I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust

Livia Bitton-Jackson

Nov 2011 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this eBook

What is death all about? What is life all about?

So wonders thirteen-year-old Elli Friedmann as she fights for her life in a Nazi concentration camp. A remarkable memoir, I Have Lived a Thousand Years is a story of cruelty and suffering, but at the same time a story of hope, faith, perseverance, and love.

It wasn’t long ago that Elli led a normal life that included family, friends, school, and thoughts about boys. A life in which Elli could lie and daydream for hours that she was a beautiful and elegant celebrated poet.

But these adolescent daydreams quickly darken in March 1944, when the Nazis invade Hungary. First Elli can no longer attend school, have possessions, or talk to her neighbors. Then she and her family are forced to leave their house behind to move into a crowded ghetto, where privacy becomes a luxury of the past and food becomes a scarcity. Her strong will and faith allow Elli to manage and adjust, but what she doesn’t know is that this is only the beginning. The worst is yet to come...

Ratings and reviews

My 8th grader had to read this for school a few weeks ago. She's an avid reader so it was finished in hours. And she loved it. So much so she didn't return it to the school till she MADE me read it. I am very impressed. I think this book gives excellent details in the horrors of what happened to so many in Europe during WWII. It also helped me to see that when a society ignores even the smallest evils, they grow out of control and increase in their evil with each new decree. Very sad, but something we need to learn. We can't forget the mistakes of the past or we are bound to repeat them. Even if they seem to horrific to know. They are important. Someone my age can't even fathom a land where this could have happened. But when good people do not stand up and fight evil, it takes over. This is a great book, simple to read and doesn't take long. She packs so much history and detail in just 224 pages.

I read this book in two days. Probably would have been one day if I didn't have kids to attend to. The way she writes, I felt like I was there watching everything unfold. My heart hurt for her , her family and all the Jewish community who lived thru the Holocaust. Her story if survival is amazing. I highly recommend this book

One more unbelievable story from survival. Really, i can't understand how this horror could happen in our civil time. My husband ask me why I believe in God, I say, it helps me to feel love to people. The book is gr8. And written very lively, I felt every emotions author described.

About the author

Livia Bitton-Jackson, born Elli L. Friedmann in Czechoslovakia, was thirteen when she, her mother, and her brother were taken to Auschwitz. They were liberated in 1945 and came to the United States on a refugee boat in 1951. She received a PhD in Hebrew culture and Jewish history from New York University. Dr. Bitton-Jackson has been a professor of history at City University of New York for thirty-seven years. Her previous books include Elli: Coming of Age in the Holocaust, which received the Christopher Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, and the Jewish Heritage Award. Dr. Bitton-Jackson lives in Israel with her husband, children, and grandchildren.