The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson
"Life seemed an endless, carefree journey. So not even the scariest of fairy tales could have prepared me for the monsters I would confront just a few years later, the narrow escapes ti would experience, or the hero, disguised as a monster himself, would save my late. My first years gave me no warning go what as to come"(Leyson 7).
|
What does this book title mean?
This title actually has to do with Oskar Schindler, the man who saved his and many our Jews lives. When Leon was working at Schindler's factory he was too small to reach the machine he was suppose tot operate. Schindler took a wooden box and made Leon stand on it because he was now tall enough to work the machine. He stood on the wooden box day in and day out and became known as the boy on the wooden box. He was the only young boy who had to stand on a box to do his job but at least he was still alive. |
Tragedy comes out of nowhere sometimes and it all depends on how one deals with it. If one is always giving up and not trying they are going to loss the battle. The battle is only half the part. The other half is what one wants, do they want to give up or do they want to fight and try. Leon and his family were some of the Jewish people would fought for their freedom and tried to stay alive. Although they put their lives in danger they were still trying to get free form the wrath of the Nazis. In the ghettos there was tragedy all around. Almost every day there was another "action" were more and more Jews were taken and killed or sent to labor camps. It even happened among Leon's Family. Leon's brother Tsalig is taken by the Nazi because he is seventeen and he needs his own working permit in order to live in the ghetto. The Nazi take him away but there is nothing that Leon and the rest of his family can do because then they will be shot or taken away. In the memoir it says "The solider pinned Tsalig's arm behind his back and shoved him the door. In the span of a minute, my beloved brother was gone"(Leyson 95). Just in an blink of an eye tragedy struck a family that has already lost so much. Tragedy comes out of nowhere and will eat one up inside feeling they could have done more. Leon thought he could have saved his brother, but it would have really been suicide because would shave just been shot by the Nazi. In addition to tragedy in the ghettos there was still tragedy after they were released from the Nazi's. When Leon's family was sitting eating dinner at a place where Jews could go after the war, people started to throw rocks at their window. The said that they did not belong and everything is the Jewish peoples fault. Leon and his family had nowhere else to go because nobody excepted Jewish people. Leon's father could not get a job and they could not get a house. The times after the war were tragic for the family, they did not belong anywhere. To add on to the problems at home, Leon found out that his oldest brother Hershal had made it to the countryside with his grandparents but was shot the Nazi. When Leon's mother heard the news she fell to the ground crying knowing she would never see her oldest son again. Tragedy is something one never expects but is always there. No matter where Leon and his family where tragedy always followed them like a dark shadow.
|