A review by duskk_novels
The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

 How do you win a war that never ends ?
 
From these pages emerge the soul-crushing, mind-shattering history of a father and son who spent the entirety of WW2 in a war of their own against Germany's concentration camps. In this harrowing account, we relive Gustav and Fritz Kleinman surviving 5 different concentration camps, Fritz willingly boarding the Auschwitz train that contained his father to protect him and the inexplicable turns of fate that have kept their body and soul together. With a powerfully moving prose, haunting imagery and world-building, we meet a diverse set of people who played a role in the Kleinmann's survival and their place among the resistance against the twisted ideology and puppets of the Reich. We also learn of the life led by the Kleinmanns before and after the war, their attempts at escape and the tragic experiences and ends met by family and fellow prisoners. This story was supported and supplemented by Gustav's diary that contains his real-time thoughts and the horrifying series of events that unravelled during his prisoner years 
 
With educational insights into Anschluss, the strategic operations of concentrations camps and the unbelievable scope of human evil, this is undoubtedly, one of the most disturbing accounts of the holocaust. I have learnt so much from this book including the 'cold clockwork execution' of the SS and the camps, the diabolical 'programmes' infused to commit mass murders and the incredible events that led up to liberation. A phenomenal, unforgettable story and educational tool, unveiling prisoner-life, camp operations, human suffering and survival, and the irreversible damage left on the world by Hitler's Reich

I loved every word of this story, especially Fritz and his courage and unbreakable devotion to his father that extended to him putting his number in to board the same train that would condemn them both to endless suffering and nightmares