David Karmi’s fam­i­ly lived in the Hun­gar­i­an city of Sata Mare. His father served in the Aus­tro-Hun­gar­i­an army dur­ing World War I, but that meant noth­ing once the Nazis assumed pow­er. The fam­i­ly was exiled to Poland, where rel­a­tives refused to help them. Return­ing to Hun­gary, they found their home and pos­ses­sions seized and they were deport­ed to Auschwitz.

At the camp, David was sep­a­rat­ed from his fam­i­ly. He sur­vived not only Auschwitz, but a sec­ond camp near War­saw and a death march to Dachau as well. His quick wits, abil­i­ty to make friends, and his opti­mism helped to keep him alive. The first part of the book keeps read­ers turn­ing pages as they fol­low his ordeals in the camps. His mem­oir has a pos­i­tive tone, more like Anne Frank than Elie Wiesel or Pri­mo Levi.

Once he leaves the camps and immi­grates to Pales­tine and, lat­er, to the Unit­ed States, the sto­ry is far less inter­est­ing. His real-estate career is not excit­ing. Over­all, though, this is a nice con­tri­bu­tion to the lit­er­a­ture of Holo­caust memoirs.