Couldn’t put this book down. Differed from other books I’ve read on the same subject matter but equally harrowing without including too many of the horrific details. Was a story of hope and choice and disappointment in a whole generation of people who were not able to see humanity in the way it needs to be. Lesson to us all to appreciate everything, focus on life and equality of all.
An “easy” read in terms of writing style, very much through the eyes of the 16 year old protagonist. After the horror of Auschwitz comes the aftermath of trying to recover and function and the ongoing hangover of the nazi regime despite the war’s end. Interesting to see this element in a story as so often it ends with the concentration camp.

Thanks for an arc courtesy of NetGalley here is my review. What a journey this truly inspiring book takes the reader on. Poignant, thought provoking, sad , the list of descriptive words for this book doesn’t do it justice. Truly magnificent read that stayed with my after reading. Really enjoyed reading the story line.

How can you possibly give a review on such a book? The true story of Edith and her sister Magda who survived the atrocities of Auschwitz when they are sent there with their mother who did not. Edith loved to dance and when she is asked to demonstrate her talent by Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death, she does so in order to survive. What the story tells us is heart breaking and all the more horrifying as it is fact! I could not put it down but can I say I enjoyed it? I think I can only say it had to be read. Edith writes with the heart and soul of a woman who has seen and experienced terrible things but survived to live and tell her story and she does it well. I sobbed at the end!

A heart wrenching read by Edith Eger, a survivor of the holocaust. It tells the story of evil and cruelty beyond the imagination. It begins with murmurings and anti-Semitism, Edith is excluded from the Olympic gymnastic team and the yellow star on uniforms is introduced. Her storytelling allows us to meet real people with aspirations of achieving something or just simply getting by. Theirs is a close-knit community.
There is constant unease and tension as her father is taken away and returned later. Her terrifying ordeal (that sounds too lame) begins when with her parents and older sister Magda she is rounded up and taken to Auschwitz.
We watch in horror as one word sends her mother to her death. A single word, which will add to her personal trauma. Some how despite many obstacles she manages to survive with her sister and together they are liberated by USA soldiers. Their strength and will to survive cannot be taken from them.
One cannot escape the mention of Palestine as a place of hope for the Jews and this perhaps jars a little given the current political climate. This however is about human life and what two teenagers had to endure. I hope the Palestine people will be seen as humans with aspirations to simply live.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this a head of publication.

Sometimes words cannot fully justify how an author has remarkably well written a book and this is one of those occasions.
The author made me feel so many different emotions as I read what they went through during their horrendous experiences as a child and as an adult in war times.
There is no way that I could ever imagine how horrific life was and what the family and everyone mentioned in this book went through.
Anyone that reads this book will feel raw emotion but also heartful reassurance that there are good things that come out of bad things if you have faith, strength within and sheer tenacity.
An excellent read

This is an incredibly powerful and harrowing read. That such atrocities happened is utterly heartbreaking but it is so important that we remember them and all the people whose lives were sadly lost during the holocaust. Thank you to Edith for sharing her experience with the world. Her strength and resilience is truly inspiring.

A poignant and powerful memoir that really hits hard. Edith’s story is gut-punching but shows her strength and will for life throughout.

As time passes there are very few left who can tell of the true horrors of the holocaust. Edith Eger has previously told some of her story in her book, The Choice, but here she gives a more detailed account of what she and others endured. It is aimed at young adults and while it doesn't shy away from explaining the barbaric treatment that Jews and others were subjected to, it holds back from being really graphic. It is still a painful read though, but a necessary one.

We can't change the past, but we can continue to be witnesses for those who suffered and were killed. It remains as vital as ever that we don't forget the consequences of seeing others as less than human and where that can lead. The book is also a testimony to those who survived and that hope can endure.

This was an extremely harrowing and heavy read. I feel like reading books such as ‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas’ gives you an insight into how horrific the experience that so many innocent lives had to endure but to actually read it from someone who experienced it and survived it is heartbreaking and put it all into such a different perspective for me, especially given the state of the world at the moment. I’ll admit that I hadn’t read the authors other book but I will absolutely be picking it up to educate myself further.

Eger’s memoir The Choice remains one of the most memorable books I’ve ever read. So when I saw she was publishing a young adult retelling of her experiences during the Holocaust, I knew it would be worth a read.

In many ways, this is a more straightforward memoir than the original, with a chronological narrative and a strong adolescent voice. But the more accessible storytelling in no way diminishes the power and devastation of the story Eger tells: there is a clarity to her words and the images she captures that only sharpens their emotive impact. Eger foregrounds the humanity - the hope and despair, and freedom of thought - she found in concentration camps which were cruelly designed to dehumanise their prisoners.

The Ballerina of Auschwitz is a vital first-person testimony from a survivor.

This book is immensely powerful. Edith's story of survival and perseverance is needed more in todays chaotic, frightful world then ever.

I especially appreciated the focus on Ethel's relationship with her mother - from her sympathy towards her yet longingness to escape the same fate; "There are alternatives to my mother's loneliness. I know there are."; to their inevitable separation. It's only natural that one of the last images of the novel is of their love. "I only feel every single cell in me that loves her, that needs her. She's my mother, my mama, my only mama."

A devastating, incredible, essential read.

This was a fascinating read, I hadn't read any of the other books by this author and I also didn't realise it was a young adult book. I can now see in hindsight how it can be read as a young adult book but it is also was accessible as an adult.

The foreword by the author was very moving as well as the whole story and I am really glad that I had the opportunity to read this. I learnt new things and just cant imagine having to live in that time.

I really enjoyed this book - I say "enjoyed" but really it's a harrowing reminder of what atrocities human beings are capable of. The story is told in such a way that you are gripped from the outset, but all the way through you have a sad feeling in your heart.

Beautiful, heartbreaking, necessary. A must read.
We often associate only the German Nazis with the vicious antisemitism that led to the horror of the holocaust, but it is worth understanding that it was rfe across Europe as this heart-rending account shows. Far more stood silent than drove the atrocities and we cannot allow that to happen again, which is I think the message to be found here. If we can't lovecour neighbours, we should at least seek to accept our differences and offer peace.
Edith Eger survived against all the odds, and not only survived but kept her wn humanity and capacity for love.
This short but powerful story is told with a mix of brutal honesty and beautiful reminisce and is wholly unputdownable until the final, generous, learn-from, sentence.

Such a sad true story of survival, love, hate, soul searching with a beautiful ending.

I’m so glad Edith decided to go back to Auschwitz and that it helped her put certain things to perspective. So happy she found love with Bela, her soulmate and it was amazing how brave and strong Edith and Magda were and how such a tragic event pulled them closer as sisters

Thank you Netgalley for the great opportunity to read something so heart wrenching by a strong, beautiful author. I need to read The Choice and The Gift now

Everybody needs to read this book! Edith Eger's retelling of her book 'The Choice' for a YA audience is an important historic memoir. It is harrowing and hopeful at the same time. An honest account of her experience and survival of the second world war as a 16-year old. Her inner strength is incredible and helped her through the horrors of the time. An incredibly powerful book.

Having read The Choice I was interested to read the YA edition and it certainly has the same emotional depth and impact. While this version does not include the stories of Eger's patients it still promotes the same message of hope and resilience.

A dark story all the more uncomfortable for knowing it is true. This is a difficult read making the reader face a terrible history but also a story that - slowly and painfully - shows that we can survive and that our love for our fellow humans can drive us to help them too to survive . Beautifully and sensitively written and a valuable lesson.

The Ballerina of Auschwitz is a retelling of The Choice with approximately 30 per cent entirely new material, which offers readers both a more expansive and more intimate understanding of Edith’s journey.

I am humbled by Edith's story, her strength to share it with the world and her outlook on life as shared both in The Choice and in The Ballerina of Auschwitz.

It is a very emotional read, much of which is hard to accept actually happened as it is so brutal.

I am forever grateful to Edith and other survivors for sharing their stories. To see that there was hope in all the misery, "if I can survive today, then tomorrow I will be free".

Her realisation that to continue living, rather than simply existing, there is a choice - "to pay attention to what we’ve lost or to pay attention to what we still have".

Thank you.

This story is about Edith who was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 aged just sixteen, along with her Mother and sister.
In a life before this she had been a ballerina, a heartbreaking story and told through the eyes 0f a young girl painful and emotional.