We Are On Our Own...random thoughts

We Are On Our Own: A Memoir by Miriam Katin.

Another Holocaust story. Another personal story. Another thought-provoking story. Another story that left me counting my infinite blessings.

I don't mean to say that this book is a rehashing of stories I've read before. It most definitely is not. It is yet another unique look at a slice of the horrors of World War II. Instead, the idea I meant to convey is that this period in world history is so full of stories. Of heart-breaking stories. Of hopeful stories. Of stories that seem so hard to comprehend, and yet shockingly are all too true.

We Are On Our Own is the story of a very young girl and her mother told in graphic novel form. Her courageous, intelligent, determined mother. This was quite a unique viewpoint. For the events most significant to a young child are probably not the events that would stand out most to an adult.

While her father is off fighting in the War, Miriam and her mother are home in Hungary. Certainly life is different than it had once been, but the sheer terror that Jews elsewhere had been facing hadn't quite reached them yet. But then, of course, that changes. Through some very smart, very brave actions taken by Miriam's mother, they avoid being deported by the Germans. They escape Budapest, and the book follows their survival through the next year as they run and hide.

One of the aspects that touched me the most in this book was the way she dealt with God. I don't know how to quite explain it, but watching the way a child tried to fit God into the reality of the horrible existence she was living was incredibly powerful.

*****

If you've reviewed this book, please feel free to leave a link in the comments and I will add it here. Thanks.

Dewey at The Hidden Side of a Leaf
Natasha at Maw Books
Heather at A Year of Books

*****

Read for:


Graphic Novels Challenge.