The book I read is called, Fragments of Isabella, A Memoir of Auschwitz, written by Isabella Leitner.  This book is about a family that is in the middle of the Holocaust.  The dad tries to go to the United States to get immigration papers for his family.  Eventually, he gets them, but cannot go back to Germany and is trapped in the United States. The other five members of his family are left in Germany to deal with the Holocaust.  This book is nonfiction, based on a true story that happened during World War II, during the 1940’s.  The setting of this story is in Auschwitz, Birnbaumel, and on the streets of Germany.  The main characters of the story are members of a Hungarian family.  They include mom, dad, Philip, the brother, and  Isabella, Cipi, Rachel, and Chicha, the sisters.  The story is written from Isabella’s point of view, telling about her family’s sufferings while in concentration camps.

At the beginning of this book, the family is living in a small town somewhere in Hungary.  The dad travels to the United States to get immigration papers for his family, so they can move to America.  They want to leave Hungary, so they will not be killed by Hitler.  Unfortunately, the dad fails.  He is stuck in the United States, unable to return to Germany to get his family.  Therefore, the mother, four sisters, and brother, are all left alone to fend for themselves.

The family is gathered up by Hitler’s soldiers and sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp.  Luckily, when they get there, the four sisters and the brother are chosen to live.  But the mother is sent to the gas chambers and dies.  The five siblings are trying to stay alive at Auschwitz.  Philip, the brother, is on a different side of the camp than the girls.  Philip tries to communicate with his sisters, but he is caught.  As punishment, the next day he is put in the gas chambers.  So now only the four sisters are left.  For now, they are still together.  They spend six months in Auschwitz, trying to stay alive.  There are terrible conditions at Auschwitz, and they have to eat sawdust and drink urine.  They have rags for clothes and have to sleep on each other because there is no room.  Their time at Auschwitz is soon coming to an end.

One day in Auschwitz, the girls are about to be put in the gas chambers, but instead Nazis decide to take them to a new concentration camp called Birnbaumel.  The good thing about Birnbaumel is that there is no crematorium there.  The girls realize this is a good thing, because without a crematorium, mass numbers of people cannot be killed.  The girls are trying to survive at the new concentration camp and are getting sick with typhus.  After a long stay at Birnbaumel, they are sent to walk to a third concentration camp.

The girls are sent to a new concentration camp near the city of Breslau.  As they were marching through the city, they decided to make a run for it.  All the sisters made it to an abandoned house, except for Cipi.  She never got the signal to run, and just kept marching on towards the concentration camp.  The other three girls find lots of food in the house, and stay there for a while.  They get most of their strength back.  One day, they see a bunch of Russian troops marching outside the house.  They girls know they are liberated and run out to meet the troops.  They travel along side the Russian troops for a few days, and the girls are so excited because the war is over.

Next, the girls want to go to the United States.  They sail to America on a U.S. Merchant Marine ship.  Once they are in the United States, the girls live with their aunt.  They wonder if Cipi lived, but they never find out.  They assume she probably died in some German concentration camp.  In America, the girls all started families and lived the rest of their lives with freedom.

I personally liked reading this book very much.  The book went into great detail on how the girls lived and how cruel the concentration camps could be.  It had lots of suspense and was very interesting.  I recommend this book to everyone (if they have a strong stomach).  The book made me realize how horrible the Holocaust was.   I think the author wrote this book to show what it was like to live through the Holocaust.  I learned a lot from reading this book, and I am glad that I live in a free country, the United States of America.