The Seamstress

The Seamstress is the memoir of Seren Tuvel, a Romanian Jewish girl who survived the holocaust.    What more is there to say about this book?  Just like any other holocaust story, it's a chilling account of the horrendous things that happened to Jews in Europe during World War II.  What makes this one different is that it takes place in Romania and Hungary, two countries I personally had never heard much about when pertaining to this subject in history.  While Jews were being shipped to Aushwitch as early as 1940, Seren doesn't get sent to a work camp until three years lately.  Meanwhile, she and her family were basically unaffected.  They were displaced several times until they finally ended up in a Jewish Ghetto in Budapest.  Throughout this whole experience, Seren served as a seamstress to wealthy Jews and Gentiles alike.  When the war finally reached Hungary, she was rounded up with ten thousand other woman and sent to Ravensbruk.

I couldn't put this book down.  After reading so many dystopian/end-of-world books lately, this one seemed like it could actually fit right into that category.  After all, it was the end of the world for almost six MILLION innocent human beings -- killed at the hand of an evil dictator.  Sounds like a theme straight from young adult fiction today.  But unlike zombies, killing arenas, or supernatural occurrences, this was real life.  This actually happened.  Every time I read a book about the holocaust I just can't believe it.  I can not believe the hatred portrayed against this race of people.  For what reason?  I don't understand it.  The passages below stood out to me so much because they show the cruelty of non-Jews.  When I read these passages I started crying because I just couldn't believe how people could be so brainwashed and cruel!

(Seren is talking the the teenage daughter of one of her clients.  The daughter doesn't know that Seren herself is a Jew.)
"If you must know, my brother and sister and I turned her in last night.  The police came and took her away."
Seren "You did such a thing?  Why?"
"She's a Jew.  Isn't that reason enough?"
Seren "But she's your mother!"
"She's not my mother any longer!  How could a Jew bitch be my mother!"
(Page 152)

(Seren and her father were temporarily taken into custody for questioning.  This occurred on the train to the prison.)
"One of the worst of the tormentors was an enormous Hungarian woman who was in the last days of her pregnancy, her belly greatly swollen and bulging from her coat.  Every time we passed her she held up her two small children, one in each arm.  The little girl spat at us and the boy flailed his feet into each passing arm.  Their mother urged them on, crying, 'Vermin!  Vermin!  Vermin!'"
(Page 98)

(After the war, Seren rented a room from a German widow who was terrified of her and avoided her at all cost.  Seren finally confronts her.)
"The widow was now covering her face with her hands.  'Please look at me,' I continued in a softer tone, knowing she was terrified.  'I have hands like you.  I have a face, like you.  I am human."
(Page 311)

This is an extremely powerful story of one woman's intense will to survive.  It will make you laugh and cry and perhaps come to an understanding of just how insane the human race is.