One of the darkest times in human history was the insane design and execution to rid the world of Jews and ?undesirables.’ At the hands of the powerful evil madman Adolf Hitler, families were ripped apart and millions were slaughtered. Persecution, torture, devastation, and enduring the unthinkable remained for those who lived. This is the story of one woman who lived to tell her story. This is a … is a narrative of how a young beautiful teenager, Helen Stein, and her family were torn asunder, ultimately bringing her to Auschwitz. It was there she suffered heinous indignity at the hands of the SS. It was also there, in that death camp, she encountered compassion, selfless acts of kindness, and friendship.
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Many excellent books have been written about different people’s experiences during World War II, each offering a personal perspective that is unique and yet similarly heartbreaking. ‘The Seven Year Dress’ is as compelling and profoundly personal as any of them.
Mahurin’s writing is, as always, vivid and realistic without being gratuitous in her depiction of life as a young Jewish woman in Germany both before and throughout the horrors of the Holocaust.
Told with honesty and deep emotion, Helen’s story brings to life the experiences of one German Jewish young woman and her family and friends. It is a story of friendship, resilience, and survival against all the odds.
This book is one that everyone should read, particularly in this world that is still plagued by hatred, racism and suspicion of anyone who dares to be different.
Dramatic and sorrowful, it’s a novel of life, survival, and resilience
The author, Paulette Mahurin, takes the reader on a tragic but life-celebrating ride. Emotionally charged, it presents a gut-wrenching fate of two generations of German Jews – Helen’s once happy family. With Hitler coming to power, her life inevitably changes to the horror of losing her loved ones, then hiding from being sent to a concentration camp and then, not able to escape the inevitable, to the atrocities of Auschwitz where she is brutally forced to make dehumanizing choices.
The sequence of events that shaped Germany into the despotic state and corrupted its population is expertly and unobtrusively woven into the well-paced narrative. I would consider this book educational for a reader who is not deeply familiar with the Holocaust. Highly recommended for the general readership.
This book is based on true events, very sad and horrific events. The world lost its innocence during WWII when they found out a madman led his country to try and rid the world of humans whos only black mark against them was that they were born Jewish. No matter how many books I read about this it’s so hard to imagine, yet it happened.
As with all of the author’s books, this one digs into human emotions that help a person survive tragedies. And what greater tragedy has occurred in modern times than the ill treatment of those imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps? The prisoners are seen are real and vulnerable, doing what they had to do to shut out the horrors of the war. Some cannot cope, but others like Helen can hide them inside so they don’t make her become a monster like those who imprisoned her. The emotions are raw and beautiful at the same time. A well written and touching story.
Paulette Mahurin never disappoints. Once again, she delivers an exceptional look a history through the eyes of a young Jewish girl growing up in the pre World War II era and war years themselves. This intense look at Helen Stein’s life includes a gamut of contrasting occasions, from happy times spent with friends and family, to a tense period of denial during Hitler’s rise to power and a changing political climate, to time spent in hiding and finally, to enduring and surviving life in a concentration camp. The Seven Year Dress is heartbreaking and at the same time, captivating. It probes the minds of its characters so thoroughly and deeply that you will feel like you are there, walking beside them. Even as they live through the most horrific of circumstance, while they cling to the hope that even through the despair, there is always hope, the tiniest of lights living in the heart.
Full of heartbreaking moments, this beautiful story by Miss Mahurin explores the tragedies of the concentration camps of World War II.
In this story, we follow the account of a young woman named Helen who, after surviving some unfortunate circumstances, was eventually found and taken into a concentration camp. Although she is one of the few who survive the camp, reading her story from little to young woman is hard.
The account of the way in which Germany affected Jewish families in this time is both realistic and powerful making it emotionally difficult at some points. It’s that realism though that makes this book all the better. To think that this was the reality for millions of people makes it all the more striking.