The Stable Boy of Auschwitz: A heartbreaking true story of courage and survival

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One of the things I hadn’t expected going into this book was the amount of detail that he shared about his life. I really enjoyed the fact that he talked about his experiences after being liberated at Buchenwald. I have found many Holocaust survivours stories tend to end after liberation and then jump forward to when they wrote the book. So being about to see the struggles and just the normal everyday moments that Henry experienced after the war was surprising and really beautiful. The first three chapters are primarily about the history of the Jewish people and how Adolf Hitler came to be in power. The next fifty-four are an account of Henry’s horrific story, how he coped and how he endured and survived the Holocaust. Told from a very personal viewpoint, The Stable Boy of Auschwitz is just one man’s account. Never forget that, sadly, there were hundreds of thousands more like Henry. Henry Oster was just five years old, a wide-eyed boy from the beautiful ancient city of Cologne, Germany, when Adolf Hitler took power in 1933.

It feels wrong to give an autobiography about something so horrific 3 stars- it was an overview of the author’s life and experience, and I don’t want to discount that in any way. As a historical recap of events, it was fine. As a piece of literature, it wasn’t great. The book was pretty much the definition of telling rather than showing the audience; while the events described were awful, it almost felt emotionally distant because of the way it was written. This was a truly heartbreaking recount of Henry’s days in the Holocaust. However, it was inspiring to hear that after surviving his time in Auschwitz, he moved in with his uncle in America, and then got into optometry school.I found myself in the Auschwitz stables, and I felt an ember of hope. If I could make myself useful, helping these horses, maybe I could stay alive.” I felt like I was in Henry’s optometrist’s office listening to his traumatic ordeal. He captured my attention and held it until the last sentence. I’ve read many, many Holocaust fiction books, but THIS ONE felt like someone who was actually there was sharing WITH me. It was as if I was witnessing Kristallnacht through my own eyes. It was so much more powerful. The photos added to my emotional response; many I’d seen before, but I’d never seen a SS file card or a medical identity card before.

An controversial opinion but it is my own, I didn’t like this book. I know it’s an autobiography and the things this author went through never should have happened! Let me put that first!

It was moving, inspiring, emotional, and gut-wrenching. I listened to the audiobook and I think it was so beautifully told.

This was a heartbreaking story. I can’t begin to imagine what Henry went through and still survived. It’s appalling to think that this was allowed to happen. In today’s world I can almost see parts of it happening again. One hot, humid day in July 1944, the Gestapo abducted 15-year-old Henry and his mother, forcing them onto cramped cattle cars in the Łódź Polish Ghetto. Like so many Jews before them, they had been selected to disappear–they were being sent to Auschwitz. When Henry describes how he personally felt when he first started to experience hatred against Jews brought me to tears. His description of that day walking home from his first ever day at school, to only be bullied by the Hitler youth and how his life would never be the same from that point on, still gives me the chills to think about.

His story was truly amazing and inspirational. His perspective during and after the war was fascinating. Although I knew about the "death march" this was my first time reading about someone's experience in it. Wow so incredibly scary and unimaginable. I listened to this audiobook ARC and thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review. If you want to get more out of similar books, read Man's Search for Meaning or the excellent The Happiest Man on Earth or The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas or Schindler's List There's heaps of them. It’s hard to frighten a boy after he’s faced starvation, disease, brutality and, in my case, a machine-gun firing squad. We were the strong ones, the ones who had survived.” There is a lot of information covered in this book, and the author has a way of writing that makes you feel like you are sitting in a room with a friend having a conversation.