It’s hard to frighten a boy after he’s faced starvation, disease, brutality and, in my case, a machine-gun firing squad. We were the strong ones, the ones who had survived.” Before long, caring for the horses became a passion, and their comfort and strength gave Henry a glimmer of life and hope in an ocean of death. Although with every second that passed, Henry knew if he became too weak or made one mistake, he would be mercilessly replaced… Henry Oster and Dexter Ford did a truly beautiful job with this book. The story of Henry and Dexter is beautiful to start with and then to read this breathtaking book that was full of heart even when the experiences Henry was living through were heartbreaking is something that will always stay with me. The life and love that this book radiates is a gift from Henry Oster and Dexter Ford to everyone who decides to read this book.

This memoir was extremely difficult to listen to with heartbreaking and emotional themes. It was devastating but inspiring hearing Henry’s story of survival, suffering and friendship. Henry was 5 years old when Hitler took power and this memoir follows years of his life through those horrific times and how, against all odds, he survived. Within a month of his taking power in 1933, Hitler had already established Dachau, the first concentration camp, on the outskirts of Munich, the home of the Nazi revolution, to imprison anybody who had the courage to oppose him.” Hachette Book Group is a leading book publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre, the third-largest publisher in the world. Social MediaI have just closed this book, and a shiver went right through me, as it did throughout the time I was reading it. We all know about Auschwitz and many of you will have read fiction books based on actual events throughout this time, indeed one of my favourite genres is historical fiction. However, I have never been as moved and affected as when reading The Stable Boy of Auschwitz. ‘A heartbreaking true story of courage and survival’, as stated on the cover; honestly, this is an understatement. Henry (Heinz) Oster was just eleven years old when the Second World War began and this book is his memoir as he revisits those heart-wrenching and traumatic years of his childhood. Early in the book, Henry explains some of the political aspects, which I really appreciated being included and learning about. Toward the end, it tells us what Henry went on to do when he was eventually safe (including trying to adjust - a story of resilience). It was moving, inspiring, emotional, and gut-wrenching. I listened to the audiobook and I think it was so beautifully told.

I've ready many books about the holocaust, most tell the story of a person who survived one or more concentration camps. Henri Oster did the same and tells this tory in this book. but unlike so many other books, Henry lets us see his life before he is sent to the camps. We get to know his mother and his father, and what life was like in Cologne, Germany. Ripped apart from his mother in the shuffling river of children, women, and men stepping off the train, for the first time in his life, Henry was completely alone.

While reading this book I felt so much anger and sadness that this happened to so many people. But I also felt a distance to the author. The writing style, the violence and explicit language was something that I disliked a lot and I couldn’t feel any inspiration out of it. I found myself in the Auschwitz stables, and I felt an ember of hope. If I could make myself useful, helping these horses, maybe I could stay alive." This was a truly heartbreaking recount of Henry’s days in the Holocaust. However, it was inspiring to hear that after surviving his time in Auschwitz, he moved in with his uncle in America, and then got into optometry school.

The Liberation portion of this book really connected with me talking about the Jewish American soldiers calling out in Yiddish. My husband's grandfather verbally told his story at schools and events as a Dachau Liberator for several years up until his death. Like Henry, he thought it was important to tell what he experienced as a Jewish American soldier. The other half a star is because there were 2 key details about the horses that really jarred me out of the story and made me question what other details might be wrong. Firstly, the author stated the Germans were breeding draft horses for the war effort to help pull the heavy machinery etc. Then he said that the stallion in the stables was an Arab. That is the furthest breed from a draft horse you could ever get. I could believe it if they were being bred for officers horses, but Arabs are way too delicate to be ploughing through knee high mud pulling 2 ton plus of equipment. Once liberation comes, the story doesn't stop. We are also given an account of the hardship of assimilation - especially for a teenage boy who'd essentially grown up as a despised Jewish prisoner and saw his immediate family members murdered, 'Imagine knowing that nobody on the entire planet really cared about you.' In spite of all the atrocities that the now-named Henry experienced, he not only survived, but he also thrived. Further, he played his part in ensuring that this piece of history is never forgotten, 'the only way for humanity to prevent a horror like the Holocaust from ever happening again is to force ourselves to look, with unblinking eyes...' The only way for humanity to prevent a horror like the Holocaust from ever happening again is to force ourselves to look, with unblinking eyes, at exactly what happened, and to understand how the unthinkable, the unimaginable, ever came to pass. If we look away, if we as a species allow ourselves to take the easy way out, to let ourselves forget and let the lessons of the past fade away, we are doomed to repeat them.”

This book was excellent and the audio was also excellent. I immediately found myself immersed in the story of Henry Oster, just a young boy of barely 5 years old when Hitler first took control of Germany in 1933. I have read my share of WWII historical fiction books, as well as memoirs from that time, but I don't think I've ever read such a well detailed account of one's personal hell during the Holocaust.

Heinz Oster first experienced hate against Jews when he came home from his first day of school in 1934. A crowd of newly anointed Hitler youth decided to flex their status by taunting young children, 'I had gone to school that morning full of excitement...when I finally made it home that afternoon, the world was a much darker, more dangerous place.' Shortly thereafter, his family is forced from their comfortable, well-off surroundings into a one-bedroom hovel. That is the beginning of the tale of torment and heartache. And it's only the beginning of the war. Their plight only became worse and the war only became longer.I have spent many years reading about WWII and the Holocaust and I always find myself learning something new with each book I read. With so many stories that never got told, I always feel honoured to read a memoir about something so personal and impactful. So I knew as soon as I saw this book that it was going to be an emotional book but one that I absolutely had to read. This heart-wrenching memoir from a Holocaust survivor reveals the terrible realities of life in Auschwitz—and how a courageous young stable boy survived against all odds to tell his story.​ This is the heart-wrenching and inspirational true account of a courageous little German boy who, against all odds, after losing almost everything a human being can lose, survived to tell his story. The first three chapters are primarily about the history of the Jewish people and how Adolf Hitler came to be in power. The next fifty-four are an account of Henry’s horrific story, how he coped and how he endured and survived the Holocaust. Told from a very personal viewpoint, The Stable Boy of Auschwitz is just one man’s account. Never forget that, sadly, there were hundreds of thousands more like Henry. Henry Oster was just five years old, a wide-eyed boy from the beautiful ancient city of Cologne, Germany, when Adolf Hitler took power in 1933.