Can Daniel Survive History's Deadliest Moment?


Daniel's Story
by Carol Matas
Reviewed by

Gabriella
B

6th
Grade



Published in:1993
Length:136 pages
Ranking (1-10):
10
Genre:Historical Fiction
Age:Young Adult



"Rosa, I'm ashamed of you, too. Don't you see? This is the way Nazis think. They believed that we Jews weren't good enough to live, and so they decided to wipe us off the face of the earth. Who were they to decide who should live and who should die? And who are you?"(pg.69)

Would you like to read a book that has a new surprise every time you turn the page? How would you feel if you were torn away from your family, having to work for less than meager meals? When you start reading, you will never want to stop. Daniel's Story is a fictitious story, but it focuses on what really happened to children and families in 1933 during the Holocaust. If you want to experience these things and enjoy the feeling of actually being in the book, than this is the book for you!

Daniel was a normal boy living in Frankfurt, Germany, until Hitler took over. He and his family were forced to leave their home because they were no longer able to do many things like: practice their religion, vote, own property, work or even learn and go to school! The family goes to Lodz, where they stay in a ghetto, starving and getting thinner and thinner. But they have to stay strong or else they will be murdered by the soldiers because they don't want weak people to work. They are taken from concentration camp to concentration camp. Everywhere they go, Daniel takes pictures. He takes pictures of the piles of dead bodies laying on the ground in the concentration or "death" camps. He takes pictures of Frankfurt before Hitler took over. He takes pictures of himself growing, from place to place. He takes pictures of his family. These pictures are his only memories of the past. Will he and his family survive, or will they be murdered, tortured? What will happen? You have to read the book to find out!

This book really touched my heart in a way that no other book has and I loved it. It describes what ACTUALLY happened to the Jews during the Holocaust thoroughly. If you think you know what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust, your wrong because until you read this book, you will never know what REALLY happened.

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