The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz

Starred review from April 1, 2023

Gr 7 Up-The young reader's edition of Dronfield's adult title of the same name is a heartrending and absolutely necessary read about the scope and depth of the Holocaust. Put together with meticulous research and interviews, this powerful work of narrative nonfiction follows the Viennese Kleinmann family and their many experiences before and during World War II. Most of the book focuses on Fritz, age 16 in 1939, and his father, Gustav, who are taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp and the many small and brave things they had to do to survive grueling, inhumane circumstances. For young people who only have an idea of what the Holocaust meant, Fritz's story will give them insight into how a father and son craftily and barely survived three concentration camps, including Auschwitz, until American liberation in 1945. The book also follows Fritz's brother Kurt, who at age 10 is sent to America and is taken care of by family friends. Dronfield met Kurt in 2013 when he was translating Fritz's book, which includes his father's secret journal. These shifts in point of view, between Fritz and Kurt, can be confusing, but the author's note and the time line at the end pull the stories together. Conversations are reconstructed, and readers will be absorbed by the life-or-death decisions Fritz and Gustav make together. VERDICT This essential work shows young readers how the Holocaust came to happen and how two amazing human beings survived its horrors.-Jamie Winchell

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2022
Grades 6-8 *Starred Review* This inspiring and riveting true story, adapted from Dronfield's adult book of the same name, tells of an Austrian Jewish family's father and two sons and how they survived the horrors of the Holocaust. Fritz was 16 in 1939 when he and his papa Gustav were arrested separately by SS officers. Neither knew where the other was until Fritz found Gustav at Buchenwald. In 1941, Fritz's younger brother, Kurt, 11, traveled to America by himself to escape the war. The brothers' stories are told in alternating chapters, with the main focus on gutsy and clever Fritz as he withstands backbreaking manual labor, torture, sickness, and starvation. He attempts daring escapes and even "dies" and takes another prisoner's identity to survive in numerous concentration camps. Though the third-person perspective somewhat mutes the emotional impact, Fritz and Gustav's bond is undeniable, and their determination to stay alive and together is moving and uplifting. Dronfield's book is based on diary entries Gustav secretly kept and firsthand interviews with Kurt and others. Dronfield states in his afterword that he did reconstruct some scenes based on the main characters' detailed recollections and made up some dialogue based on these individuals' knowledge of the events and circumstances. Nevertheless, this is a powerful addition to other books from the Holocaust and WWII period.

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Starred review from October 15, 2022
A family's experiences in the Holocaust told in heart-stopping, relentless detail. Dronfield emphasizes that the horrific events are true and the Jewish family at the center of the story is real. In 1938 Vienna, Gustav and Tini Kleinmann, daughters Edith and Herta, and sons Fritz and Kurt were living quiet lives in a small apartment above Papa's upholstery shop. When Hitler invaded Austria, the Nazis immediately enacted anti-Jewish laws. On Kristallnacht, synagogues and Jewish businesses and homes were looted, smashed, and burned. Former trusted friends betrayed them and were instrumental in what followed. Mutti filed applications, hoping the children might get limited spots in rescue programs--Edith eventually secured a British work permit; later, 10-year-old Kurt was allowed to go to America. While Kurt found a loving surrogate family, he always worried about his loved ones. Fritz and Papa endured yearslong nightmares in Buchenwald, Auschwitz, the Death March, and Mauthausen. The beatings, forced labor, starvation, illness, death, and brutal deprivation they witnessed and endured are meticulously described, interwoven with necessary historical background and sparing readers nothing. Nazis, collaborators, and fellow prisoners alike are identified by name, and grateful credit is given to those few who showed kindness. Dronfield informs readers of each character's fate, some surviving and reuniting and others murdered, lost in the horror that was the Holocaust. Reading with a knowledgeable adult would be invaluable and comforting. Difficult, gut-wrenching, terrifying, gruesome, and so very important: never again. (timeline, author's note, glossary, further reading, bibliography, source notes) (Nonfiction. 11-16)

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