Life in a Jar by Jack Mayer

I am in a book club that meets on the second Monday of the month.  It's stretching to be in a book club....  First, you are committing to read a book. Second, you have a deadline.

A couple months ago, we selected the summer books.  I missed out on June and July so I knew I had best get my act together and read August's book, "Life in a Jar" - the Irene Sender story.

Last Sunday (August 3, 2014) as I woke-up and contemplated the date, I realized I only had 8 days to BUY and READ the next book club book.  Eight days!!!!  And I was aware that this book was about the Holocaust and it was quite thick.  A painful and true historical event coupled with many, many pages was a bit daunting.

Throughout the week, every 15-minute break at work was spent with mu nose buried in this book.  Lunch time (NOT the best time to ready the gory parts) was spent reading.  After hitting the gym, nose in book.  Any spare moment, my little world slowly has been transformed back to 1939-1942 in Warsaw.

I have 70-ish pages to go.  I have read 280 pages in 6 days and as sure as my hair is curly, I can honestly say that this book has changed my life.

I am not saying that my Village high school history teachers did not teach us about the Holocaust.  Maybe they did and the awfulness of it hurt my heart thus causing me to block it from my mind.  But the more I think about it...the more I believe I wasn't taught the truth about the Holocaust.

800,000 Jewish people were killed

In the book, Irena talks about a moment when she was in prison work in the laundry room.  She paused from scrubbing and glanced outside.  A soldier called a little boy over to him. He gave the boy a piece of candy and patted his head.  As the youngster walked away, the soldier drew his gun and shot and killed the boy.

I am sad that public school history leaves out this portion of history.  Why isn't this being told? 

The books references "Shindler's List" which I am well aware will be a sad commentary portraying this event.  I have asked Trudy to watch this with me and she has agreed.  I am not ready to watch it now...as I am still trying to wrap my brain around Irena's story.