The Reading Warehouse

This book is the true memoir of a young Jewish woman of the March 19, 1944 invasion of Budapest, the occupation, persecutions, and final liberation by the Russians on March 1, 1945. The book is not a tale of atrocities - although these loom in the background - it is rather a tale of maintaining relationships in impossible circumstances, surviving the edicts and rules imposed on the Jews, and getting along with neighbors in the cramped quarters of the ghetto. It is a story of love, family, staying alive in the incessant air-raids, and avoiding getting deported to the gas chambers.

This well-written book places the reader inside the mind of a very typical Eastern European "big city" young woman as her world plunges deeper and deeper into the hell on earth created by Hitler, as abetted by centuries-old prejudices within her own society. A very realistic portrayal of events including the multiple massive bombing raids on Budapest, that very accurately captures the mood and mentality of the era.