A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy by Thomas Buergenthal

               Through the years I have read many books about the Holocaust but I have never read any quite like this one.  It is incredible how much luck Thomas Buergenthal had as a boy.  The fortune teller who told his mother she had a “lucky child” was certainly right.  If one single thing had not gone Mr. Buergenthal’s way, he would have probably not survived to tell his story.   

                Reading the book it was clear that a lot of the luck Mr. Buergenthal had was due to his parents.  Young Thomas Buergenthal came from a loving family that did everything they could to stay together.  Wherever their family was moved to, Thomas’s parents made sure they were put in roles of importance.  They held positions that made the SS think twice about sending them to the labor camps.  Eventually it did not matter what position a person held in the community, but until that point Thomas and his family managed to remain safe.

                Another reason the Buergenthal family was able to survive was because Thomas’s father was always able to figure out what the SS and the Nazis were up to before they did it.  With this knowledge Thomas’s father was always one step ahead of them, saving his family and many others along the way.  There was one moment where if it weren’t for his father’s quick thinking, Thomas would certainly have died.  While all the children were being rounded up for transport, Thomas’s father told him to say he can work so he could stay.  It was a risk that could have backfired considering Thomas’s young age, but it worked.  Thomas was not transported with the other children.  Instead he became an errand boy, an experience he used to his advantage throughout the war.          

                In the end Thomas and his family did get sent to the camps.  Right away he was split up from his mother, but Thomas was able to stay with this father for some time.  When they were forced to separate, luck struck Thomas again.  He was scheduled for the gas chamber, but the plans were changed and through the compassion of a doctor he was sent to a children’s barrack.  It was there Thomas was reunited with two old friends who helped him survive through the toughest of times.  In fact, everywhere Thomas went throughout the war and after, he was able to find compassion and friendship, even from those who were his enemy.

                With as incredible as Thomas’s life was before the war, it continued to be so afterwards.  Unlike so many survivors, Thomas was able to reunite with his mother.  His father, unfortunately, was killed mere days before his camp was liberated.  As devastating as I’m sure this was to discover, Thomas and his mother were fortunate to find out.  They did not have to live their lives in wonder, as far too many others were forced to do.

                    After reuniting with his mother, Thomas worked to get his life back to as normal as it could possibly be. He went to school, immigrated to the United States, and became a fighter for human rights. Something Thomas also did was forgive those who had tried to take his life and had successfully taken the life of so many others. Thomas did this at a pretty young age, once he figured out that holding hatred in his heart was something he did not want to do. Wishing vengeance and violence on those who performed the atrocities he witnessed would make him as bad as they were, especially if he wished it upon those who came after them. Thomas had seen far too many innocent people die and to wish it on others because of his own anger was not a path he wanted to go down. He was not going to forget his history, but Thomas Buergenthal certainly wasn’t going to repeat it. That is something we all need to learn and take to heart. With all the anger we have in the world today, history is right around the corner, and that is something I do not want to see.