Wednesday, July 1, 2015

THE BOY IN THE WOODEN BOX by Leon Leyson

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible...on Schindler's ListI constantly have students asking for books about the Holocaust, and now I have another great one to add to my collection.  THE BOY ON THE WOODEN BOX by Leon Leyson will add an interesting perspective for students searching for more knowledge about that terrible time in the history of our world.

Leon Leyson lived in Krakow, Poland, with his family.  His childhood was filled with family, school, and friends until the Nazis arrived and at the age of ten he was forced to leave school and begin the fight to survive.




Leon's father was a respected, expert machinist working in a factory owned by Oskar Schindler.  In the end that is what saved Leon and most of his family.  They were herded together with the other Jews in the city and pushed into the Ghetto, forced to survive in crowded, unsanitary conditions with very little food.  From the Ghetto they were sent in cattle cars to the concentration camps where Leon and his mother were separated from his father and brother.  They experienced the horrors described in many other accounts of the Holocaust.

What made Leon's story different was his family's connection to Oskar Schindler, a Nazi who secretly believed the Jews deserved a life just like everyone else.  Schindler worked tirelessly to protect the Jews working in his factory, and because of his kindness, Leon and his family were able to escape the horrors of the concentration camps and return to the city to work for Schindler.

THE BOY ON THE WOODEN BOX tells Leon Leyson's story.  Readers will appreciate the honesty of this Holocaust survivor as he recounts the atrocities at the hands of the Nazis and shares his undying gratitude for the man he credits with saving his life and the lives of more than a thousand others.

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