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Kinderlager presents the adult recollections of three women's childhood experiences in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Dr. Nieuwsma has skillfully woven together three tragic stories into a disturbing perspective on man's ultimate inhumanity to his fellow man. Regardless of one's knowledge of the Holocaust, the reader cannot help but be moved by the horrific death camp experiences suffered by the inmates, as seen through the naive eyes of young children. Three girls were robbed of their families and their childhood, as were their entire generation, and they grew up surrounded by starvation, torture and death as their normality. Yet in the face of this ultimate adversity, these three children survived through a combination of fortitude and providence. Kinderlager forces us to ask ourselves very pointed and disagreeable questions. What kind of people could commit such atrocities against children? And how could the world let this happen? The experiences of Tova, Frieda and Rachel serve as a grim reminder of what happened, and more importantly, what must never be allowed to happen again.
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