Scads of Holocaust novels and historical accounts leave readers feeling understandably despondent and angry. Not so, upon finishing “All But My Life,” Gerda Weissmann Klein’s memoir. While the book does not diminish the terrors and abuses Jews and political prisoners experienced at the hands of the Nazis before and during World War II, it maintains a glass-half-fulloutlook throughout.
A Glass-Half-Full Narrative Amidst Despair
Klein was a teenager in 1939 in Bielitz, Poland, which she describes in Chapter 1 as a “charming“ place called ”Little Vienna,” when the Nazis invaded. Before the onslaught, shewrote that nothing had ever disturbed its tranquility. She lived a peaceful life with her close-knit family, her mother, father, and older brother, as well as with extended family and community friends.She recalled idyllic days in their garden, evenings spent reading and sewing, and much laughter. These reflections are interspersed throughout a chronological account of the systematic fragmentation of their lives.
