The Boy Who Didn’t Want to Die

In the summer of 1944, four-year-old Peter and his family are moved from their home in Makó, Hungary, to a ghetto with other Jewish people, then a few months later to a disused factory, then on a train to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany. At first, Peter thinks it’s an adventure, sleeping somewhere else and chasing butterflies while his parents labour, fixing the damaged roads. But when he realises his parents don’t know when – or if – they’re going home, it becomes a nightmare.

In Bergen-Belsen, Peter and his mother are allowed to stay together, but they’re separated from his father. Peter has already seen his grandmother die on the route to Germany. Now he’s surrounded by ill and dying people. How can he and his mother possibly survive?

This true story, written by one of the last Holocaust survivors, is both matter-of-fact – as the young Peter tells it – and deeply moving. Peter’s mother achieves the impossible – answering her son’s questions and keeping him alive – in a time like no other. Peter doesn’t shy away from the horrors of the concentration camp, and everything before, but he doesn’t dwell on the details either, making this suitable for Year 6 and up. The focus is on his family, particularly his resilient, inventive mother. With photos and maps at the end, this book turns the political story into the personal to poignant effect.