Many of us have read books, seen documentaries and movies of the Holocaust. However, “The Boy on the Wooden Box” memoir by Leon Leyson was one I had to read in one session, never minding sleeping much later the next morning.
A child of poor and hard-working parents in eastern Poland in the 30’s, his was a loving, close, Jewish family with few fears of the coming tragedies.
As the Germans consolidated their attacks gaining more and more of Polish territory, many Jewish families fled closer to the Soviet Union, away from the borders of Germany.
Details of the family’s hopes “If this is the worst…” became heart-breaking as the oldest son was forcefully taken away and not heard from. Details only a survivor can relate make this a page-turner even as we are amazed at the resilience to the barbarism grows worse with moves to ghettos, concentration camps, work details and near misses from death in the gas chambers. And Oskar Schindler, THAT Schindler, was a huge part of this young boys rescue.
Many years later Schindler still remembered Leon and thus the name for this book as Leon had to stand on a box to work his machine in Schindler’s factory. I will confess a few tears as I try to write this piece, but don’t let that keep you from reading “The Boy…” to appreciate where we live.
