Powerful – May We Never Forget

The Boy From Block 66 by Limor Regev is a powerful true tale of Moshe Kessler and his family during World War II.

Moshe Kessler was born in an area that kept swapping between being Czech or Hungarian territory. He was born in 1930 and forced to grow up very quickly under the Nazi occupation of Hungary.

We see how previously close neighbours and friends turned as the jackboots marched in.

Moshe Kessler spent over a year being transported to various concentration camps and on death marches until liberation in the spring of 1945. He had grown up in the Jewish faith but like many, he felt abandoned by God in the camps. Moshe Kessler turned his back on God, only returning to faith in later years.

We see Moshe Kessler’s will to survive. He paired up with another lad from his town and together they spurred each other on.

As Moshe Kessler entered the camps he was a fourteen year boy forced to become a man.

The Boy From Block 66 is a powerful, moving and horrifying account of man’s inhumanity to man. It is also a tale of survival and must be read in memory of all those who returned from the camps and all those who didn’t.

I loved the inclusion of photos so that I could put names to faces.

JULIA WILSON