Not Even a Number

Surviving Larger C - Auschwitz II - Birkenau

By: Edith Perl

Narrated by: Kay Webster

Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

Rifcha and her family were living normal, happy lives. There was school, work, family dinners, outings and vacations. That was until 1938 when the first bit of turmoil started to hit their village located in the Sub-Carpathian mountains - anti-Semitism started running rampant like a disease. It began taking ahold of everyone around them. Those who were once friends now became vicious enemies. Rifcha began to realize that her world was about to crumble.

On April 18, 1944, Rifcha and her family were ripped from their home and taken by gunpoint to the Mukacheve Ghetto. The conditions were harsh and virulent but the entire family was alive and together. Their stay in Mukacheve Ghetto was brief. One month later they were loaded into cattle cars and taken to Auschwitz II- Birkeneu.

Selections were made as soon as the family was pulled from the train. There were no last hugs. No good-byes. As Rifcha's mother and her youngest siblings were being torn away and taken to their final death march, Rifcha's mother made her promise to take care of her sisters, to survive and to make sure she told the world of the atrocities of the Holocaust. At the gates of Auschwitz, Rifcha decided to become someone new. She gave herself a new name: Edita with the meaning: Spoils of war.

Over a million people, lost their lives in Auschwitz II - Birkenau, mostly in gas chambers; today, it is the world's largest Jewish graveyard. At the height of the selections, the murders would peak at 10,000 a day. This camp was home to Dr. Josef Mengele. This was where he did all of his medical experiments. Edita fell prey to Dr. Mengele several times, even becoming victim to his knife, which ended up saving her life. When selections were being made for the eviction of Auschwitz-Birkenau II, Edita once

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Gripping survival story

I hesitate to say this book was excellent as it is a true story of surviving the cruelties and torture of the Nazis, but it was presented excellently! I firmly believe the pure evil of the Nazis needs to be told and this book detailed the strength and resilience of so many people. We must never forget that this did happen and could happen again if we are not vigilant! Excellent book!

Terrible narration

I am very sorry I couldn’t finish this book. The narrator was so grating with a version of eastern Jewish that was b movie cliche it was painful. The story deserved better than this. Shame on the publisher.

A heartwrenching but necessary read!

If you only ever read 1 book about how the Jews and many others were treated during the Holocaust, read/listen to this book.

Narration was excellent in all respects.

What a strong resolve Edith has.

Amazing Story Ruined by Narration

Edita's story is a harrowing tale of Czech/Hungarian Jewry in the late stages of WWII. Her family's strength and survival is a rare light in a rather bleak time in history.

The only issue is the narration which is read in a forced Eastern European accent. Riddled with mispronunciations, the narration is tough to follow and at times cringe-worthy.

Amazing

Must read for any lover of WWII history. Heartbreaking yet somehow an incredible story of strength and Providence.

great story. terrible recording

recorded narration is choppy. overall a great story with many hardships. don't know what happened to the recording

A hard life.

An amazing story of survival. It’s hard to hear about the death of family and friends. A must read on the story of the most infamous death camp ever!

Wonderful

A truly wonderful survivor account from start to finish. Thank you for your bravery and for sharing your story Edith.

Excellent

Amazing story. The narrator is perfect and very effective in making the reader actually "feel" the suffering and amazing courage and determination of the main character to survive.

Never forget!

Not easy to listen to because its hard to hear someone suffer and not be able to help....but we must hear it to never let it happen again!!

OFFENSIVE NARRATOR

I was born in former Czechoslovakia, I moved up to Scotland in my mid twenties, I am angered by the made up exaggerated artificial put on eastern european accent of Kay Webster which makes the narrator sound mentally retarded (perception she ultimately applied to all Eastern Europeans) and in the end spoils the entire story and its natural flow. This is culturally inappropriate borderline comparable to white actors painting themselves black to fit role of a person of colour. SHE DESTROYED THE STORY in her stereotypical approach, let alone she didn't trouble herself to look up the correct pronunciation of geographic areas, names and surnames. The story has its own message that could and should be conveyed in normal spoken english. IT'S DISRESPCTFUL to the survivor's story and listeners....SHOCKING EMBARASSING UNNECCESSARY SHAMEFUL will be returning this title...

story of a survivour

A great story who suffers deeply for the made up eastern europien accent wich is so utterly disturbing while listening.
I am from Europe myself and this added nothing to the story except it became hard to understand the reading.
The story, I am going to search for with another narrator or just read it myself.

Harrowing but addictive read.

Very incite full. Great read, hard going at parts due to the sad nature but worth continuing. Inspiring.

tale where love and resolve triumphed against the odds

The reader's accent and voice generally - the inflexions, sudden raising of pitch, heavy stresses on some syllables - made listening quite hard to bear at times. Otherwise it would have got a 5 star score The story itself was never dull and held your attention. The reader could use their own imaginations of the scenes being d.epicted without the reader having to describe in minute detail what was going on. The images were powerful allowing you to share the author's experience - alwAys a good measure of a good read/book.

Gripping and harrowing story.

A very gripping and harrowing story of the struggles that she endured and the strength she had to survive. The narrator wasn't very good specially with some of her pronunciations but nobody is perfect.

The listening experience is terrible

Quite simply, the entire listening experience is ruined by the narrator - it is very hard to listen to due to the narrators very heavy accent. The accent seemed very contrived and labored. The experience of the author is very compelling and I am almost through it but the narration makes very heavy weather of it. Could be and should be an entirely different experience.

KJL

A moving account of a remarkable story of one woman’s fight to save what was left of her family and ultimately the determination to survive. Beautifully narrated

wow what a story

I cried with her I was happy that she survived and found a happily ever after.
what these poor souls had to go through and the sheer willpower to stay alive is unimaginable.
I pray that something like this will never ever happen..

astonishing

true story amazing. how someone can survive. people don't realise the struggle after the war.