Publisher's Weekly Review
One of 427 boys transported by a Jewish children's relief agency to France from the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in Weimar, Germany, Polish-Canadian humanitarian Waisman recounts his harrowing youth during and immediately following WWII. Waisman's early childhood in a loving family living in a shtetl in south-central Poland was destroyed by the 1939 Nazi invasion, as he and his family and were moved to a Jewish Quarter in 1941. Forced to become a child laborer in a German munitions factory, Waisman was eventually taken by cattle car to Buchenwald. The primary narrative focuses on his experiences following the 1945 liberation of Buchenwald, but frequently flashes back to the years in the camp as well as to his time working in the factory, watching sick and weak workers being killed, and to memories of his prewar childhood. Frequent shifts in time and place can be confusing, and though his descriptions of his Buchenwald companion Elie Wiesel prove intriguing, the number of significant characters can be difficult to track. But Waisman's resistance to--and eventual acceptance of--help and healing makes for a compelling story of recovery from extreme trauma. Ages 9 --11. (May)
Kirkus Review
Following his liberation from the Buchenwald death camp, Romek didn't know how to reclaim his humanity. Romek's childhood in his Polish shtetl of Skarżysko-Kamienna, where he was the youngest of six loving siblings, wasn't wealthy, but it was idyllic. Skarżysko-Kamienna was "forests and birdsong," with "the night sky stretching from one end of the horizon to the other." His family was destroyed and their way of life obliterated with the Nazi invasion of Poland, and Romek lost not just memories, but the accompanying love. Unlike many Holocaust memoirs, this painfully lovely story begins in earnest after the liberation, when Romek was among 1,000 Jewish orphans, the Buchenwald Boys, in need of rehabilitation. Having suffered years of starvation, disease, and being treated as animals, the boys were nearly feral: They fought constantly, had forgotten how to use forks, and set fire to their French relief camp dormitory. Some adults thought they were irredeemable. With endless patience, care, and love, the mentors and social workers around them--themselves traumatized Holocaust survivors--brought Romek back from the brink. Even in a loving and protective environment, in a France where the boys were treated overwhelmingly kindly by the populace, it took time to remember goodness. Parallels between anti-Semitism and racism in the U.S. and Canada are gentle but explicit. Lyrical writing focuses on the aftermath of the Holocaust, a vital, underaddressed aspect of survivor stories. (historical note, timeline) (Memoir. 12-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
This moving and inspiring memoir by 89-year-old Romek "Robbie" Waisman recounts his story as one of more than a thousand Jewish boys, known as the Buchenwald Boys, who survived Buchenwald concentration camp during WWII. Only 14 when he was liberated, Polish-born Waisman and others from Buchenwald, including Elie Wiesel, endured unspeakable horrors. Waisman, the youngest of six siblings, relates how he was forced into a ghetto, banned from attending school, and made to work at age 11 in a munitions factory before being sent to Buchenwald. The stories of his many narrow escapes from death are incredible, and he effectively describes his feelings of disorientation when sent with other boys to France after the war to be helped by a children's aid society. Despite suffering behavioral issues from their experiences, the society believed the boys weren't irrevocably damaged, like others did. Readers will get a glimpse of Waisman's inability to fully process what he'd been through and his rage at not being able to go find his family. Waisman immigrated to Canada at age 17 and only began to talk about his Holocaust experiences in 1984, after hearing about a Canadian teacher who denied the Holocaust. This powerful, life-affirming memoir is essential reading.
