Schindler's Legacy

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler's List by Leon Leyson

No matter how many books I read about the Holocaust, I never cease to be shocked and horrified by the suffering inflicted upon the Jewish people by the Nazis.  Leon Leyson (born  Leib Lezjon) was number 289 on Oscar Schindler's list and its youngest member. Decades later, as a grown man now living in the United States, Leon has an opportunity to greet Oscar Schindler and to thank him. He does not expect Schindler will even recognize or know him, because he was just 13 when his father convinced Schindler to put his young son to work in his enamelware factory. When Leon shakes Schindler's hand, Oscar says, you are "little Leyson" the boy on the wooden box.  To operate the machine he worked on in the factory, Leon had to stand on a wooden box to reach the controls.  According to Oscar Schindler, he was an "essential worker".

This moving memoir captures the innocence and the horror experienced by a young boy who survives the holocaust with incredible luck, perseverance, courage and ingenuity.  Leon rarely spoke about how he survived the Holocaust until after Steven Spielberg's film was released.  Leon Leyson died in January 2013 at the age of 83 without knowing that his book would be published.  A MUST READ!!!