After reading some quick and easy to read books I was looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into something a bit more in-depth and intriguing and I certainly picked the right book.

This is the story of Sara Leibovitz, a 16-year-old Jewish girl and a true story and it takes you on her journey, through some very tough and emotional times. But this young lady had the courage to keep going and so the story continued through her daughter Eli who brought to us the affects these events had on her.

This is a truly engaging read, a memoir that is like no other memoir I have ever read. The courage and faith, the strength through fear, hard times and struggles and the emotion that flows off the pages of this book is what makes it worth reading. We need these stories.

I could not put this book down, even though it was so emotional it was a story that captured my heart and I will most certainly be reading it again and recommending it for sure.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

1944 Poland
A truly gripping and horrifying Holocaust portrayal.
The brutality of war is always heartbreaking to read about. But, we must read about it and know this is what happened.
All in all, a powerful story that will have you in tears while reading.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This is a story we must never forget. It was well told, but sometimes lacked depth, as if the young girl was writing it. The story, as are all the ones from the holocaust are, was heartbreaking, but I felt it was also one of survival (and hope?). Having visited Auschwitz, I could visualise the setting, if not to the horrific full extent. I can’t say I ‘enjoyed’ it, but I would recommend it.

I loved how this book was woven together through the points of view of the survivor and her daughter. I recently visited Auswitch so I found this book particularly poignant.

A memoir of a survivor, the only one from her family. Heartfelt and heartbreaking. We see life before and after Auschwitz’s.
Very compelling.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Sara is separated from her mother and little brothers on the ramp at Auschwitz, never to see them again. The struggle for survival of this young girl is heartstoppingly and sensitively written. The horrors she endured are mind numbing, but her hope and wish to survive are transcendent. Recommended reading.

It’s been a while since I picked up a memoir and Leibovits’ and Elboim’s dual perspectives are unique from mother/daughter points of view on how the Holocaust affected not only them individually, but as a family.

Of course, the subject matter is horrific and devastating as we read Sara’s true account of her suffering, her loss, and her incredible strength to survive one of the most heinous and reprehensible war crimes in the history of the world. From the long harsh train journey to Auschwitz to the joyful, yet terrifying, liberation by the Russian army, the reader witnesses a healthy and innocent 16-year-old girl become a resourceful survivor full of despair with a certain measure of hope. Sara’s faith remained strong in the death camp even with the daily horrors she endured.

Sara’s daughter, Eti, also describes her life with both parents being Holocaust survivors and how she embraces her mother’s courage and perseverance to give back to her community and family.

Beautiful poetry is interspersed throughout the book. Also, the authors’ dedication to their family members who perished is listed in memoriam at the end: A true heartbreaking testament of how a family was gone in a frightening instant.

I will never understand this appalling time in our history, but it needs to be kept at the forefront of people’s minds considering the growing racism and xenophobia in America.

I appreciate Sara and Eti sharing their personal journeys through such a difficult time, and I encourage one to read about this important time in history.

Thank you to Ms. Leibovits and Ms. Elboim for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review.

Stories about the second world war always fascinate me and I often seek out books that share stories of survivors.
The Girl Who Survived Auschwitz was a different kind of story; it mixed the story of a survivor with the experiences of a second generation and how it affected her life as well as what it was like growing up with a father and mother who survived Auschwitz.
The jumps in time made it difficult to follow along at times which caused me to put the book to the side a few times. Nonetheless was it a gripping story from a women who survived Hell on Earth and lost all her family members.
What threw me off at the end was that Sara Leibovits, when she finally returned to home, decided to move in with her cousin and eventually marry him.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in return for my honest opinion

Auschwitz, criminal-acts, cruelty, cultural-differences, cultural-exploration, cultural-heritage, family-history, Germans, hate-crimes, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, history, history-and-culture, holocaust, human-rights, Hungary, Israel, mass-murder, memories, Never-Again, Never Forget, PTSD, relatives, religious-history, violence*****

This book is the work of the woman who became the daughter of the teen who went to Auschwitz and became the very oldest of her entire family. Eti Elboim has learned to associate particular years of her life with the happenings of her mother Sara Leibovits who was taken, along with her family, to Auschwitz in 1944 before D-Day and the time after liberation. They live in Israel, but the message remains and is strengthened by narratives like this for whom those events are only too real.
I requested and received an EARC from HarperCollins UK/One More Chapter via NetGalley. Thank you
NEVER FORGET
@AuschwitzMuseum

Just wow! Based on a true story. A powerful story of grit, determination and the drive to survive. There have been many books on this terrible and horrifying place. This one was extra poignant as it's the story of the authors mother. Superb.

The Girl Who Survived Auschwitz - Eti Elboim & Sara Leibovits

Reading Sara’s story was honestly heartbreaking. It tells the story of a sole survivor of her, loosing her mother, father and siblings in Auschwitz.
It is truly horrible reading about the horrors that people had to endure but their stores are so important. I strongly encourage everyone to read this book

Thanks @netgalley & @onemorechapterhc for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review

I received an advanced reading copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins, and the authors Eti Elboim and Sara Leibovits.
Completely raw and gripping and a fascinating presentation of different generational experience of the holocaust. I particularly enjoyed the dual perspective of mother and daughter. Powerful, heartbreaking and inspiring, would highly recommend for anyone interested in learning more about one of the darkest periods of human history.

I really hate to give such a low rating for a book based on someone’s life experiences but the timeline and writing of the book was not for me. I feel like I was reintroduced to the same people over and over which made it hard to keep the characters straight. The timeline was a lot of back and forth and all over the place which only complicated the reading experience.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

A unique look at the Holocaust, first from the survivor, then from the child. Right now, in our province, the effects of generational trauma are a hot topic as it should be. The poetry was my favorite aspect of the book. Poetry is the music of our souls and allows our true emotions to get out. I'm glad we were allowed privy to personal thoughts and feelings.

What really hit home was that the true eyewitnesses are almost gone. I believe that's why reading is important. That's how stories of each generation get told, and hopefully, atrocities like the genocides WW2 can teach us never to let this happen again. Sadly swastikas have become a common sight in North America, and we should all be scared and mad.

This was a really powerful and touching memoir. It is incredible to see how a person can go through so much pain and suffering and still come out strong, It is so inspiring to see a woman that survived something so terrible in the hands of other human beings and still can help others in various circumstances and build a good life for her family.

It was so hard to read these experiences at some points, that I had to put the book down and reflect. It's so crazy to think that these terrible things happened here in europe less than 100 years ago. Also, she was only 16 when she went through all of that, I can't even begin to imagine the pain, I cried so many times but in the end the book leaves us with a beautiful and inspiring message.

This book really made me think about life in general, how I can appreciate my life so much more even with the bad times and how we can do the good in a world that doesn't always reward good people, just doing the good is enough.

I think everyone should read this story.

A truly touching and inspiring memoir from an amazing brave woman and her daughter. What happened in Auschwitz and the other camps during WWII should not be forgotten and to read someones real experiences, told in their own words is unforgettable. Sara's courage, resilience and determination to win and live her life both for her lost family and her new family is incredible. I love the two timelines, we learn not just of Sara's life but that of her youngest daughter being brought up in Isreal as the child of two Holocaust survivors.

This is a story that should be read by everyone.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read The Girl Who Survived Auschwitz.

How anyone can read this memoir of a 16 year old Jewish woman who ended up being the sole survivor of her entire family after arriving at Auschwitz and not have tears streaming down their face is totally inconceivable to me. Sara watched as her mother and younger siblings were herded into a different line. She was devastated to learn where their line was headed. Her father was chosen for the most unfortunate job there but they managed to make connections occasionally until her father met with his own death.
Eti Elboim shares her mother, Sara Leibovit’s, story running parallel to Eti’s own story 70 years later. So loved their attitude during their visit to Auschwitz years later. So loved that Sara survived and ultimately thrived in spite of her imprisonment at Auschwitz. Having read many books about the conditions at Auschwitz I learned new information that just made the treatment of these poor human beings even more abhorrent…the Nazi’s use of bromine, and their abandonment at Auschwitz at the end of the Nazi occupation. Tears were running freely down my face during much of this incredibly moving account.
My sincere appreciation to both Sara and her daughter, Eti, for having the strength to share Sara’s horrific ordeal, One More Chapter for their wisdom in publishing this incredibly moving memoir, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this heart wrenching description of life at Auschwitz, which will be published on September 5th.

"Auschwitz is a gaping hole in humanity's conscience, one that can be filled only by increasing light and goodness in the world"

I have read countless personal memoirs and fictionalized historical stories about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and yet, each story fills the hole to a complete picture. Every voice is a new one. And every book worth the read. This one has a flip between a survivor and her daughter, the voice of the generation that followed...and allows a fuller picture of what it means to be a child of a survivor.

I found I wanted even more from the daughter's voice, craving the picture of her childhood where she learned of what happened in Auschwitz and the vibrations that happened even decades later as the survivor never leaves the pain behind. Let us never stop reading these novels. These memoirs are the ones that keep all the voices alive.

"𝑯𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒍, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆."
- 𝑺𝒂𝒓𝒂 𝑳𝒆𝒊𝒃𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒕𝒔

"The Girl Who Survived Auschwitz" begins with the two authors explaining to the reader why they wrote this memoir. Their explanations are slightly different, but both are very emotionally moving and are guaranteed to give you goosebumps.

Written by Sara Leibovits, a Holocaust survivor who spent a year in Auschwitz at 16 years old, and her daughter Eti Elboim, this book is the perfect blend of a survivor story along with her daughter's important story about growing up as a second-generation survivor. Both of their stories weave together in alternating POVs, with beautiful poetry sprinkled about, all flawlessly translated by Esther Frumkin.

I very much appreciated all of the footnotes throughout the book, which explained many Jewish words and customs that I have no previous knowledge of.

I highly recommend reading this memoir. I finished reading it with a newfound sense of love and compassion. And with that, I also believe that everyone should read this book.

" 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚, 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒅, 𝑻𝒐 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌, 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒛𝒆, 𝑻𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒔𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏! 𝑾𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒕. "
- 𝑬𝒕𝒊 𝑬𝒍𝒃𝒐𝒊𝒎

Thank you, HarperCollins UK, for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. "The Girl Who Survived Auschwitz" will be available as an eBook on September 5th and in paperback on September 14th.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter for allowing me to read this remarkable memoir before it hits the shelves. And a special thank to Sara and Eti for sharing your story with us. You won!

Sara was just 16 when she was deported to Auschwitz. She looked on in a state of confusion as she was separated from her mother and siblings. This is her story of survival and hope. She shares the pages of this book with her youngest daughter, Eti…a second generation Holocaust survivor as she grows up in the state of Israel with not one but two survivors for parents.

While I’m used to much more detailed memoirs, this account conveyed the horrors without them and for that, this is a book I would recommend to readers of various ages. What I loved most about this book is that it is a dual perspective featuring the thinkings of a survivors child…a side of things not typically heard of in survivor stories. I was grateful to have a little glimpse into the mind of Eti and her absolute respect for her parents. Despite knowing the basics of her parents time in the camps…she waited until she was the age of her mother when she was deported before she began to ask questions. She reasoned that if her mother could make it through hell on earth at her age, it was the right time for her to hear all about it. And together they learned, they grieved and they healed.

This book reads quickly so I would definitely recommend it for your next weekend read.