Non­fic­tion

Sur­vivor’s Game

David Kar­mi
  • Review
By – July 23, 2014

David Karmi’s fam­i­ly lived in the Hun­gar­i­an city of Sata Mare. His father served in the Aus­tro-Hun­gar­i­an army dur­ing World War I, but that meant noth­ing once the Nazis assumed pow­er. The fam­i­ly was exiled to Poland, where rel­a­tives refused to help them. Return­ing to Hun­gary, they found their home and pos­ses­sions seized and they were deport­ed to Auschwitz.

At the camp, David was sep­a­rat­ed from his fam­i­ly. He sur­vived not only Auschwitz, but a sec­ond camp near War­saw and a death march to Dachau as well. His quick wits, abil­i­ty to make friends, and his opti­mism helped to keep him alive. The first part of the book keeps read­ers turn­ing pages as they fol­low his ordeals in the camps. His mem­oir has a pos­i­tive tone, more like Anne Frank than Elie Wiesel or Pri­mo Levi.

Once he leaves the camps and immi­grates to Pales­tine and, lat­er, to the Unit­ed States, the sto­ry is far less inter­est­ing. His real-estate career is not excit­ing. Over­all, though, this is a nice con­tri­bu­tion to the lit­er­a­ture of Holo­caust memoirs.

Relat­ed con­tent:
  • The Geo­graph­i­cal Ency­clo­pe­dia of the Holo­caust in Hun­gary edit­ed by Ran­dolph L. Braham
  • I Kiss Your Hands Many Times: Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hun­gary by Mar­i­anne Szegedy-Maszak
  • A Guest in My Own Coun­try: A Hun­gar­i­an Life edit­ed by George Kon­rad; Jim Tuck­er, trans.; Michael Hen­ry Heim
  • Bar­bara M. Bibel is a librar­i­an at the Oak­land Pub­lic Library in Oak­land, CA; and at Con­gre­ga­tion Netiv­ot Shalom, Berke­ley, CA.

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