Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz
Unforgettable true story of boy sent to death camp at age 4.
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this book.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz is written by Michael Bornstein, who was liberated from the Nazi concentration camp when he was only 4 years old. While most children lived for no more than two weeks after their arrival at Auschwitz, the extraordinary courage and ingenuity of his mother and grandmother kept him safe. The story told in Survivors Club moves from the Nazi occupation of Bornstein's small hometown in Poland to Auschwitz and finally to the years after the end of the war when members of his extended family became "displaced persons." While the violence can be shocking (children are beaten and executed) and the prospect of death is ever-present, this memoir from one of the few Holocaust survivors still living is above all a book about the bonds of family and the power of hope.
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What's the Story?
Michael Bornstein never intended to tell the story of the SURVIVORS CLUB. It was only after seeing a photo of children (including Michael) liberated from Auschwitz posted on a Holocaust denial site that he knew he must speak out. The book begins in 1939 as Nazi soldiers take over Zarki, the small rural town in Poland where Michael lives with his parents, brother, and grandmother. Michael's father becomes head of Zarki's Jewish Council, and the bribes he gives to the head of the local Gestapo allow hundreds of townspeople people to escape and others to be saved from execution. But in 1942, all the town's Jews are ordered deported to labor and concentration camps. Michael's father and brother die at Auschwitz, but his mother eventually manages to smuggle him from the children's barracks into the women's barracks, where he hides until the camp is liberated. After the war, the surviving members of the extended Bornstein family are reunited. But because the life they knew in Poland is now gone, Michael and his mother become displaced persons, refugees waiting for visas to come to the United States.
Is It Any Good?
As so few children survived the Nazi death camps, Bornstein's haunting and heartbreaking memoir offers a unique perspective on the years before and after the Holocaust. Bornstein and his daughter and coauthor, Debbie Bornstein Holinstat, used research from the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Israel, audio recordings and videotaped testimony, interviews with relatives, and a diary written by a survivor and family friend to weave together this remarkable story.
The preface notes that "conversations were imagined, thoughts and feelings projected, certain names changed and some minor details adjusted ... ." That said, the characters and their conversations, thoughts, and feelings never read as fiction but always have the ring of truth. A section of photos at the end of the book allows readers to put faces on Bornstein's parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. One of the photos was taken just after the liberation of Auschwitz and shows Michael being held in his grandmother's arms.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the theme of hope that runs throughout Survivors Club. Why do you think some people can hold onto hope while others give up?
Do you think social media platforms should do more to crack down on hate speech such as anti-Semitism, or should people be free to post anything they want?
Michael Bornstein and his daughter and coauthor, Debbie Bornstein Holinstat, were only able to tell this story after doing extensive research on the Bornstein family. What do you know about your family members who were alive during World War II?
Book Details
- Authors: Michael Bornstein, Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
- Genre: Biography
- Topics: Book Characters, Great Boy Role Models, Great Girl Role Models, History
- Book type: Non-Fiction
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Publication date: March 7, 2017
- Number of pages: 348
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: April 8, 2020
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For kids who love history and stories of World War II
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