Parallel Journeys

This is probably the best Holocasut book I have ever read, which is a real honor considering how many I have read. I cannot belive the truth of this book and how you are afraid to end it because you will loose a friend. I was impressed how each story told was backed up by facts and took you through the entire ordeal from childhood to present. In the book it tells the story of a woman who is a Holocaust survivor and a man who is in the Hitler Youth and becomes a pilot for the Nazis. It is the real-deal when it comes to Holocaust literature and I reccomend it it you are new to this area, and I reccomend it if you have been at it for years!

I thought that Parallel Journeys was an amazing and informational books, and I thought that it was the best Holocaust book that I have ever read. (And that it is a lot of books) And why, people ask, do I like Parallel Journeys so much? It is because it gives both sides of the Holocaust: one of a Nazi and the other of a German Jew. It was amazing, and I learned quite a bit for it. And the way it was written: with one chapter of the Nazi's story and the next of the Jew and so on, was amazing. Both stories facinated me, and I will never forget the huge amount of information that I learned from it.

This book was very enlightening because it shows the view of a woman (Jew) Helen Waterford and a man (Hitler Youth) Alfons Heck.

This book is the absolute best I have read on the Holocaust. It tells two points of view - one from a young girl who lived through the time and one from a young man who ended up being a high ranking official in Hitler's militia. I like the way the book tells their stories - paralled - chapter by chapter. I read the entire book in one day. I could not put it down. I will be teaching my middle school students about German history next year and plan on using this book. It is a must read!!

While they aren't from the same family, Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck have developed similar respect for one another that siblings have for each other. In their childhoods, these two never would have dreamed that they would be traveling the country together giving lectures at high schools and colleges. Heck was a rising power in the Hitler youth; Waterford a young Jewish girl suffering through concentration camps and death marches. Eleanor H. Ayer weaves the stories of both these survivors together beautifully. She incorporates the history of the Holocaust as well as personal testimony from Waterford and Heck. This really is a must read for anyone interested in the Holocaust or the oppression of Jews from 1933-1945.