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| Plot Summary of I Have Lived a Thousand Years |
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"This is a heart rendering account of one family's terrible terrible time in the Holocaust and how they survived. The story, an autobiography, begins with Elli L. Friedmann, telling her story. They were a Jewish family.
Eli daydreams of her life as a celebrated poet, has a life rich with family, school and thoughts about boys. But all that changes quickly in March of 1944, when the Nazis invade Hungary. First Eli can longer attend school, have possessions, or even talk to her neighbors. Then she and her family are forced to leave their homes behind and move into a crowded ghetto, where privacy becomes a luxury of the past and food becomes scarcity.
She and her mother are treated very cruelly, and they were separated from the rest of their family. At one point they were forced to shave their heads and wear ugly prison garb.
The least little infraction of the rules in the various prisons they were in would mean the gas chambers.
Eli's mom was badly injured, and almost did not recover. But through strong faith, and a will to survive, they both lived through the tortures they had to endure in a concentration camp.
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Boppy, Resident Scholar
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"Elli Friedmann is just a little girl, she and her family are Jews. They are taken and put in an prison camp with other Jews by the Nazi's. They are tortured, and many Jews were executed. Her Father was taken away and put in to a seperate camp and so was her brother Bubi. Elli and her mom only had each other and they had to survive togather. I Have Lived a Thousand Years is about her time being persecuted by the Nazi's."
tessa harvey, Resident Scholar
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"This is an accurate and harrowing first-hand account of the suffering of Elli Friedmann, a 13 year Jewish old girl, and her family, living in Nazi-occupied Hungary in the Spring of 1944. Within a few months, Elli's secure and happy world was rocked by a series of events driven by the Nazi hatred of the Jewish race and culminating in the death and destruction of most of her family.
Jewish families were forcibly removed from their homes following a period of deprivation and humiliation. They were interned in an overcrowded ghetto prior to their transfer to the death camps of Auschwitz and Krakow. Weak and battered, they were stripped of their clothes, hair and dignity, and forced to exist in unimaginably harsh and unhygienic conditions. The weak got weaker and were ultimately put to death in the notorious gas chambers when it was felt by the SS that they served no further use to the state. Little children and old people often suffered this fate on arrival.
It is only through her courage, strength, teamwork and love for her family and trust in her closest friends that Elli manages to retain her will to live and ultimately survive these atrocities. Although graphic and brutal in parts, the book is written with positive compassion throughout. It is awe inspiring because it demonstrates the absolute strength of the human character in adversity. Elli was a normal, bright teenager no different to any other but her experiences remind us that even the worst suffering can be overcome.
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Fiona Laws, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of I Have Lived a Thousand Years |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
War/Cloak & Dagger story?
- holocaust
War/Spying
Yes
Period of greatest activity?
- 1900+
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- scholar
Age:
- a teen
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity
- Jew
How sensitive is this person?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other people
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 3 (some)
Europe
Yes
European country:
- France
- Germany
- Eastern Europe
- Poland
- Russian
Misc setting
- prison
Century:
- 1930's-1950's
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- very explicit references to deaths and torture
Book makes you feel?
- depressed
Commentary on society?
Yes
Commentary on
- race
- war
- religion
Unusual Style:
- a lot of stream of consciousness
Writer's slant towards subject:
- very unfavorable
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of set of events during life
If this is a kid's book:
- Age 16-Adult
Autobiography?
Yes
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life?
- 0-25% of book
How much is philosophy rather than life story?
- 0-25% of book
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Click here for more information about this book
Livia Bitton-Jackson Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 Mary Benner
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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