Book Review: I Truly Lament: Working Through the Holocaust

I tend to stay away from books that deal with the Holocaust because they give me nightmares. My Grandmother had a wonderful friend who survived the Holocaust and told us about living in a Concentration Camp once. She had a number on her arm and some shrapnel in her side. I have also heard stories about the war from my Grandfather and Uncle both of who fought during it. So when I was asked to review I Truly Lament—Working Through the Holocaust by Mathias B. Freese, I was apprehensive but thought I would give it a go.

About the Book

I Truly Lament—Working Through the Holocaust is a varied collection of stories: inmates in death camps; survivors of these camps; disenchanted Golems complaining about their designated rounds; Holocaust deniers and their ravings; collectors of Hitler curiosa (only recently a few linens from Hitler’s bedroom suite went up for sale!); an imagined interview with Eva Braun during her last days in the Berlin bunker; a Nazi camp doctor subtly denying his complicity; and the love story of a Hungarian cantor, among others.

My Thoughts

I am so glad that I put aside my apprehensiveness and read this book! I must tell you that this should be on a must read list! Mr Freese has done a wonderful job that I felt compelled to finish the book once I began. The stories each leave with a different feeling about them but all in all I must say that this is one of the few Holocaust books that I truly enjoyed.