I Have Lived a Thousand Years

A gruelling account of the tribulations faced by a Jewish child and her family during the years of the holocaust. Ellie Friedmann is 13 when the Nazi occupation of Hungary leads to ghettoisation and eventually to Auschwitz. The book is written in the form of a journal of impressions and memories, using a combination of straightforward conversational description and vivid poetic images. The decline of the family and their fellow victims into despair and physical degradation is depicted in sickening detail, but there is also an undercurrent of determination and solidarity which saves the story from becoming simply depressing. This is a disturbing book, but one whose contemporary relevance makes it very valuable reading.