Thomas' story is powerful. I was impressed by how clear his writing is of such a tramatic experience, especially for someone so young. I am amazed that his experiences didn't make him into a hateful or frightened person. Thomas is an inspiration to us all. ( )

This is yet another memoir of the gruesome reality of the holocaust. From personal experience as a child, Thomas Buergenthal, now a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, relates his story in clear prose which makes it a fast, gripping read. Five years old in Czechoslovakia at the start of World War II, Buergenthal remembers being crowded into the ghetto and then, in 1944, feeling “lucky” to escape the gas chambers and get into Auschwitz, where he witnessed daily hangings and beatings, but with the help of a few adults, managed to survive. I found this an excellent book that holds its own with other similar stories I have read; Ivan Klima's short account of his childhood in The Spirit of Prague and Elie Wiesel's Night come to mind as examples, both better in my judgment. However, this is certainly a welcome addition to the literature of the holocaust that we need to keep reading lest the past be forgotten. ( )

Summary: Thomas Buerganthal relates his experiences as a child growing up under the Nazi regime and his survival in the concentration camps, as well as his life after the war.

Review: I've read a lot of Holocaust memoirs, and I agree with Buergenthal when he says that each one is important. When he talks about how US and UK publishers told him "Holocaust stories don't sell", I shared his uneasiness. It is only by telling the story that we can put a face to the numbers, that we can learn more about humanity. The thing that stood out about Buerganthal's memoirs was that I had never read an account of the camps by a child survivor. This isn't that important -- child or adult, the story would have been just as powerful -- but it does make for an interesting difference.

The question, of course, is how much can he remember? Quite a lot, it seems like, although he admits right away that some of the memories may come from his mother's recollection rather than his. Still, it's a startlingly clear portrait filled with the emotions, blind spots, and gut instincts of a child. Buergenthal's older voice narrating the events tempers his experiences with retrospect and wisdom, but the child's voice is not lost.

I do think that the first half of the book about his experiences during the war were more compelling than the second half, where he escapes the camps and learns to rebuild his life. However, the second half does offer valuable insight, especially since Buergenthal stays in Germany. I've often wondered how Jewish people who stayed in Germany after the Holocaust coped with that, and Buergenthal gives me the answer: uneasily.

His experiences as an adult working for human rights ties up the package with a broader, overarching theme about what humans can do to each other.

Conclusion: Worth reading, especially for the child's perspective. ( )

Very moving story of the author's rare survival of Auschwitz as a young child and how it affected the course of the rest of his life. ( )

A Lucky Child: A memoir of surviving Auschwitz as a young boy
by Thomas Buergenthal

This amazing story is about survival, not only his actual, physical survival of the horrors of the Holocaust, but the survival of the human spirit. It is not a "Holocaust story," but a human story; a story of a young boy who, against all odds, lived to tell his story, and went on to be a champion for the rights of humans all over the world.

Written as a recollection of his childhood, the story takes us from the early days of WW II, through his time in Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen, his journey home after the liberation, and his life in post-war Germany. Buergenthal tells the story of the people in this tragic era in human history, not with bitterness, but with honesty and compassion. As an adult, looking back on his experiences, he asks readers, "What is it in the human character that gives some individuals the moral strength not to sacrifice their decency and dignity, regardless of the costs to themselves, whereas others become murderously ruthless in the hope of ensuring their own survival?"

This inspiring book tells the story of only a few of the many who experienced the Holocaust, from a very personal, human viewpoint. A story that could only be told through a child's eyes. A "lucky child" indeed. And a lucky world, that we have people like Thomas Buergenthal, who could survive something so horrible, and go on to fight for the basic rights of people everywhere, in hopes of "creating a world in which our grandchildren and their descendants can live in peace and enjoy the human rights that were denied to so many" of his generation. ( )