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23rd out of 39 books
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Into the Tunnel: The Brief Life of Marion Samuel, 1931-1943
by
Götz Aly
A generous feat of biographical sleuthing by an acclaimed historian rescues one child victim of the Holocaust from oblivion When the German Remembrance Foundation established a prize to commemorate the million Jewish children murdered during the Holocaust, it was deliberately named after a victim about whom nothing was known except her age and the date of her deportat...more
Hardcover, 121 pages
Published
January 8th 2008
by Metropolitan Books
(first published May 31st 2004)
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Devastating. The author won an award for his book Hitler's Willing Executioners. The award was named for one child killed in the Holocaust, Marion Samuel. Her name had been picked at random, and nothing was known about her but her name and place of death. The author is a historian, and he felt this was unacceptable. He found out a number of things about this child, including the title phrase, which is what she told a playmate happened to Jews in the Third Reich, 'they go into a tunnel and d...more
I appreciate this book as a work of research, not literature. It is a short biography, investigating the brief life of an ordinary 11-year old. Other than her name and age, Marion Samuel was one of the unknown of the million children whose lives were violently abbreviated in the National Socialists' Final Solution. Her name was randomly selected by the German Remembrance Foundation as the name for a prize to be awarded in commemoration of the child victims of the Holocaust. Gotz Aly received the...more
This is a slim book, but Marion Samuel only lived to 12. She was one of the 6 million Jews who did not survive Hitler. Through the diligence of author Gotz Aly, we are given a glimpse into 3 generations of one family and how Nazi hatred affected them all.
Definitely could've done without Seinsch's afterword, although the last line was good: "They were young and old, poor and rich, men and women, children full of dreams and hopes--like Marion Samuel, a child with a ribbon in her hair." I suppose the people on the committee couldn't help but be a bit annoyed though...I mean, having their proverbially anonymous victim being brought out into the light like this...
This biography has been deemed remarkable for the reason that it exists in the first place, and I must agree with that sentiment. When contacted about being awarded the Marion Samuel prize, Gotz Aly knew nothing about the girl for whom it was named. Nor did anyone, seeing has how her name was plucked from among thousands in the books of Holocaust victims. Seeking to return her voice and banish her anonymity, Aly meticulously researched her family, and incredibly found photos and people who kn...more
Fascinating story of a young "unknown" Holocaust victim. The author received the "Marion Samuel Award" for his historical work with the Third Reich. He felt he couldn't accept the award without learning of the history of Marion Samuel and learning about who she actually. He did some amazing research to bring a life and history to a random girl and her family that were murdered at Auschwitz. The amount of work he did to humanize this victim was amazing. Interesting story.
Meaghan
rated it
Like in the book Empire Made Me, the author vividly portrayed a period in history by looking at the life of one ordinary individual. I was impressed by how much information he was able to dig up on Marion Samuel and her family, considering that sixty years had passed and most of them had been killed. This is a slim but powerful volume that brings to life the horrors of the Holocaust.
An easy but memorable read. If I'm remembering correctly (ha), the author randomly chose a name from a list of thousands of unknown Holocaust victims and vowed to research and write about the person. He picked a 12-year-old. Fascinating and so sad.
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