Dobryd Book

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.

This is a hard book to review because there are two ways to look at the book. The first way, is that of a thrilling narrative. Sadly, it isn't really that. The book is a memoir and details Ann Charney's memories of survival when she and her family were able to come out of hiding after the Russians invaded German controlled Poland in the waning days of WW II. Charney was under five when she and mother went into hiding and roughly five when they were "freed". The book covers her mother and aunt's journey after liberation. There isn't a sense of danger or reflection that happens in the most well known Holocaust memoirs. There would be some justice in terming the narrative boring.
However, works and memoirs(autobiographical novels included) like this are important for a variety of reasons. The first is that as widely read as Frank's narrative is, her family is unusual because of the number of people that not only were related but were in hiding together. Charney's book details the ending of a far more common experience. The second is that any memoir detailing what people go though in time is historically valuable. In order to get a view of what life was like, the memories of "everyday" people are far more important and valuable than those who for whatever reason are able to transcend the everyday. Finally, the memoir of what her family went though after liberated is important for it does show what happened after. Too often in history classes, at least pre-college, the aftermath of Holocaust is ignored outside of the Cold War, division of Germany, and the founding of Israel. Charney's memoir is a book that details this. True, it details this though memories of a narrator who was a young child at the time, but those memories are important. For instance, there are the stories Charney's aunt told her, there is a description of her making friends and playing with items, such as photos, that people were forced to leave behind (or had them taken). There is the encounter her mother has with the woman who hid them. All these are everyday. All are necessary to get a clear picture of the time.
Important book that allows the reader to form a more detailed picture of the time.