The Children’s Block

Kraus (1921–2000) draws on his experience in the children’s block at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in this stirring tale, his first to be published in English. Created in 1943, the Czech Family Camp served as a feeble Nazi front to hide the horrific realities of the death camps from the international community. There, Alex Ehren, who dreams of beginning an uprising, was charged with caring for children while their parents labored in Auschwitz. Teaching the children is forbidden, but Alex and his fellow counselors engage in the risky, daily rebellion of instructing their charges in reading, writing, politics, history, and Jewish identity. Alex’s secret journal entries exquisitely capture the heart-rending desperation and pragmatism of concentration camp existence: the frustration he feels toward a rebellious young pupil who works as a pimp for a camp supervisor; the hopeless infatuation he has for craft teacher Lisa Pomenka, who provides medical sketches for the infamous Josef Mengele; and the ever-present threat of death by starvation, disease, or the gas chamber. However, the diary narrative frame, with an unnamed narrator collecting the testament of Alex, feels forced and unnecessary. Despite this, the powerful story delivers arresting vignettes that will force readers to consider the limits and possibilities of humanity. (Apr.)