Shawn Hoffman

Dear Readers,

 

Samson by Shawn Hoffman was one of the toughest books I have read in a long time.  It wasn't because of the writing, it was the subject matter.  Shawn takes the stories of several different Jews who were sentenced to Auschwitz during World War II and compiles them into one man's story. 

 

Now there really was an Olympic Boxer who, because he was a Jew, was sent to Auschwitz where he was noticed by not only the commandant of Auschwitz but also Doctor Mengele.  As really happened, in this story he and his family are threatened with death if he loses his weekly fights, but they will receive extra rations and maybe even freedom if he continues to win.

 

I will tell you right now this book is not for the faint of heart.  I have had to lay it aside a couple of times and read something lighter because of man's inhumanity to man.  The stories that are shared makes this a book that can haunt your dreams and you sometimes have to step away from it to remember that God is still in control.

 

Because Samson's story is more than one person's story it sometimes gets a bit overwhelming.  It makes it unbearable sometimes, but that people actually survived these horrors is amazing to me.  How did they not just lay down and die of a broken heart when they understood what was happening to their loved ones in the gas chambers and other places in the camp. 

 

Stories like these have often made me wonder about the men and women that were in charge of the camp and how they dealt with the awfulness they were doing to the people inside their prison walls.  Samson gives a brief glimpse of things the soldiers that guarded the prisoners went through themselves and what they did to dis-associate themselves from what they did.  Now I don't think they are any more right, but sometimes for the guards it was do what was commanded or end up in the gas chambers yourself.

 

This is not an easy read, this is not a book to read if you are struggling with depression yourself, but it is a good read to get a small picture of what life was like in a death camp.  

 

Happy Reading