My Survival: A Girl on Schindler's List by Rena Finder

From Goodreads,

"The astonishing true story of a girl who survived the Holocaust thanks to Oskar Schindler, of Schindler's List fame.
Rena Finder was only eleven when the Nazis forced her and her family -- along with all the other Jewish families -- into the ghetto in Krakow, Poland. Rena worked as a slave laborer with scarcely any food and watched as friends and family were sent away.

Then Rena and her mother ended up working for Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who employed Jewish prisoners in his factory and kept them fed and healthy. But Rena's nightmares were not over. She and her mother were deported to the concentration camp Auschwitz. With great cunning, it was Schindler who set out to help them escape.

Here in her own words is Rena's gripping story of survival, perseverance, tragedy, and hope. Including pictures from Rena's personal collection and from the time period, this unforgettable memoir introduces young readers to an astounding and necessary piece of history."

Goodreads - My Survival: A Girl on Schindler's List

I have always felt like I had a connection to books that were about WWII and the Holocaust.  My grandma was a teenager in Germany while Hitler was the chancellor and my grandfather was fighting the war when he met my grandma.  So I always feel that I have a connection to that piece in history.  My grandma doesn't like to talk about that time in her life for obvious reasons, but she has stated that many people had no idea what was really going on during the war as far as concentration camps were concerned.  This being said, I always get a strong opinion when it comes down to nonfiction books about the Holocaust because they are either extremely unforgiven or hate everyone that "did nothing". 

My Survival: A Girl on Schindler's List is the true story of a Jewish girl named Rena.  She and her parents were forced out of their home and into a ghetto.  Eventually, her father was taken away, her grandparents, and her cousins.  She was able to stay with her mother as they were forced into a concentration camp.  Rena was able to get her and her mother onto a list to work in the factory owned by Oskar Schindler.  Rena and her mother were able to continue to work with Schindler until the war was over, which essentially saved their life.

When I started this book I had very little background on Oskar Schindler or his list.  I knew that a movie was made about him and that I've been told multiple times that I need to watch it.  I had no idea the role he played during the Holocaust and I was very mesmerized by his kind acts toward Jews even though he was a member of the Nazi party.  He was very unselfish as he paid off people so that he could get away with what he wanted that in turn saved over a thousand Jews.  I think this book was a great introductory story to Oskar Schindler and his selfless acts.  I would love to read a book about Schindler, and I may even have to watch the movie about him.

The details and information about Oskar Schindler was the only thing that I really enjoyed in this book.  I had very mixed feelings about Rena's story.  It is told in memoir fashion and the entire time I felt like she was personally telling me her story.  It is however packed with information and very matter of fact opinions.  The information is great for an introductory book to the Holocaust but was very unnecessary for me which caused me to get bored with the book.  Rena has very strong opinions throughout the book.  She gets clearly frustrated with anyone who didn't try to help those being sent to concentration camps.  I felt like she blamed everyone who did nothing, which isn't a fair thing to do.  My grandma who was living in Nazi Germany didn't know what was happening.  She told me one day that her neighbor was Jewish.  They had grown up together and played together as kids.  One day she was there and the next she was gone.  She said at the time she had no idea what happened to her, but now as an adult, she knows that she was sent to a camp where she was murdered.  I think it is wrong for Rena to blame everyone because many had no idea what atrocities were taking place.

Overall, this would be a great introductory book for a middle-school-age child.  It has plenty of facts and information with the personal story weaved in.  It didn't sit right with me and I have to give it 1 star.  I don't plan on putting this in my classroom library, but I do have a student who is very fixated on Anne Frank and I think this would be a great read for her.