The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler’s List by Leon Leyson
Atheneum, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020. © 2013 by the Estate of Leon Leyson. 232 pages. [June ‘14]
Children’s/Young Adult literature is a powerful genre in today’s literary world. From the first sighting of the dust cover of this book to the final “resource” page, this book was a delight to read; a place of celebration for life and living, a reminder of the pain humans inflict upon each other with seeming unfeeling regularity and a call to attention of how easily such pain can be revisited in a cultured, civilized society. I will donate this book to my favorite library in hopes that it will be used until the words have been read off the page. This is an important work from the pen of one who lived through a time most want to deny could ever occur but one whose scars are still painfully evident.
Leib Lejzon was born in Narewka, a small farming village, in Poland in the early 1930’s (the exact date is uncertain). His life in this country town was filled with sunshine, “common” farm work and family. His father had to move to Krakow, 350 miles SW of his home, in order to keep his job and support his family. For five years, his father would make it home “every six months or so,” to visit his wife, four sons and daughter until he had saved enough to move all seven of them into a two room apartment in the industrial area of the city. A world unknown to Leib awaited him in that city. For the first time he was not surrounded by family, open spaces and work that were familiar to him. He quickly adjusted and for four years, Krakow became a place, if not familiar, at least not as strange as it was in those early days. That safe world changed drastically in 1938. Leib was nine-years-old when his home country was invaded, then annexed, by Germany and the Nazi’s plan for a “pure race.”
For the next year, life became increasingly difficult for the Jews of Poland. Ridiculous restrictions – e.g. Jews could not sit in the front of the city buses, then they could not sit, then they could not ride at all - were levied daily. The Krakow Ghetto was erected in 1939 and for the next 6 years, the Lejzon family struggled to survive the Holocaust. Were it not for Oskar Schindler, a factory owner and Nazi Party member, it is doubtful that any of this family would have survived. Even with this rich and influential entrepreneur doing all he could to protect them, they were still required to: work 12 hour shifts, have only a bowl of “watery soup” as their one meal for the day, sleep in overcrowded barracks and learn to be invisible. Not being noticed was one say to stay alive.
The book is a testament to the efforts of Mr. Schindler (he is buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, the only member of the Nazi Party to be honored in this way) and a glimpse into the power of determination of individuals, a people and one person who saw his duty and did it, disregarding the cost. Whereas Elie Weisel’s Night (a must read in itself) details the horrors of the Holocaust more graphically, Mr. Leyson (his name was changed upon his immigration to the United States) brings the reader through the horrors of that era as a child, just as he was.
The book is appropriate for all ages, even with the topic being one so vile. The book is more poignant in that the author died 3 days shy of four months after the book was completed. It seemed he followed Mr. Schindler’s example and held firm until his task was complete. Sleep well, Mr. Leyson, you have earned your peaceful rest.
Atheneum, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020. © 2013 by the Estate of Leon Leyson. 232 pages. [June ‘14]
Children’s/Young Adult literature is a powerful genre in today’s literary world. From the first sighting of the dust cover of this book to the final “resource” page, this book was a delight to read; a place of celebration for life and living, a reminder of the pain humans inflict upon each other with seeming unfeeling regularity and a call to attention of how easily such pain can be revisited in a cultured, civilized society. I will donate this book to my favorite library in hopes that it will be used until the words have been read off the page. This is an important work from the pen of one who lived through a time most want to deny could ever occur but one whose scars are still painfully evident.
Leib Lejzon was born in Narewka, a small farming village, in Poland in the early 1930’s (the exact date is uncertain). His life in this country town was filled with sunshine, “common” farm work and family. His father had to move to Krakow, 350 miles SW of his home, in order to keep his job and support his family. For five years, his father would make it home “every six months or so,” to visit his wife, four sons and daughter until he had saved enough to move all seven of them into a two room apartment in the industrial area of the city. A world unknown to Leib awaited him in that city. For the first time he was not surrounded by family, open spaces and work that were familiar to him. He quickly adjusted and for four years, Krakow became a place, if not familiar, at least not as strange as it was in those early days. That safe world changed drastically in 1938. Leib was nine-years-old when his home country was invaded, then annexed, by Germany and the Nazi’s plan for a “pure race.”
For the next year, life became increasingly difficult for the Jews of Poland. Ridiculous restrictions – e.g. Jews could not sit in the front of the city buses, then they could not sit, then they could not ride at all - were levied daily. The Krakow Ghetto was erected in 1939 and for the next 6 years, the Lejzon family struggled to survive the Holocaust. Were it not for Oskar Schindler, a factory owner and Nazi Party member, it is doubtful that any of this family would have survived. Even with this rich and influential entrepreneur doing all he could to protect them, they were still required to: work 12 hour shifts, have only a bowl of “watery soup” as their one meal for the day, sleep in overcrowded barracks and learn to be invisible. Not being noticed was one say to stay alive.
The book is a testament to the efforts of Mr. Schindler (he is buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, the only member of the Nazi Party to be honored in this way) and a glimpse into the power of determination of individuals, a people and one person who saw his duty and did it, disregarding the cost. Whereas Elie Weisel’s Night (a must read in itself) details the horrors of the Holocaust more graphically, Mr. Leyson (his name was changed upon his immigration to the United States) brings the reader through the horrors of that era as a child, just as he was.
The book is appropriate for all ages, even with the topic being one so vile. The book is more poignant in that the author died 3 days shy of four months after the book was completed. It seemed he followed Mr. Schindler’s example and held firm until his task was complete. Sleep well, Mr. Leyson, you have earned your peaceful rest.
