Retrato do autor

Isabella Leitner (1924–2009)

Autor(a) de The Big Lie: A True Story

6+ Works 690 Membros 14 Críticas

About the Author

Includes the name: Leitner Isabella

Obras por Isabella Leitner

Associated Works

Bearing Witness: Stories of the Holocaust (1995) — Contribuidor — 79 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Data de nascimento
1924-05-28
Data de falecimento
2009-04-19
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
Hungary (birth)
Local de nascimento
Kisvarda, Hungary
Local de falecimento
New York, New York, USA
Locais de residência
Auschwitz, Poland
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Ocupações
memoirist
children's book author
Holocaust survivor
educator

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Isabella Leitner, née Katz, was born to a Jewish family in the small town of Kisvárda, Hungary, one of six siblings. In 1939, at the start of World War II, her father Menyhért Mendel Katz emigrated to the USA, where he believed he could obtain visas that would allow his family to escape the Nazis. But within a short time, it became impossible for Jews to leave Hungary. In March 1944, Germany invaded the country, and Hungarian policemen forced the Leitner family into a Jewish ghetto. In May of that year, 20-year-old Isabella and her family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz. Her mother and youngest sister were selected for death immediately. Isabella and her three sisters Cipi, Chicha, and Regina managed to stay in touch with their brother Philip. Near the end of 1944, Isabella and her sisters were transported to Birnbaumel forced labor camp in Germany. In January 1945, the camp inmates were sent on a forced march in a blizzard to Bergen-Belsen. Isabella and two sisters slipped away from the column and ran to a nearby farmhouse. There they were liberated by the Red Army. Cipi, the third sister, died in Bergen-Belsen. In an effort to get as far away from Nazi Germany as possible, the girls traveled east to Oelsk, and boarded a train for an unknown destination. In April 1945, they arrived at Odessa, where they obtained passage on a ship for the USA. They arrived in Newport News, Virginia, on May 8, 1945 — among the first survivors of Auschwitz to reach the USA -- and were reunited with their father. He took them home to Brooklyn, New York. Their brother also survived and emigrated to the USA. In 1956, Isabella married Irving Leitner, a writer with whom she had two sons. She wrote about her personal experiences in the book Fragments of Isabella (1978), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. The Abbey Theater in Ireland produced an award-winning film adapted from the book in 1989. Her second book, Saving the Fragments: From Auschwitz to New York, which told of her life after the camps, was published in 1985. In 1994 these two books, with added material, were combined into Isabella: From Auschwitz to Freedom. She also wrote a children's book, The Big Lie: A True Story, published in 1992.

Membros

Críticas

Deportata ad Auschwitz nel 1944 con la madre, tre sorelle e un fratello, Isabella ha subito la conferma del tragico destino che in quel momento storico accomuna lei e gli altri ebrei... (fonte: Google Books)
 
Assinalado
MemorialeSardoShoah | 6 outras críticas | May 4, 2020 |
This is a fairly short novel(ette) that can be easily read in about 90-minutes to 2-hours.

Like many of the authors who have survived the Holocaust, Isabella's story was thrown back into her face, and this great writer was accused of falsifying her own history. Isabella's youth was spent, was killed in Auschwitz, along with many family members.

But she lived. Along with two of her sisters, living day to day with the mantra "I will live, I will live!" She starved. She froze. And Germans used her poor body as a slave to their machinations.

If you want to know another story from the Holocaust, Isabella's is one to read. On the same level as the Anne Frank Diaries, Isabella's story will outrage you, bring you to tears, and at times make you smile on the young girl as she simply tries to survive for her sisters.

I heartily recommend this book.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
texicanwife | 6 outras críticas | Feb 10, 2019 |
When I was asked if I would like to read Fragments of Isabella, I agreed. Auschwitz was one of the worst concentration camps of the Holocaust, so to be able to read a memoir from someone who was there would be, I knew, raw and emotional.

It is a short read, with short chapters, and even for the most part, short and concise sentences.
This makes for a one-day read that is overall, powerful and touching.

Josef Mengele is mentioned a few times, and I was astonished that the author actually came into contact with him. Of course it wouldn't be impossible, I just haven't read a memoir yet where the author spoke about actually being in close proximity with Mengele. There was just such indifference towards him, which was odd considering how he was notorious for being truly awful—even nicknamed the “Angel of Death.” Leitner was one tough cookie. Irma Grese was also briefly talked about and how she would choose specific women to be punished, mainly based on how attractive they were to her.

Because the chapters are so short, sometimes the book confused me as to where the characters were physically at, and the events take place so quickly that it's hard to wrap your head around what exactly is going on all the time. Most of the time you can regain your footing, brush yourself off, and realize what it is Leitner is describing. But a few times, you're still left lost.

I admit, Isabella Leitner's writing was a bit hard for me to read at first. I was enjoying the story, but not her too-short sentences or what seemed to me like almost apathetic emotional responses to the situations at hand. Trust me though when I say you need to read just a few more chapters—or even one more chapter—and you will read what I and others have read and thanked Leitner in our hearts for sharing.

What gripped me almost more than what happened in the camps to the Jews, was what happened outside and around them when they walked the streets and passed by everyone. Leitner says of this:
“But the Germans never saw us. Ask them. They never saw us. Come to think of it, they really didn't.”

One of the saddest quotes I found was Leitner telling herself, “...I don't know yet how people live, I know only how they die.” The author and so many of those members of the Holocaust had to watch their family members be murdered. Be burned right in front of them. Be shot down. So for Isabella to have survived—how wonderful! But how painful, to carry all those memories for the rest of her life.

With that said, you must read what her husband has to say on her account in the epilogue.
It can be a small and terrible world.

*I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
taletreader | 6 outras críticas | Jun 7, 2016 |
A short, snappy look at the Holocaust. Unfortunately, it's so quick that it's rather forgettable.
½
 
Assinalado
benuathanasia | 6 outras críticas | Feb 28, 2016 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
6
Also by
1
Membros
690
Popularidade
#36,666
Avaliação
4.0
Críticas
14
ISBN
30
Línguas
3

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