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Julie Serroul's review Oct 07, 2009
Images and memories of the Holocaust haunt its survivors, and many of us
have read books in which we hold the hand of a survivor and walk with
them through horrors that they have no choice but to remember.
In /Through the Eyes of The Child/ we hold the hand of a small child
during, and in the immediate aftermath of, the Holocaust. The events
take place over many of his most formative years and the effect of such
a childhood etches itself onto the reader's heart. Children look at
things very differently than do adults, and so the result is a
heart-wrenching look up into a volatile adult world from a tragic, yet
original viewpoint.
The book is the very intimate, personal journey of a young boy named
Jack, but it also illustrates the far reaching, long-term effect of such
a cruel time in human history upon entire generations. The author of the
book, Jack Veffer, relives his painful childhood and we bear witness. As
young Jack matures in the novel, the reader is riveted by the political
and economic turmoil of the time following the Holocaust.
So often throughout the book the maternal or paternal heartstrings of
the reader are tugged, and you find yourself wishing you could have been
there to make a difference in the lives of the children of the
Holocaust. But this naïve wish is made comfortably and safely from your
armchair in today's time. And although we know that as long as there are
humans there will be inhumanity, from here we can foresee a future,
thanks to the internet and other technologies of immediacy, when such
atrocities would swiftly be brought before the light of day and the
scrutiny of all, and not allowed to fester in the dark...or so we all pray.
Copyright ©2008 by Julie A. Serroul. All rights reserved.
/About the Reviewer: Julie A. Serroul is a fiction writer, [...]
Ted Gushev Sep 05, 2007
" This story has touched me deeply. It tells, in stark fashion, an honest, child's account, of the horrors of the holocaust. Jackie, the main character, does not understand what is happening to him. To him it is normalcy. He bears no grudges but tries to survive, with the help of his brother, in the best way he can. He disregards fact and places his faith in a hope that will never come.
The story, though poignant, has tender moments. The historical details intertwined in the story are useful to provide the reader with a backdrop for easier reference.
Though there have no doubt been countless books written on the holocaust, Through the Eyes of a Child gave me the feeling of actually knowing the young Jackie. Feeling his innocence, his heartache, and his occasional joy. A bundle of human emotions, evoked and wrapped up in small child.
I recommend that anyone seeking information on the holocaust adds this book as a must-read.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Worth reading Jul 18, 2007
This is a work of engrossing honesty, a worthy contribution to the genre of Holocaust memorialization, and a testament to human resilience.
Mr. Veffer, who was only four when the war ended, was not in a camp, and has relatively few memories from the period. This does not mean, though, that the book is not about survival of the Holocaust. What it means, rather, is that we see that survival from an unexpected perspective: the bulk of the book, which treats Veffer's teenage years in postwar Europe, shows how his world is dominated and deformed by the event.
The book opens with the few scattered memories he has from the war years: here episodes that have nothing to do with history (for instance an accident in which he is burned with hot milk) are twined with those which do (the departure of his parents, later murdered in a camp). This mixture lends an especial poignancy to the recollections: the innocence of a child who cannot rank events in significance is amply manifest, and the poignancy is augmented by the starkness of his style.
As he grows older, the line of recollection becomes smoother and richer: we are thus witness, in style as well as in content, to Veffer's growing consciousness. It is here that the book really takes off: in the account of years spent being passed from aunt to aunt, culminating in a long sojourn with a family that does its duty by him while at the same time engaging in routine cruelty. We see a number of other children from this family grow up. Some of them are twisted to the breaking point, some, like Mr. Veffer, emerge with their humanity intact, but none is unaffected: none has grown up as he should.
This aftereffect of the Holocaust is what the book mainly explores. It does so without sentimentality or artificiality, and without heavy theoretical overlay.
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