The Boy on the Wooden Box

By: Leon Leyson
Location: NF 920 LEY
Genre: Holocaust Survivor thanks to Schindler


Schlinder's List is one of THOSE movies that I just find hard to watch. To be fair I have only seen it in bits as my kids have studied it. I have not watched Boy in Striped Pajamas, My Sister's Keeper, or Once we were Warriors. All for the same reason... to much pain!
And for what it is worth-  I have read the books and that was enough injustice, brutality, and heart wrenching pain for me not to revisit them in movie form and end up a slobbering mess all over again- or just wild with a stuffed up world. I wont watch any movie derived from this book either- the book is enough!
The letter from his son- at the end of the book it utterly touching- ending with
"I want to be as much like my Dad as I possibly can"- that says a lot.
Even in the darkest of times—especially in the darkest of times—there is room for strength and bravery. A remarkable memoir from Leon Leyson, one of the youngest children to survive the Holocaust on Oskar Schindler’s list. Leon Leyson (born Leib Lezjon) was only ten years old when the Nazis invaded Poland and his family was forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto. With incredible luck, perseverance, and grit, Leyson was able to survive the sadism of the Nazis, including that of the demonic Amon Goeth, commandant of Plaszow, the concentration camp outside Krakow. Ultimately, it was the generosity and cunning of one man, a man named Oskar Schindler, who saved Leon Leyson’s life, and the lives of his mother, his father, and two of his four siblings, by adding their names to his list of workers in his factory—a list that became world renowned: Schindler’s List.

This, the only memoir published by a former Schindler’s List child, perfectly captures the innocence of a small boy who goes through the unthinkable. Most notable is the lack of rancor, the lack of venom, and the abundance of dignity in Mr. Leyson’s telling. The Boy on the Wooden Box is a legacy of hope, a memoir unlike anything you’ve ever read.
 


Brilliantly written -- devastating, but remarkably understated in places. This is a wonderful addition to the legacy of Oskar Schindler.


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