Holocaust
The main theme of the book is the Holocaust. It tells of the experiences endured by Jews during World War Two in any country that had been occupied by the German army. The author of the memoir, Michael Bornstein, is one of only fifty three survivors of Auschwitz who were under the age of ten at the time of the liberation of the camp. The book explains the way in which children were killed by the Nazis in an effort to exterminate Jewish people from Europe. He tells of the conditions in the camp; the uniforms that grew ever bigger as the children lost weight from lack of food; he tells of the diseases caused by lack of hygiene, difficulties in getting basic items such as soap, and the way in which the barracks were divided into men, women and children. Everything that he experienced is shared with the reader, and the Holocaust is the main theme of the book around which other themes of anti-Semitism, family and Jewish tradition are wound.
Anti-Semitism
It goes almost without saying that anti-Semites were the architects of the Holocaust, and the implementation of Adolf Eichmann's final solution; what is more surprising is the way in which the Polish Jews returning to their towns and cities after the camps are liberated experience not a welcome, or a helping hand, but renewed hate, and more anti-Semitism from the Polish inhabitants of the town who had also taken over the homes of the Jewish families who had been transferred to the death camps. The theme also shows the way in which the Germans were able to achieve their objective of exterminating the Jews, as they had so much compliance and assistance from the local Polish citizens who also resented their Jewish neighbors.
Family
The theme of family is extremely important in the book as ultimately it was his mother's love that saved Michael's life; his mother smuggled him out of the children's barracks and took him back to the women's barracks with her, hiding him until liberation day. Michael tells of each of his family members taken to the camps; his aunt survived Buchenwald, but another was killed after being discovered hiding in a Catholic refuge. His father was killed at Auschwitz as well; Michael describes the way in which families were torn apart, and the pain that was written on each of the faces of the parents who knew their children were being taken from them. Reuniting as a family was also extremely important to the Bornsteins, and their reunion is one of the truly joyful moments in the book.
The fact that Michael's daughter is his co-writer also demonstrates the theme of family and its importance, and the importance of keeping family history alive through the generations.
Jewish Tradition
There are parts of the book that are written in Hebrew, and told in the Hebrew tradition, which is part of the theme of explaining the Jewish tradition as well. These traditions are also passed down from one generation to another, There is joy when the families' ceremonial cup is found to have survived the war. The importance of the tradition to both Michael's family and other families is shown throughout the book.
