horrifying.
To think that they had to weigh their options and do things they would’ve never done, that lay heavy on their conscience after, is heartbreaking.
Lale helped many in Birkenau and Auschwitz but he also had to step over some and do unjust things in order to safe his life and the lives of his beloved. I can’t even begin to imagine how that must have felt, and I think he was very brave for telling his story.
The 2nd world war has always been a point in history that interested me, and reading this book for sure enlightened me about many things that happened 80 years ago. But to read how soldiers would casually play football with the imprisoned, make sick jokes and then go and shoot them a few days down the line has my head racing with thoughts. It (the holocaust) is so twisted and perverse.
Although the 2nd world war is on highschool’s curriculums students are mostly too young to grasp the full extent of it, imo - plus the most horrific details tend to not be covered in history class. And even though I’ve researched a lot myself since then it’s still something that has me shaken and in disbelieve (which is good, as this level of cruelness and violence is never something I want to get used to).
Which is why I was thankful for the story about Lale and Gita which was one of the few things I could put my hope in. It was heart-mending to read how they found each other and how they chose to live their lives after the war.
Ultimately, it feels wrong to call this book a ‘highlight’, as the setting and underlying theme and subject of it is just so very gruesome, but in view of the way this book was written, how it’s been researched, how transparent and eye-opening it’s been, I’ll still count it a highlight.
