Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Open Road Media (2016), Edition: Reprint, 77 pages
Description
On May 29, 1944, the day after Isabella Katz's twenty-third birthday, she, her family, and all the Jews in the ghetto in Kisvarda, Hungary, were rounded up by Nazi storm troopers, packed into cattle cars, and deported to Auschwitz. There, Dr. Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death, scrutinized the family and decided who would live for a time and who would die. Isabella and three of her sisters waged a daily battle to survive, giving one another strength, courage, and love, promising themselves that they would cheat the crematoriums and end each day alive.
User reviews
LibraryThing member meggyweg
A very short, fragmentary memoir of the author's experience in Auschwitz. Isabella, her four sisters, her brother and her mother were Hungarian Jews who were deported to Auschwitz in May 1944. (Their father was in America by then. He got papers for them to emigrate but they arrived too late.) The
Many of these scenes are beautifully written and I think Holocaust lit junkies will enjoy this. It's so fragmentary, though, that the general reader who doesn't know all that much about Auschwitz or Nazi Europe would probably just find it confusing.
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mother and the youngest child were gassed immediately and the brother separated from the girls. In brief, two-or-three-page vignettes, Isabella recounts her efforts to keep her sisters all together and help them all survive. An afterword by Isabella's husband describes their trips to Europe decades later, and her revulsion of being around German people or even hearing the German language.Many of these scenes are beautifully written and I think Holocaust lit junkies will enjoy this. It's so fragmentary, though, that the general reader who doesn't know all that much about Auschwitz or Nazi Europe would probably just find it confusing.
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LibraryThing member Dani12
This is an unforgettable story and one that has stayed with me for over 20 years. Written as fragments of memory, Isabella is able to convey the terror, despair and desperation of Jews placed in concentration camps. It is an incredibly powerful story and one that brings the sweeping tragedy of the
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holocaust to a very person level. Show Less
LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26
One of the most powerful Holocaust memoirs I have ever read, Fragments of Isabella is a slender volume of distilled suffering - so beautifully written and utterly heartbreaking that the reader is transfixed, a witness incapable of turning away from these scenes of horror. I would compare it
"I died in May" writes Leitner, for it was on May 31, 1944 that the author (then Isabella Katz) and her family arrived at the death camp Auschwitz. Here Leitner's mother and thirteen-year-old sister Potyo were immediately sent to the gas chamber; and she, her brother Philip, and her sisters Chicha, Rachel (Regina) and Cipi were sentenced to hard labor.
Told in brief vignettes, this memoir is a searing depiction of suffering and cruelty. But it is also a portrait of strength, and of the ties of love and loyalty between four sisters, who helped each other survive in unimaginable circumstances. The loss of Cipi, so close to liberation, was perhaps the most stunning blow of all, in a book of unbearable memories.
Fragments of Isabella is stamped upon my own memory, like some sort of indelible marker, or mental scar that does not fade...I have only to see the cover to experience again that sensation of tight-chested desperation I felt when first reading it, at age eleven.
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favorably to Elie Wiesel's Night, and cannot understand why it is not more widely known..."I died in May" writes Leitner, for it was on May 31, 1944 that the author (then Isabella Katz) and her family arrived at the death camp Auschwitz. Here Leitner's mother and thirteen-year-old sister Potyo were immediately sent to the gas chamber; and she, her brother Philip, and her sisters Chicha, Rachel (Regina) and Cipi were sentenced to hard labor.
Told in brief vignettes, this memoir is a searing depiction of suffering and cruelty. But it is also a portrait of strength, and of the ties of love and loyalty between four sisters, who helped each other survive in unimaginable circumstances. The loss of Cipi, so close to liberation, was perhaps the most stunning blow of all, in a book of unbearable memories.
Fragments of Isabella is stamped upon my own memory, like some sort of indelible marker, or mental scar that does not fade...I have only to see the cover to experience again that sensation of tight-chested desperation I felt when first reading it, at age eleven.
Show Less
LibraryThing member taletreader
When I was asked if I would like to read Fragments of Isabella, I agreed. Auschwitz was one of the worst concentration camps of the Holocaust, so to be able to read a memoir from someone who was there would be, I knew, raw and emotional.
It is a short read, with short chapters, and even for the
This makes for a one-day read that is overall, powerful and touching.
Josef Mengele is mentioned a few times, and I was astonished that the author actually came into contact with him. Of course it wouldn't be impossible, I just haven't read a memoir yet where the author spoke about actually being in close proximity with Mengele. There was just such indifference towards him, which was odd considering how he was notorious for being truly awful—even nicknamed the “Angel of Death.” Leitner was one tough cookie. Irma Grese was also briefly talked about and how she would choose specific women to be punished, mainly based on how attractive they were to her.
Because the chapters are so short, sometimes the book confused me as to where the characters were physically at, and the events take place so quickly that it's hard to wrap your head around what exactly is going on all the time. Most of the time you can regain your footing, brush yourself off, and realize what it is Leitner is describing. But a few times, you're still left lost.
I admit, Isabella Leitner's writing was a bit hard for me to read at first. I was enjoying the story, but not her too-short sentences or what seemed to me like almost apathetic emotional responses to the situations at hand. Trust me though when I say you need to read just a few more chapters—or even one more chapter—and you will read what I and others have read and thanked Leitner in our hearts for sharing.
What gripped me almost more than what happened in the camps to the Jews, was what happened outside and around them when they walked the streets and passed by everyone. Leitner says of this:
“But the Germans never saw us. Ask them. They never saw us. Come to think of it, they really didn't.”
One of the saddest quotes I found was Leitner telling herself, “...I don't know yet how people live, I know only how they die.” The author and so many of those members of the Holocaust had to watch their family members be murdered. Be burned right in front of them. Be shot down. So for Isabella to have survived—how wonderful! But how painful, to carry all those memories for the rest of her life.
With that said, you must read what her husband has to say on her account in the epilogue.
It can be a small and terrible world.
*I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
It is a short read, with short chapters, and even for the
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most part, short and concise sentences. This makes for a one-day read that is overall, powerful and touching.
Josef Mengele is mentioned a few times, and I was astonished that the author actually came into contact with him. Of course it wouldn't be impossible, I just haven't read a memoir yet where the author spoke about actually being in close proximity with Mengele. There was just such indifference towards him, which was odd considering how he was notorious for being truly awful—even nicknamed the “Angel of Death.” Leitner was one tough cookie. Irma Grese was also briefly talked about and how she would choose specific women to be punished, mainly based on how attractive they were to her.
Because the chapters are so short, sometimes the book confused me as to where the characters were physically at, and the events take place so quickly that it's hard to wrap your head around what exactly is going on all the time. Most of the time you can regain your footing, brush yourself off, and realize what it is Leitner is describing. But a few times, you're still left lost.
I admit, Isabella Leitner's writing was a bit hard for me to read at first. I was enjoying the story, but not her too-short sentences or what seemed to me like almost apathetic emotional responses to the situations at hand. Trust me though when I say you need to read just a few more chapters—or even one more chapter—and you will read what I and others have read and thanked Leitner in our hearts for sharing.
What gripped me almost more than what happened in the camps to the Jews, was what happened outside and around them when they walked the streets and passed by everyone. Leitner says of this:
“But the Germans never saw us. Ask them. They never saw us. Come to think of it, they really didn't.”
One of the saddest quotes I found was Leitner telling herself, “...I don't know yet how people live, I know only how they die.” The author and so many of those members of the Holocaust had to watch their family members be murdered. Be burned right in front of them. Be shot down. So for Isabella to have survived—how wonderful! But how painful, to carry all those memories for the rest of her life.
With that said, you must read what her husband has to say on her account in the epilogue.
It can be a small and terrible world.
*I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Show Less
LibraryThing member texicanwife
This is a fairly short novel(ette) that can be easily read in about 90-minutes to 2-hours.
Like many of the authors who have survived the Holocaust, Isabella's story was thrown back into her face, and this great writer was accused of falsifying her own history. Isabella's youth was spent, was
But she lived. Along with two of her sisters, living day to day with the mantra "I will live, I will live!" She starved. She froze. And Germans used her poor body as a slave to their machinations.
If you want to know another story from the Holocaust, Isabella's is one to read. On the same level as the Anne Frank Diaries, Isabella's story will outrage you, bring you to tears, and at times make you smile on the young girl as she simply tries to survive for her sisters.
I heartily recommend this book.
Like many of the authors who have survived the Holocaust, Isabella's story was thrown back into her face, and this great writer was accused of falsifying her own history. Isabella's youth was spent, was
Show More
killed in Auschwitz, along with many family members.But she lived. Along with two of her sisters, living day to day with the mantra "I will live, I will live!" She starved. She froze. And Germans used her poor body as a slave to their machinations.
If you want to know another story from the Holocaust, Isabella's is one to read. On the same level as the Anne Frank Diaries, Isabella's story will outrage you, bring you to tears, and at times make you smile on the young girl as she simply tries to survive for her sisters.
I heartily recommend this book.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 1978)
Language
Original publication date
1978
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