Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to the advanced copy of this book to read.

Thomas was thirteen years old when he and his mother were sent to Auschwitz. They were separated. Thomas during World War II was imprisoned in Birkenau, Auschwitz, Gross Rosen, and Buchenwald. How he survived life in these camps is told with details and drawings he drew on post cards.Thomas would suffer horrible brutality from the Nazis yet somehow survived. He witnessed mass murder of inmates and newly arrived prisoners. He celebrated his freedom from the Nazis when he was 16 years old. He took the opportunity to go to Switzerland to grow strong and healthy. He did get to see his father again in England. In spite of the difficult life in the camps, there were moments of kindness that would give him hope. He miraculously found the will to live.

This book is a true story of a boy’s life living in the death camps of the Nazis. It is a story that tells the daily life of prisoners living. It’s not easy to think that human beings were allowed and encouraged to be nasty, brutal, cruel to other humans. It was the worse type of discrimination. It was about the inferiority of men who thought themselves superior. It is a book that should be read in every country and in every language. It is excellent. I will never forget it.

This book is a valuable piece of history. My only hope is this book does not get lost in the oversaturation of books that use "Auschwitz" in the title. It is clear we are in a fad period of books about the Holocaust, and Auschwitz specifically, but this is one of the gems that should be lifted above the others.

The illustrations are so obviously drawn by a child that it becomes even more painful of a depiction. Everyone knows what happened and the horrors people were subjected to but having something so innocent as a child's drawings depicting some of the worst atrocities our world has known is so powerful a storytelling device it is impossible to ignore.

Wow this is so powerful and beautiful. I am so inspired and also introspective. This book really illuminates the lens of being a child during one of the worst periods in history. I will be buying this when it is published.

This book has traveled a long way to reach today's readers. Thomas Geve (a pen name) was 12 years old when he and his mother were taken to a Nazi concentration camp. They were immediately separated, and Thomas spent the next 22 months in three different camps. Using the most primitive of materials - charcoal and empty cement bags - he drew images of what he observed of "life" (for lack of a better word) in German camps. These original pictures did not survive but he did recreate them from memory after liberation, adding a narrative that told his story and that of his fellow prisoners. Mr. Geve was assisted by Charles Inglefield in preparing the manuscript for publication, and seven decades after the events we have Geve's record of events and emotions. It is well worth the attention of 21st century readers lest we forget.

Thomas Geve was only 13 when he was pulled from his home into the work and concentration camps along with his mother. The story shares intimate details of the horrors of the camps, the pieces of himself that he lost as he could only think of survival, and his friendships that brought him a sliver of joy in a situation full of death and despair. He shares his drawings, simple black lines filled in with watercolors on notecards. They are the drawings of a child. A child who was pushed into these horrors and forced to see true hatred. If we forget, history will repeat itself.

The book's pace is consistent throughout the entire book. It is well written. The pacing of the art throughout the memoir is appropriate.