Canada Reads, book 1 "By Chance Alone"

  I decided to start my reading with this book.  I knew that it would be sad, but probably all of them will be sad.
  One of my favourite books is "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl.  Frankl's experience in the holocaust was similar to Max Eisen's- they both lost their whole family.  But Frankl said this: "We can discover the meaning of life by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.  For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement.  When we cannot change the situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.  We need to be responsible for our existence."
   I thought that was a powerful message.  And this book also shows the triumph of the human spirit in the face of immense suffering.
  
  Max Eisen was only nine when Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, where Max lived with his Jewish family.  They eventually ended up in Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Max was the only survivor in his family and he ended up in 1946 in a school for orphans in Brandenburg, Germany, where he finished his schooling until age 20.  Then he was able to get passage to Canada, where he lives today.
  The details written in the book are horrendous as you would expect.  But I was riveted to Max's story.  It is a powerful story.
  The last time Max saw his father, his father gave him a blessing and told him to 'tell the story'.  And that is what Max has been doing as he travels and speaks to many groups.  His mission: "telling the story of our collective suffering so it will never be forgotten".  He had great difficulty at first trying to get that story put into a book, but eventually he found an editor to work with him to bring out all the details that were needed to make the story as powerful as it is. 
  His warning to all is "stand on guard against radical ideologies and never be a bystander".