Somewhere There Is Still a Sun: A Memoir of the Holocaust by Michael Gruenbaum (PDF)

Description

Resilience shines throughout Michael Gruenbaum’s “riveting memoir” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) about his time in the Terezin concentration camp during the Holocaust, in this National Jewish Book award finalist and Parents Choice Gold Medal Award–winning title, an ideal companion to the bestselling Boy on the Wooden Box.Michael “Misha” Gruenbaum enjoyed a carefree childhood playing games and taking walks through Prague with his beloved father. All of that changed forever when the Nazis invaded Prague. The Gruenbaum family was forced to move into the Jewish Ghetto in Prague. Then, after a devastating loss, Michael, his mother and sister were deported to the Terezin concentration camp. At Terezin, Misha roomed with forty other boys who became like brothers to him. Life in Terezin was a bizarre, surreal balance—some days were filled with friendship and soccer matches, while others brought mortal terror as the boys waited to hear the names on each new list of who was being sent “to the East.” Those trains were going to Auschwitz. When the day came that his family’s name appeared on a transport list, their survival called for a miracle—one that tied Michael’s fate to a carefully sewn teddy bear, and to his mother’s unshakeable determination to keep her children safe. Collaborating with acclaimed author Todd Hasak-Lowy, Michael Gruenbaum shares his inspiring story of hope in an unforgettable memoir that recreates his experiences with stunning immediacy. Michael’s story, and the many original documents and photos included alongside it, offer an essential contribution to Holocaust literature.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I read this book with a 7th grade student and here is what she had to say:”Misha’s point of view in this story is fascinating and engaging. It is about a Jewish boy in the early 1940s noticing how the war is starting and what is happening to his family and millions of other Jewish people. It starts when he is around the age of 9 and takes you through his life story of how he survived the Holocaust. It is written as if you are living through this devastating time with Misha himself. This is a true story written by Michael Gruenbaum, a real survivor of the Holocaust. The story starts when the war is beginning and life is normal. As things begin to change you understand and learn how Jewish people in that time transitioned to the different rules and changes. After a devastating loss, Misha and his family are moved to the Terezin concentration camp. He watches different people come in and out of what is now his home and he meets some new friends that become like family to him along the way. He learns to make the best out of the awful situation that he and millions of other have been placed in.I enjoyed this book because it is a true story from a horrifying but historical time period. I couldn’t put it down for one second especially towards the end! I have always been interested in this topic but this is by far one of my favorites. I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it to anyone!”

⭐Holocaust memoirs are in vogue these days, a last gasp chance to record memories of an unforgettable time. I’ve read a few, heard some first-hand accounts, been to Dachau and Teresienstadt, the U.S. Holocaust Museum and Yad Vashem. As a high-school teacher, I’ve tried to impart to my students some of the difficulties of that terrible time. Yet I’ve always felt like it was somebody else’s story that we, the lucky Jews born after WWII, didn’t have to experience ourselves. SOMEWHERE THERE IS STILL A SUN, with its powerful imagery and adolescent viewpoint, makes it feel like it is MY story, as well. I believe that anybody who reads it will think the same. The book is written like fiction, divided into chapters that are titled with dates. I found myself looking at the dates of the previous chapters to see how much time had elapsed. It was a quick read for me. Although I can’t say the chapters are cliffhangers, I wanted (and still want) to know who survived and whatever became of …. Seeing photos of the actual letters Gruenbaum refers to brings it home for me: this is fictionalized non-fiction. It really happened! The conversations and the juvenile thoughts seem so real in this first-person account. And the imagery! There are especially three described images that shocked me and will remain ingrained in my memory just as they are in Gruenbaum’s memory: a double suicide, a man wallowing in his own excrement, and the return from Auschwitz of the survivors. The descriptions of and reflections on these sights are much more powerful than the many photos I’ve seen. As a teacher I highly recommend this book for adolescents, as well as for adults. Be aware that the subject matter is not light, but there is a happy ending of sorts: the author and his mother and sister live to see the end of the chain of “it can’t get any worse than this” events of the Holocaust. As a teacher, I hope that I have imparted the morals and touched the lives of my students a fraction of the amount that Gruenbaum’s teacher, Franta, touched his.

⭐Once I started reading the book, I really couldn’t put it down. Except for the beginning, I essentially read it all in one sitting.People might wonder why we need yet another book in a field that has already been exhaustively researched and recorded from most every angle, but I think this story is truly unique and adds a fresh perspective. You see and experience everything through the eyes of a pre-teen. The use of the present tense really makes everything come to life. There is no hindsight, so it leads you step by step from a fairly pleasant, regular life in Prague down into a situation that goes from bad to terrible to worse. In this way, you start to vaguely grasp how this horror of horrors really can happen. And it did.The matter-of-fact storytelling, with its solid, realistic detailing, engages all five senses in a way that really fleshes out the physical and mental anguish of being thrown helpless into this condition. Without giving away anything, I can say there are certainly a few searing scenes from this book I will never forget. There are also cliffhangers along the way that ratchet up the suspense notch by notch as the story builds toward what appears to be an inevitable and final doom. And it’s all true.This book is already a classic in my eyes — a story well told, demonstrating how the values of teamwork, friendship, resourcefulness, and family love can prevail. I have never lived through anything at all like this, and I thank the author for sharing his experience in a way that has helped me gain a sliver of a grasp at understanding, in a more tangible and emotional way, what really did happen — and can happen again if we’re not careful. I will be processing what I have just read for years to come.

⭐We heard about this book while enjoying a New Zealand cruise earlier this year. Michael Gruenbaum was on our Dinner Table and what a lovely man he is. He told us about the book and gave us his business card which he kindly signed. I said we would purchase the book so we could both read it. I am delighted to say we tracked it down at Amazon and both my husband and I have read and enjoyed it. We found the book to be well written, moving and riveting especially knowing it to be a true account of the trauma the young “Misha” endured along with his family. He is not a bitter man, even today. This is something that comes across in the book. I have no idea what we ate for our Evening Meal that day in February 2017 but Michael Gruenbourn definitely made an impression and I can fully remember our most interesting conversation. This is a book I will definitely return to time and again. I so wish we could meet Michael Gruenbaum again to tell him in person how much we enjoyed reading his words. Unfortunately, though the book was well packaged, a corner of the cover had been bent in the process which spoils it somewhat. Shame. about that.

⭐This book of 373 pages of tedious reading should be no more than 15. Mr Todd Hasak-Lowy has turned Mr Greenbaum’s Terezin experiences into a nightmare of dialogues with the story struggling to come to the surface.As a teacher I am certain that no 13 or 14 year old will read it through even with the best of intentions.

⭐Great addition to my books of this genre. Don’t be fooled this is only for teenagers. Well worth the money to see the events from a young persons perspective.

⭐good

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