Uitgeleend Vero

The story recounted in Jona Oberski's novella is tragically familiar - during World War II, the life of a young Jewish couple and their 7-year old son is destroyed when they are taken from Amsterdam to the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen. What sets this book apart from other Holocaust stories is the narrative voice, which is that of the little boy. The simplicity of the narration, brilliantly rendered in Ralph Manheim's translation, fuels the tragic irony of the text. It is very obvious that the boy is describing events which he does not understand at all, whilst we, as readers, share in the adults' horrible secret. The book's brevity adds to its effectiveness - were it any longer, it would have been too harrowing. Oberski is himself a Holocaust survivor which makes this read even more poignant.

This edition forms part of Pushkin Press' "Pushkin Collection"

3.5 * ( )

Kinderjaren is an autobiographical novel. It is a fictionalized account which closely follows reality, but some details, such as the age of the child, have been changed. This short novel describes the deportation of a Jewish family, the death of the father in a concentration camp, and eventually their liberation during a transport at the end of the war. The work is written from the perspective of the child, almost all in the words of and at the level of comprehension of the child.

Kinderjaren has been translated into many languages. Jona Oberski, the author, recently (September 2022), forty-four years after Kinderjaren, published a new work. ( )

The story recounted in Jona Oberski's novella is tragically familiar - during World War II, the life of a young Jewish couple and their 7-year old son is destroyed when they are taken from Amsterdam to the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen. What sets this book apart from other Holocaust stories is the narrative voice, which is that of the little boy. The simplicity of the narration, brilliantly rendered in Ralph Manheim's translation, fuels the tragic irony of the text. It is very obvious that the boy is describing events which he does not understand at all, whilst we, as readers, share in the adults' horrible secret. The book's brevity adds to its effectiveness - were it any longer, it would have been too harrowing. Oberski is himself a Holocaust survivor which makes this read even more poignant.

This edition forms part of Pushkin Press' "Pushkin Collection"

3.5 * ( )

«La sera la mamma mi domandò che cosa avevo fatto durante il giorno. Le raccontai che ero stato insieme ai ragazzi più grandi. Mi domandò se mi prendevano così senz'altro con loro e io le spiegai che ora sì, mi prendevano con loro, perché avevo superato la prova. Ero stato all'osservatorio. Lei mi domandò che cos'era, un osservatorio. Risposi che lo sapeva benissimo, che lì c'erano i cadaveri e che sapeva anche benissimo che mio padre era stato gettato sopra gli altri cadaveri e che non aveva neppure un lenzuolo e io avevo detto ai bambini che ne aveva sì uno, mentre avevo visto benissimo che non ne aveva. Mi misi a strillare che lei era matta a lasciare che lo buttassero così sugli altri cadaveri senza lenzuolo...». (fonte: amazon)