A Lucky Child Analysis

Thomas Buergenthal’s memoir A Lucky Child expresses the startling truths of life as a Jewish child in the time of World War II. Throughout his story, five year old Thomas and his parents, Mundek and Gerda Buergenthal, travel to many different places in Europe, but there are only a few that hold significance. Their little Jewish family moves from Czechoslovakia to Katowice, Poland early in the book. It is here that a palm reader tells Gerda that her son is “ein Glückskind” or “a lucky child”. The Jewish community in Katowice is soon evacuated, so they decide to move to the Jewish ghetto of Kielce. Thomas and his parents live a decent life there for four years, until all the people currently in the ghetto, including Thomas’ grandparents, are …show more content…
For instance, when Thomas and his parents first arrived at Auschwitz, their group immediately bypassed the selection that chose who stayed in the camp and who was sent to the gas chambers. This was a rare enough occurrence that it was practically unheard of. If Thomas’ group had been forced to partake in a selection, that would have been “the end of my story”, as Thomas himself put it, because nearly every child was sent to the gas chambers without question. Other illustrations of Thomas’ remarkable luck include lying next to a child with diphtheria, a highly contagious and deadly disease, but not catching it himself, being able to walk again shortly after the amputation of his two toes, and riding in an open top train car that happened to pass under a bridge full of Czechs who threw fresh loaves of bread into the cars below them, potentially saving Thomas and many others from starvation. Although these are all very important occasions that were key to Thomas’ survival, the most interesting example of Thomas’ unbelievable fortune is how he was reunited with his mother after Hitler surrendered and the concentration camps were liberated. While Thomas was in the orphanage, his “Mutti” as he called her, searched long and hard for him, contacting bureaus and …show more content…
At one point, Buergenthal refers to himself as a “child of the camps” because he quickly learned how to survive in the harsh environment. From rationing out what little food he had to finding the nearest escape routes when people were being beaten or even killed by the random selection, Thomas made it out alive because “the survival instinct in children is strong enough to allow them to adjust to the needs of their