The Girl In The Green Sweater: A Life In Holocaust's Shadow (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
Krystyna Chiger is the last surviving member of a group of Jews that survive the Holocaust by hiding in the sewers beneath the city of Lvov. Her story begins a couple years prior to their hiding. I found it notable that she felt like living above ground was worse than hiding in the sewers. The Jews were having businesses and belongings taken from them. Soldiers would come to their homes, and walk through to pick out and take whatever they wanted. Any resistance resulted in death or being sent to the camps. Krystyna's family started out fairly well to do, and ended up with nothing but their lives in the end. The Jews were routinely being funneled into smaller and smaller areas of control. The children had already been liquidated from their city, so Krystyna and her younger brother would quietly hid for many hours each day while their parents were working 12-16 hour shifts to avoid being sent away or killed.Once in the sewers, Krystyna was with her father & mother, uncle, her younger brother, and several others that were either barely known, or not at all known to them yet. Supported by a few sewer workers, for 14 months, they survived with the sewage, mud, cold, and rats. The group grew intimately close; while they suffered together, they also kept hope alive as a group. Another Holocaust story that shows strength of the human character. Devastating trials can either bring out the very best in someone, or the very worst. It also shows the 'mob mentality' that took over much of Europe. Krystyna, in speaking of the German soldiers, said, "In a group, they were brutal and heartless. Alone, they could be curious and feeling and human."A very well written Memoir. I really heard her voice and was very drawn in. I loved that she went off her memory, but also the memories of others, as well as her father's unpublished memoirs. She was good to point out, on several occasions, "This is how I remember it, but this is how my father remembered it..." Even though she's a grown adult, writing her story many, many years later, I felt she did a great job of explaining the feel of her child outlook on things as they were happening. Kystyna's story is surely one that will stick with me the rest of my life. While a historic subject of interest to me on a simple heritage level, I found myself wanting to like this book a lot more than I did. The story was interesting, without a doubt, but the prose is so terse and matter of fact that much of it is like reading a report of what happened rather than a personal story. It's one of those sort of stories that I shouldn't have been able to put down, yet found it easy to simply set it aside to take of household chores or take time to do other things.
What do You think about The Girl In The Green Sweater: A Life In Holocaust's Shadow (2008)?
So heartbreaking but a very good read. I'm glad I gave it a shot.
—kobby_deheer
excellent compelling story, but narrative is somewhat choppy
—abolide
A must-read for Polish Holocaust survivor legacy
—Jamie
