Her strong will and faith allow Elli to manage and adjust, but what she doesn't know is that this is only the beginning. Then she and her family are forced to leave their house behind to move into a crowded ghetto, where privacy becomes a luxury of the past and food becomes a scarcity. First Elli can no longer attend school, have possessions, or talk to her neighbors. A life in which Elli could lie and daydream for hours that she was a beautiful and elegant celebrated poet.īut these adolescent daydreams quickly darken in March 1944, when the Nazis invade Hungary. It wasn't long ago that Elli led a normal life that included family, friends, school, and thoughts about boys.

A remarkable memoir, I Have Lived a Thousand Years is a story of cruelty and suffering, but at the same time a story of hope, faith, perseverance, and love. So wonders thirteen-year-old Elli Friedmann as she fights for her life in a Nazi concentration camp. It is very moving and some parts broughttears to my eyes.What is death all about? What is life all about? I recommend I Have Lived a Thousand Years to anyone willing togive some time to an extraordinary book. After the firstchapter, though, it reaches a high intensity of cruelty to the human race.Thoughts of why someone would and could be so cruel flew through my mind as Iread it. One weakness of this book is its slow start. His desire for aperfect race killed and wounded many innocents who did not meet hisstandards. Today there are still people who have thetattooed ID number on their left arm, proof of Hitler's cruelty. The accounts ofthe abuse, little food and foul water really happened to this young, normal girl.The Holocaust was not a legend, as some may think, but an actual event thataffected the history of mankind. I decided to read the book because it is a true story. Those unable to work are sent to the gas chamber. All the men in the Ghetto are taken to laborcamps, Elli's dad among them.Īfter the men leave, the rest of the Jewsare moved to a concentration camp miles away and separated into groups based ontheir ability to work. When Elli, her family and other Jewish people from her hometown,Somorja, are taken to the ghetto, the Hungarian military police take their booksand other possessions and burn them. Her brother, Bubi, doesn't view the star as humiliation but as mock prideagainst Hitler. Discussion Questions: I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson (pp. When branded with the yellow star, she faces embarrassment andshame. She learnslessons about love, determination and hope that usually take a lifetime tounderstand. LiviaBitton-Jackson's I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaustdepicts the struggles and horrors a 13-year-old Hungarian Jewish girl, ElvinaFriedmann (the author's birthname), goes through during the Holocaust.

I have lived a thousand years author