Book 200 - Andrea Warren – Surviving Hitler : A boy in the Nazi Death Camps

Jack Mandelbaum, a Holocaust survivor’s story. A breath-taking tale…horrific and all the more terrifying as it is true. Based on interviews with Jack himself, Andrea takes the story of one boy’s journey into adulthood from the early years of the War in Poland to the Concentration Camps of Germany…we get a glimpse of what life was like for one person.

No hyperbole….no extravagant tales of adventure and daring do...no exaggeration….no adding to the tale. The horrors of how minorities were treated and what people did to survive is laid out in front of us in all its realness. With a forward by the man himself suddenly it isn’t just the story on a page but a life journey of someone who could be telling it sitting opposite you.

What he lost is awful…what was taken from him all too familiar in the story of the Holocaust. A must read.

As many historians will talk about the cycle of history and as I write this in Sept. 2022 Putin and his Russian thugs are still trying to trample over the freedoms that people like Jack lost so many years ago.

We can never forget the times under Hitler…we can never forget the times Putin would try and drag us back to. Every day, we need a Jack to remind us just how far we have come and how far we have yet to go. In July 1952 Jack became a naturalised US citizen and vowed never to return to Europe.

He sadly passed away in Aug. 2023…aged 96.

‘We are who we are today because of all our yesterdays’ – never a truer word spoken.

Jack Mandelbaum – never forget his name.

Jack Mandelbaum - The Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (mchekc.org) ( )

A factual biography based on the life of teenaged concentration camp survivor, Jack Mandelbaum. Jack, who was 14 when WW-II began, narrates his struggles about life in the camps, and later, to locate his family. This is supposed to be a recommended read for children.

Opinion: I read this little 140 page book last night and was blown away by the narrative. This is exactly what I would expect of a biographical book. Only facts, no masala. Andrea Warren narrates Mandelbaum's life in such a well-penned manner that you can't help but turn the pages to find out what happens next. Jack's line, "This is a place of endless sorrow. Think only of yourself and those closest to you. If you allow yourself to feel emotion, you will die quickly", shows his determination to come out of the concentration camp alive, all the time motivated by the thought of seeing his family. He admits that to survive a concentration camp, you needed a great deal of luck on your side.

Surviving Hitler is supposedly aimed at children who want to know more about concentration camps, but considering how I felt after reading it, I don't think I'll recommend it to any school-going child. It is nightmarish in its details, though it doesn't narrate anything other than what Jack actually saw. I wouldn't give this book to my kids until they start college at least, but yes, I will give this to them some day as a must-read. Recommended for everyone above 15.

Rating: 4.75/5


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Andrea Warren writes about the life of Jack Mandelbaum and his experience with the holocaust. He is sent to four different concentration camps, and his main goal is to survive. He does this in whatever way he can, whether it's thinking of survival as a game or remembering his family. Despite horrible conditions, Jack is able to survive, but the rest of his family doesn't. The book includes pictures of the concentration camps and pictures of Jack, and seeing these pictures really brings to life how this was a real person living in this horribly unimaginable scenario.

This book was something that I was really into reading. When I was in junior high I was introduced to many books about the Holocaust. This happens to be one of them. Rereading this book really opened my eyes to show me how blessed I am. I would recommend this book to junior high and high school (7th through 12th). It is something that students should know about because it played just a vital role in our history. This book is about about a young boy that gets separated from his family and taken away to a concentration camp. With very little food and poor living conditions, he finds hope in survival while thinking about his family. This book gives you a behind the scene sense of what it felt like going through such trying time. Even though, I will never be able to relate to such tragic event, some people may still find hope in this heart tugging biography. ( )

An intriguing and fairly detailed look at the different aspects of Holocaust life from one survivor's perspective. ( )