I haved lived a thousand years: growing up in the holocaust literature review examples

I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust
1.
Elli’s life as a child is somewhat nice – her mother is not compassionate, but she hopes to go to prep school in Budapest, and become a poet. She gets to play in the Danube all day with her friends, showing that she feels a kinship to them.
2.
Elli and Bubi are both young, exuberant children at the beginning of the book; however, Bubi is much more favored by their mother, and he lives a much more exciting life outside of town.
3.
Elli and her mother are incredibly contentious at the beginning of the book, as Elli’s mother constantly criticizes her, and Elli resents that. Over the course of the book, however, they bond over their need to survive and their love for each other.
4.
Elli has to give up her yellow bicycle, showing just how the Jews have to give up everything in their lives because of their relocation by the Nazis. Her father shows her where he buries their jewelry and possessions, so that they can keep them hidden and come back for them someday.
5.
The family is moved by cart to the ghetto, where it is cramped, dirty and awful. They are given filthy clothes to wear, and food is scarce. It is an awful place and experience for Elli and her family.
6.
Aunt Serena is a member of the family who is eventually separated from Elli at Auschwitz, never to be seen again. Aunt Celia is another family member who is found by Elli, and they manage to get her switched into her camp with her and her mother.
7.
Elli absolutely hates the gold star that she has to wear, while Bubi loves it and shows it off as a badge of honor. I believe that Elli’s is the right reaction, because it shows the proper horror that occurs when someone is forced to do something against their will to mark them as a specific race.
8.
Elli believes that people will be much more outraged at the law than they are; she does not see anything wrong with Jews and Christians speaking to each other, but her friends and neighbors seem to take the news with acceptance.
9.
When the women arrive at Auschwitz, they are tossed around, yelled at, and treated with disdain. Elli, being told she is now sixteen, is separated from Aunt Serena and her mother. I think this happens because they want to keep young women separated in order to keep for potential rape.
10.
Elli gives her notebook to a young soldier she feels she trusts to take care of it for her. He seems kind, and so she trusts him with the notebook. She never sees the notebook again, but wonders if the Hungarian soldier still has it.
11.
She decides that she does not have the right to go self-indulgently chasing after her own notebook, as that would be selfish and rude.
12.
I believe there is plenty of hope in this story – the terror of the concentration camps is offset by the bonds that Elli has with her mother, brother and family members.
13.
The title ” I Have Lived a Thousand Years” implies that Elli has gone through so much in her life, it would match the miseries of someone who lived a thousand years. It is meant to show just how much she had to endure and survive.