Book Review : Auschwitz Lullaby by Mario Escobar

Auschwitz Lullaby - Mario Escobar 

"𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕, 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔"

Rating - 🌟🌟🌟🌟✨

Ever wondered, how you'd feel if one day, some people came and forced you out of your house asking you to leave everything behind, the house, the priceless memories, your possessions, everything, in a matter of few minutes! Terrifying right!? That's exactly how I feel when I read about the Holocaust Victims. We truely can't envisage what they had to endure, at that time when there was no humanity left.

This is the story of Helene Hannemann. She was tasked with caring for Auschwitz’s youngest prisoners. I admire Helene and her strength. She was storng, brave and fierce. She took care of her family and the inmates till her last breath. Being from the 'Aryan' race, she had every chance to stay behind and let the Nazi's take her five childrens and husband, because he was a 'Gypsy'. But she refused and stood by them. She, along with her family was deported to Auschwitz, where they lived in the Gypsy family camp, where Romani families were held together. Helene and her husband were separated but she was allowed to remain with her childrens. 

The writing was exquisite, the characters were endearing and I felt deeply for each one of them. My one quibble is that the story is presented as Helene’s journal as found and read by Mengele many years after the war, which is not a fact. At times, I didn't like the portrayal of Joseph Mengele, who was also known as the Angel of Death, in Auschwitz. I find it hard to believe that he had any ounce of compassion in him, after conducting those deadly experiments on childrens.

Overall, I really liked this one, the ending was heartbreaking, which is the case with almost every Historical Fiction. I highly recommend this book.