Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps

A factual biography based on the life of teenaged concentration camp survivor, Jack Mandelbaum. Jack, who was 14 when WW-II began, narrates his struggles about life in the camps, and later, to locate his family. This is supposed to be a recommended read for children.

Opinion: I read this little 140 page book last night and was blown away by the narrative. This is exactly what I would expect of a biographical book. Only facts, no masala. Andrea Warren narrates Mandelbaum's life in such a well-penned manner that you can't help but turn the pages to find out what happens next. Jack's line, "This is a place of endless sorrow. Think only of yourself and those closest to you. If you allow yourself to feel emotion, you will die quickly", shows show more his determination to come out of the concentration camp alive, all the time motivated by the thought of seeing his family. He admits that to survive a concentration camp, you needed a great deal of luck on your side.

Surviving Hitler is supposedly aimed at children who want to know more about concentration camps, but considering how I felt after reading it, I don't think I'll recommend it to any school-going child. It is nightmarish in its details, though it doesn't narrate anything other than what Jack actually saw. I wouldn't give this book to my kids until they start college at least, but yes, I will give this to them some day as a must-read. Recommended for everyone above 15.

Rating: 4.75/5

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Book 200 - Andrea Warren – Surviving Hitler : A boy in the Nazi Death Camps

Jack Mandelbaum, a Holocaust survivor’s story. A breath-taking tale…horrific and all the more terrifying as it is true. Based on interviews with Jack himself, Andrea takes the story of one boy’s journey into adulthood from the early years of the War in Poland to the Concentration Camps of Germany…we get a glimpse of what life was like for one person.

No hyperbole….no extravagant tales of adventure and daring do...no exaggeration….no adding to the tale. The horrors of how minorities were treated and what people did to survive is laid out in front of us in all its realness. With a forward by the man himself suddenly it isn’t just the story on a page show more but a life journey of someone who could be telling it sitting opposite you.

What he lost is awful…what was taken from him all too familiar in the story of the Holocaust. A must read.

As many historians will talk about the cycle of history and as I write this in Sept. 2022 Putin and his Russian thugs are still trying to trample over the freedoms that people like Jack lost so many years ago.

We can never forget the times under Hitler…we can never forget the times Putin would try and drag us back to. Every day, we need a Jack to remind us just how far we have come and how far we have yet to go. In July 1952 Jack became a naturalised US citizen and vowed never to return to Europe.

He sadly passed away in Aug. 2023…aged 96.

‘We are who we are today because of all our yesterdays’ – never a truer word spoken.

Jack Mandelbaum – never forget his name.

Jack Mandelbaum - The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (mchekc.org) show less

This heart wrenching biography about Jack Mandelbaum was quite the tear jerker. A young man that came from a wealthy and loving family was stripped of everything during Hitler’s invasion of Poland. At only thirteen years old, Jack was sent to a dreadful concentration camp and his world was flipped upside down. Disease, beatings, and starvation took the lives of many, but Jack refused to give up. He was determined to fight through the harsh conditions and be reunited with his family. With so much to live for, Jack miraculously made it out alive, only to discover the devastating news about his loved ones. Still, Jack managed to overcome the misery once more and made it his life’s duty to provide aid to the survivors of the tragic show more holocaust. show less

Jack Madelbaum was twelve-years old when the Nazis invaded Poland. His family fled to a relative’s village, leaving his father behind to gather their belongings. They soon received a postcard from their father telling them that he was in a concentration camp. For the next two years, Jack worked hard to support his family by doing a variety of hard labor until he was separated from his family and sent to a labor camp. Jack spent the next three years being transferred from camp-to-camp as he struggled to survive despite the horrendous conditions.

Beautifully written, the story blends Jack’s voice with details about his life during WWII. It is a story of strength, courage and determination. Overall, this book would be a great way to show more introduce and discuss the horrors of the holocaust with children. show less

Andrea Warren writes about the life of Jack Mandelbaum and his experience with the holocaust. He is sent to four different concentration camps, and his main goal is to survive. He does this in whatever way he can, whether it's thinking of survival as a game or remembering his family. Despite horrible conditions, Jack is able to survive, but the rest of his family doesn't. The book includes pictures of the concentration camps and pictures of Jack, and seeing these pictures really brings to life how this was a real person living in this horribly unimaginable scenario.

I have made a habit of never discounting a Holocaust book, or making one story more important than another. Every survivor has their own story to tell, and sure, bits and pieces of them may be repetitive, but that makes it even more important to me. To think that many people were affected by one man's evil dream is horrifying to me, and I am thankful for each survival story that is shared.

This is my first experience listening to an audiobook in this genre, and I wasn't sure how it would go for me. When I first started listening to it, I enjoyed hearing Jack's story, but found myself disliking the narration. I feel that some more development should have been given to the audioversion, because Lockman's voice seemed almost robotic to me. show more Although this was annoying to me, I did not let it interfere with my desire to hear a survivor's story. I mean, it is quite a short audiobook at two and half hours long so it's not hard to stick it out.

I did get confused a couple of times, and maybe the print version would have been different for me. There were instances in the book where Warren is describing Jack's experiences, but then it can change to Jack telling his own story in first person. Sometimes I had to back up a track just to make sure I heard something correctly.

Jack shares his life within the concentration camps with us, as he is shuffled to various camps, looking for friends and any help to keep him surviving. I think the important message I received from Jack's story was when he was talking about the hatred that some of his fellow prisoners had for their captors. Jack decided early on that he would not harbor hatred towards the Germans because that would require too much energy, and he had to preserve all of his energy to survive so he could be reunited with his family when the war is over.

This novel brings us through Jack's entire Holocaust nightmare, from imprisonment, to liberation, to his search for his family. With themes of the Holocaust, survival, and family, this novel can be enjoyed by people of all ages, for book club discussions or personal leisure. We all must never forget this period of history to prevent these crimes from happening again. I don't hesitate in recommending this novel. show less

A decent grade-school introduction the Holocaust. It isn't graphic, but it doesn't whitewash the horrors of the camps, and you really feel for the young protagonist of the story and his friends and family. The book is well-illustrated with photos too. A good pick for elementary and middle school libraries.