The Envoy

Author: Alex Kershaw

Genre: Holocaust

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 9

Type: Non-fiction

Number of pages: 230, plus another 64 of appendix, notes, bibliography

Time period: 1940's, World War II

Main characters: Raoul Wallenberg

Exciting events: Rescue!

Passage from book: The two men, wearing suits taken from murdered Dutchmen, scrambled out from their hiding place beneath a pile of wood and into the cold Polish night. For a second or so, the two men sat on the pile of wood and looked back at the most notorious death camp in history -- Auschwitz. "The brilliant lights painted a soft yellow patch in the darkness," recalled one of the men, twenty-year-old Rudolf Vrba, "giving the whole place a mysterious aura that was almost beautiful. We, however, knew it was a terrible beauty, that in those barracks, people were dying, people were starving, people were intriguing, and murder lurked around every corner."

My overall opinion: Oh. My. Word. What a book! Raoul Wallenberg is said to have rescued far more Jews than Oscar Schindler, and he got less benefit from it too. Schindler had his Jews work for him. Anyway, if you're interested in the Holocaust at all, this is a must-read! As you know, the Holocaust is sad, heavy material, so it's not for young readers, but it is an amazing book. Definitely a recommended book!