Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Sydney : Hodder
Description
The internationally bestselling memoir of survival and self-discovery by the woman whose childhood as the real-life girl in the red coat was so famously depicted in the film "Schindler's List."
User reviews
LibraryThing member tobiejonzarelli
As a witness and survivor of the Shoah, Roma Ligocka's biography is not my first choice in providing a true picture of having endured that hell. I remember watching Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and the little girl in the red coat stood out wandering alone and overlooked by the Nazi troops.It
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was a compelling picture! When I saw the title of this memoir I knew I had to read it. However, her childhood memories appear too perfect, too knowing, too detailed for a child of such a tender age. For me, this level of recall for a child felt contrived and detracted from a testimony that needs to be heard again and again. Roma's life is revealed to us from the Krakow ghetto, through Comunist Poland and eventually to becoming a wife, mother and struggling artist. All in all this 'novel' like memoir is a worth the time to read but it is not the most compelling testimony available. There is a degree of vanity and self centeredness that is out of place in such a harrowing time. A much better memoir would be found in Eli Wiesel's Night or Dawn or in Ann Ornstein's My Mother's Eyes: Holocaust Memories of a Young Girl. Show Less
LibraryThing member E.J
This really should be a 3 star plus rating, but I really didn't love it. I think I heard too many good things about it before I read it, so I was a little disappointed.
I liked the character, and really liked the fact that you saw her journey through life, as compared to most books of this sort
The writing about her being in the war, as a tiny child were very hard to take. Most of these things are hard to imagine and read about, but I think the fact that I was seeing through the eyes of a child made it so much more heartwrenching.
All in all, I'm glad I read the book, and I would be curious to know what happens after the story ends.
I liked the character, and really liked the fact that you saw her journey through life, as compared to most books of this sort
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that kind of end right after the war. She comes into her own as an adult, and deals with things as a survivor of the war, which we get to see. The writing about her being in the war, as a tiny child were very hard to take. Most of these things are hard to imagine and read about, but I think the fact that I was seeing through the eyes of a child made it so much more heartwrenching.
All in all, I'm glad I read the book, and I would be curious to know what happens after the story ends.
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Subjects
Awards
Wingate Literary Prize (Shortlist — 2003)
Language
Original language
German
Original publication date
2000
Physical description
326 p.; 24 cm
ISBN
0733614124 / 9780733614125
Local notes
Donated by Joan Yona Foster, August 2022