I literally
could not put this book down!
This book
tells the story of Samson Abram, a Jewish man who was imprisoned in Auschwitz
during World War II, who is forced to box every Saturday night for Nazi brass entertainment.
If he wins, he receives extra food but if he loses then he is sent to the gas
chambers. But Samson is a fighter. He was a 1936 Olympic boxer who was robbed
of his medal because of his nationality.
This book
tells of the cruelty of man in the horrors of the Holocaust while at the same
time portraying the courage of man in struggling for honor and dignity in these
circumstances. I was immediately drawn into Samson’s story as one act of
kindness throws him and his family into the eye of the SS and gets them all
shipped off to the concentration camp. I walked through the petrifying moments
when they arrive at the camp and the days which followed as the rumors are all
confirmed in their living nightmare. But then, as I read, hope began to grow
like a lone yellow flower Samson found growing in the changing room outside the
boxing ring. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough as I raced to keep up with
this phenomenal story of one man who would just not give up in the face of unimaginable
cruelty and brutality.
Everything
in this book actually happened to real people during the Nazi invasion of Poland
in the early 1940’s. As you read through it, there are side notes detailing the
actual facts this story is based on.