Boy from Buchenwald by Robbie Waisman

Robbie Waisman, the “Boy from Buchenwald,” tells a gripping story of suffering and a hard-won peace after World War II.

Boy from Buchenwald: The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor by Robbie Waisman with Susan McClelland. Bloomsbury, 2021, 265 pages plus timeline.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 12-up

“I remember where I came from.” The boy, born in a small Polish town in 1931, was given the name Raisel, christianized to Romek. His family was well-off and comfortable until the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, touching off World War II. Everyone knows what happened after that: first the Jews lost all their civil rights, then they were rounded up and packed into ghettos, then they were sent to extermination or work camps. That part of Romek’s story is too familiar. The atypical part is, first, that he survived, as one member of a group of teenagers known as the Buchenwald Boys. Second, he thrived, against all expectation. But not all at once.

After introducing us to Romek’s family and early childhood, the narrative takes us to the liberation of Buchenwald. One day it was brutal life as usual; the next, an eerie quiet as the Germans deserted; then, the roar of American tanks as they stormed through the gate, to be met with blank-eyed boys and piles of corpses. Romek and the other boys were taken to France, where they expected to spat upon and barraged with rotten fruit. Instead, women with fresh-baked rolls. Romek was largely indifferent to the unexpected kindnesses he found showered upon him in this new life. His one goal was to return to Poland and track down his mother and siblings. But of his large family, only a sister survived. The rest of Romek’s story is coming to grips with the near-total loss of his family, and the long road to recovery from trauma.

The narrative is not linear but threaded with flashbacks and recollections: of Buchenwald, of the munitions plant where Romek worked as a slave, of the murder of his father and brother. His complex feelings of rage against his father, God, and the Jewish tradition take some time to work through. But the genuine kindness he encounters, along with an opportunity to reenter civilization and culture, create the atmosphere for healing. The faith he expresses is not so much religious in character as it is social and emotional, but that’s a start: “Something else we can’t forget is that love is stronger than hate. And, as I discovered, love leads us home.”

Overall Rating: 4 (out of 5)

• Worldview/moral value: 4
• Artistic/literary value: 4.5

Read more about our ratings here.

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Review: For another Holocaust recovery story, see our starred review of What the Night Sings.
• Review: Susan McClelland also collaborated on another survivor book we reviewed favorably: Every Falling Star.
• Reflection: “How Long O Lord?” is the cry of the human heart when experiencing severe trauma. What can help? Not “bibliotherapy,” but the Book of books.

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