Reviews

All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein

kindertchr's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

sad, insightful look on a jewish family as the war approaches and slowly takes away her family.

fuzzkins's review

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

adrien_dante's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

elfbread's review

Go to review page

5.0

Wow, what an amazing book. One of the best Holocaust books I have ever read.

elles_belles_29's review

Go to review page

Only not rating because I don’t think it’s right but gosh was this book so beautifully written about the tragedy’s that so many people faced.

leach2225's review

Go to review page

5.0

.

robhood's review

Go to review page

5.0

Many years ago, I visited Yad Vashem in Israel and for the first time learned about The Holocaust. I immediately bought books about the horrors of that time. Through the years, I have read many books about this subject. The book "All But My Life" was the best written of all of them! I am certain that I will be forever haunted by memories of it.

jl75mtl's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

5.0

carolineinthelibrary's review

Go to review page

5.0

What a powerful, heartbreaking story. Gerda Weissmann Klein's memoir of her life under Nazi occupation is frightening and gut wrenching, but at times uplifting. She doesn't fail to include those who made kind gestures throughout her life, some that she attributes to her survival. In the Epilogue, she discusses her move to Buffalo, NY (just an hour away from where I grew up) and her later move to Arizona (where I reside now) and I was shocked I'd never heard her story. She is easily one of the Holocaust stories that should be revered as Anne Frank's.

I highly recommend this to anyone interested in history or the Holocaust.

piedwarbler's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

An outstanding recount of the events of a young Jewish woman’s experience of the war as lived by Gerda Weissmann.
It gives an account of the full and unspeakable horror of the Holocaust. Gerda lost her parents, her brother, her friends, and the man who longed to marry her.
I think this is the most moving account of the total horror of war I’ve read. As Wilfred Owen said of WWI, ‘My subject is war, and the pity of war.’ This is about the pity of the Holocaust. The total cold brutality of the Nazi machine that led to the deaths of everyone Gerda held dear.
I cried and cried. Gerda asks many times, why? Why? And yet. And yet. Gerda shows courage, resilience, faith, love, charity, and hope. And several times, by chance, she survives when she might easily have been murdered. She promises her father she will never give up. And she never does. What an example of courage and faith.
A remarkable testimony. It left me thinking how many thousands and millions of untold stories of equal bravery and courage there must be.