Still Alive

A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered

By: Ruth Kluger, Lore Segal - foreword

Narrated by: Natasha Soudek

A controversial best seller likened to Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel, Still Alive is a harrowing and fiercely bittersweet Holocaust memoir of survival: "a book of breathtaking honesty and extraordinary insight" (Los Angeles Times).

Swept up as a child in the events of Nazi-era Europe, Ruth Kluger saw her family's comfortable Vienna existence systematically undermined and destroyed. By age 11, she had been deported, along with her mother, to Theresienstadt, the first in a series of concentration camps that would become the setting for her precarious childhood.

Interwoven with blunt, unsparing observations of childhood and nuanced reflections of an adult who has spent a lifetime thinking about the Holocaust, Still Alive rejects all easy assumptions about history, both political and personal. Whether describing the abuse she met at her own mother's hand, the life-saving generosity of a woman SS aide in Auschwitz, the foibles and prejudices of Allied liberators, or the cold shoulder offered by her relatives when she and her mother arrived as refugees in New York, Kluger sees and names an unexpected reality that has little to do with conventional wisdom or morality tales.

©2001 Ruth Kluger; Foreword copyright 2001 by Lore Segal (P)2021 Tantor

Boring. Good writing, though.

Clever analogies, well-written. In fact, a hoot piece of literature. The only feelings she exhibited was her dislike of her mother

Eloquent

Writing is clearly Klüger’s artistic calling. Very beautifully written from the perspective of her younger and present self. Unfortunately the narrator’s vocal fry made it hard for me to listen to.

The reader makes the story come to life

This is the first holocaust story I’ve read from the perspective of someone who experienced the atrocities as a child. Not only was the story a great one, but the reader told it in a way that you can feel how it affected the author and changed her views on life and relationships.

traumatic & heartrending... :(

unbelievably long and hard to stick with but I finished it. very sorry for her mother's & her camp experience

Extraordinary story. Sublime narration

This audiobook was incredibly moving. The narrator did a very touching job connecting with kindness and empathy in the telling of horrific events. I don’t think I could have handled reading the book in print because of the intensity, but the narrator’s voice was an anchor and held my hand when it felt almost unbearable to go on, and so we got through. Extraordinary story, and brilliant casting. Thank you.

More than I expected

Holocaust survivor stories are so important to every generation to come. Though I love them all this one though I will listen to many times over. I was at first not thrilled with the narrator but… listen on and she captures Ruth so well. When I say I love them all as in Ruth’s story I’ve grown to learn the importance of of how they struggled, how they lost, fought and most importantly how they carried on to show and teach the world what 79 years later come January 27, 2024 on Remembrance Day that they will never be erased from this world or our memories as long as we pass their stories of their lives on to the future generations.

Astounding! Deserves more stars

I am absolutely confused on anything less than five stars. The narrator was not terrible. Yes, the story was long, but so was there many years of struggle. I would’ve gladly listened to it twice as long. This was an absolutely amazingly written story of triumph, determination, and love. I was honored to be able to read it.

Terrible narration

Could not get through this book. The narrator with her sarcastic tone was terrible. Will be returning for credit.

Sad but true

This woman has been injured, psychologically and maybe doesn’t even know it. Right from the beginning of the book she resent and dislike people that haven’t gone through what she’s going through. Such as the man that offered her the orange. She continually rejects help from people.