They had the comforts of human relationships, subsistence diet and a semblance of shelter. Although they were not placed under armed guard, nor tortured, their existence was a constant ordeal. In Shanghai, the family had chosen to immigrate to avoid maltreatment by the Nazis. Although their situations differed markedly, both were wrenched from their homes, stripped of personal properties, separated from loved ones and confined in inhumane situations.

Both are written in the first-person perspective of a young teen during the Holocaust. I cannot resist the urge to compare this book with Shanghai Diary: A Young Girl's Journey from Hitler's Hate to War-Torn China, which I read prior to this one. I listened to this one on audio and the narrator was excellent. The book is informative and insightful and you certainly feel emotion on reading this account. Every memoir or account like this is unique and essential in helping us remember and experience though words a time of madness, of shocking and shameful atrocities and a time when people turned their backs while their neighbours and friends It is however the first book of a 3 parts series which I do think it is important to point out as I failed to observe this fact before reading the book and really felt the ending rushed until I realised it there are two other books in the series.Ī First hand account of the life of a young teenager in a Nazi concentration camp, a difficult but important story from a first hand view, a compelling read and as always with books written on the Holocaust an important account of what torture and cruelty human beings can inflict on their fellow citizens. I have lived a Thousand Years is a well written, candid, and deeply poignant account of survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. I Have Lived a Thousand Years is a story of cruelty and suffering, but at the same time a story of hope, faith, perseverance and love. Her strong will and faith allow Elli to manage and adjust somehow, but what Elli doesn't know is that this is only the beginning and the worst is yet to come.Ī remarkable memoir.

Then she and her family are forced to leave their house behind to move into a crowded ghetto, where privacy becomes a luxury of the past and food becomes a scarcity. First Elli can no longer attend school, have possessions, or talk to her neighbors. A life in which Elli could lie and daydream for hours that she was a beautiful and elegant celebrated poet.īut these adolescent daydreams quickly darken in March 1944, when the Nazis invade Hungary. It wasn't long ago that Elli led a normal life a life rich and full that included family, friends, school, and thoughts about boys. So wonders thirteen-year-old- Elli Friedmann, just one of the many innocent Holocaust victims, as she fights for her life in a concentration camp.

Genre of i have lived a thousand years