A harrowing account by survivors of the Angel of Death aka Mengele. A story that needs to be told and never forgotten.

I truly feel like a broken record when I review books like this because I always say I can't believe what went on and that so many then, and now, deny it ever happened. I'm very lucky to live when I do but it's so easy to see how all of what we know could turn on its head in an instant. Thank you for approving this title for me.

This true story of the Mozes twins who became victims of the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele, in Auschwitz is such a heart-rending story. It is also an important story because the world needs to know what evil lives in the world and the human spirit that can overcome impossible situations to survive.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Surviving the Angel of Death by Eva Mozes Kor and Lisa Rojany Buccieri.

This is a story about ten year old twin sisters who are sent to Auschwitz during WWII. By either a stroke of terrible, or good luck, they are sent to the sick and twisted Dr. Mengele, who is obsessed with conducting experiments on twins. It may have saved their lives, but at what cost.

Gosh, these stories never cease to horrify. And it goes to show that you don't need a lengthy story to pack a gut churning punch.

This reminded me of Elie Wiesel's Night, which is another small, yet historical face punch of a true story. Both authors get straight to the simple and gritty facts of their experience and send chills up your spine like no work of fiction ever could.

This is a book that caught my interest because of another book I had read years ago. The information on the twins and the experiments that Mengele preformed on them has been shrouded in mystery. There have been guess and documented information on the twins, but not everything has been learned about that horrific time. I was really interested in hearing from one of the survivors. This book is very interesting and gives you a vivid picture of what the twins went through, how they felt, and how they survived. The pain of being of it all is heartbreaking. This is definitely a book that researchers and historians should read.

Having just watched the Netflix series about Auschwitz, I saw Eva Mozes Kor interviewed, who had been featured on other documentaries before. I then remembered that I had a book of hers to still review on NetGalley.

It's not a very long book, but well written, I would say with the young adult in mind. It's therefore written in a easy to read and absorb manner.

As a twin in Auschwitz, well known for the evil Dr Josef Mengele, who operated on twins, it is amazing the twins even made it out of there alive. The story is quite harrowing in places, but it's a story that needs telling and is very moving. It makes you think hard about what life was like for people living in these places.

I enjoyed the read, and it gave me another perspective on life at Auschwitz.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for allowing me to read and review the book.

This is a fantastically important book that needs to be read by everyone. We must remember what happened to Eva or it will be repeated.

For those who do not know, Dr Mengele conducted cruel experiments on prisoners chosen because they held special interest to him and his research. Identical twins were, unfortunately, of particular interest to him and Eva and her sister Miriam came to his attention when they, along with their family, arrived at the concentration camp.

The experiments included exposing his “patients” to diseases, extreme living conditions, and, to suggest that these children were treated better, provided better food and living conditions, is to dismiss the trauma of being separated from family, knowing that death is constantly imminent. Amputations, deprivation, and more would be performed on one twin, using the “chosen” twin as a sort of control.

As I read Eva’s memoir, I was both engaged by her story, always curious about whether her sister survived the war or not. At the same time, it felt as though the author was glossing over facts, blurring the harshest brutality. For me, this narrative choice was a bit off-putting, as if the memoirist were trying to white wash the horrors.

It wasn’t until I finished the book. This is what comes of not paying close attention when choosing a book because this memoir is not written for the adult reader. It’s a young adult memoir. So glossing over the brutality while not scrutinizing each and every horrific experience makes perfect sense. There is enough that is not avoided and the reader would have to be callous beyond reason to not be appalled by what personal experiences this woman shares, leaving the rest to the imagination.

The sisters have an indominable will to survive, clinging to one another, fierce in their determination to outlive the horrors of their reality. These stories must be shared and never forgotten. Humanity, with its capacity for compassion and kindness is equally capable of a brutality we are inclined to forget because it is shocking even to imagine such things. And Eva and Miriam have a shared story worth reading and remembering.

The detail and respectful narrating in this memoir is incredible. The author does an incredible job of combining impactful prose with the real impact of the events and it is stunning to read. I recommend to everyone.

Thanks to Netgalley and respective publisher for sending me copy for honest review.

Comprehensive ! Splendid !
It was exceptional piece of narration regarding this theme.
As many writers have described thoroughly in Historical fiction and Historical events.
Although, it's quite innovative and true story as the author foreseen and arranged herself.
It was precisely expressed the events and hardship of author and her family.

I like to consider myself an avid reader of Holocaust literature, both fiction and nonfiction. This book, while short, has been among the most impactful books Ive ever read in my life. Eva Mozes Kor was born in pre- WWII Romania, and then the world changed. Eva and her twin, Miriam, along with their parents and older sisters, were transported to Auschwitz, where Eva and Miriam were subjected to horrendous medical testing and the rest of the family perished. This story is one of survival, of hope, of strength even in the most dire circumstances, and most especially- of forgiveness. I just read that Eva died this month, at the ripe old age of 85. May we all live such a long life, with even half of the grace, strength, and humility that Eva lived with.

I read this book over the course of one evening. I couldn't put it down. Very well-written and heart-wrenching.

There is a need, especially now, for more of these books to be published. As there are fewer and fewer survivors alive to give first hand accounts, their stories need to be recorded and published. We should never forget. These stories should never fade from the collective memory of society. If they do, we are in danger of repeating these atrocities.

Surviving the Angel of Death is an important book as it is the true story of twin girls who had the misfortune to experience the horrors of Auschwitz, survive, and even come to embrace forgiveness for the Nazis. I would recommend this one for anyone wanting to learn more about the Holocaust through a firsthand account.

This book is absolutely fantastic. I had my rhetoric students read this as their book in common last semester. The students engaged really well with the text. Excellent writing and narrative.

I am glad more survivors are coming forward to write their stories. Each of their books is so individual in their experience, not just a crowd all experiencing the same atrocities.Does that make sense? Each person survived in their own desperate way, under different horrendous circumstances. This book should be added to school assignments. I think 5th grade up could probably handle the book. It should be another option along side Night and Diary of a Young Girl. All are different views of same Hell.

Stories of Auschwitz survivors are always so strong and painful that can only have an impact on you. In this case, Eva and her sister Miriam were two of Mengele's twins, children that suffered greatly of a mad man's experiments.
All the atrocities they had to go through, when they found themselves in the concentration camp of Birkenau were more than a child can handle. Especially when they had no one else from their family around to look after them. They had lost touch of their parents and sisters as soon as the set foot on the train platform. Mengele picked his patients first and twins had priority for his monstrous job.
This book will break your heart, but it will also remind you that you have to fight for your existence and your dreams. To quote the author, the learning one can get out of this memoir is:
"
1. Never ever give up on yourself or your dreams, for everything good in life is possible.
2. Judge people on their actions and the content of their character.
3. Forgive your worst enemy and forgive everyone who has hurt you— it will heal your soul and set you free.
"

In a way, this is a hard book to review. Eva Mozes Kor’s story is amazing. Her will to survive, to keep herself and her sister alive, at 10 years-old(!) is extraordinary. If it were fiction, I would say that it is completely unbelievable. The entire thing. Rounding up entire populations for incarceration or elimination? Twins saved by a deranged doctor intent on performing dubious medical experiments on them? This is the stuff of third-rate dystopian fiction. But it isn’t fiction. This is a true account of what humans can do to other humans. Remembering that Kor’s account, and the innumerable other holocaust accounts, are real is what’s meant when we say never forget.

According to the epilogue, Surviving the Angel of Death is a YA version of Kor’s previous memoir, Echoes from Auschwitz. To me, it didn’t feel “YA” while I was reading it. The writing and organization of the book and clear and good, though maybe not stylistically outstanding. Kor felt that getting her story into younger hands was important. After her marriage and immigration to the US, she relates that it was difficult to tell her story because most people didn’t really have a frame of reference for the holocaust. It wasn’t until the 1978 TV miniseries The Holocaust that she had a basis from which to speak. To me, it seems strange that people might not know, but even I, who read The Diary of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel’s Night in school, don’t know all the stories.

I read Surviving the Angel of Death right after finishing a book called The Coddling of the American Mind. The authors of that book present three fallacies that they believe people (Americans especially) are falling victim to. One of these fallacies is “the world is a battle between good people and evil people.” It would be easy to read Eva Mozes Kor’s memoir and say, “That isn’t a fallacy. Look at the evil she overcame!” But the antidote to the good/evil fallacy is to remember that we have everything in common as humans.

"In 1993 I traveled to Germany and met with a Nazi doctor from Auschwitz, Dr. Münch. Surprisingly, he was very kind to me. Even more surprising, I found I liked him."
Eva Mozes Kor, Surviving the Angel of Death, pg 131

That Eza Mozes Kor was able to forgive what had been done to her, that she found peace in that forgiveness, is maybe what shouldn’t be the most extraordinary thing of all.

Quick read. Probably best for someone with limited experience with holocaust literature. This one left me wanting so much more. I expected to read about the horrors imposed by Josef Mengele but this story just glazed over it.

I thought this book was excellent. It was very detailed and the story made you feel like you were actually there. This is a bit of history that shouldn't be forgotten.

Surviving the Angel of Death is one of the few Holocaust books that I've read. Its a shocking account, and is made even more horrific being lived through the eyes of 10 year old.

The writing is honest and straightforward with no feeling of events being romanticized in order not to shock the reader. As Eva fights for both her own life and the life of her sister, my admiration grew stronger by the line for this tough, spirited child who used her own experiences to help others become inspired and to understand exactly how much forgiveness can achieve.

I was, enraged, saddened and had full admiration for Eva' history teaches us all sort of things and this book should be on the reading list of all schools.