"An extraordinary memoir that is a valued and appreciated addition to the growing library of Holocaust literature, Four Scraps of Bread is unreservedly and emphatically recommended for community, college, and university library collections. "
As a profoundly personal quest for meaning, Four Scraps of Bread makes an important contribution to Holocaust literature and is highly recommended for parish libraries.
"'I did not understand how people changed so much: Some became executioners, others became victims,' writes Holocaust survivor Magda Hollander-Lafon in Four Scraps of Bread, a slim volume of piercing, simple-yet-profound reflections on her journey through hell and back."
"This small, gentle book does not condemn anyone. In France, it was honored as the 'spiritual book of the year.' Indeed, it deserves to be recognized as the 'humane book of the year.' It is a book that tells of the complete inhumanity of an age, and how a smile from another person can bring light even in the darkest hours. Rarely has a book moved me so much. I need to read it again, and share what I have read in it, so that humanity never forgets—and never can forget."
The book’s reflections, prose, meditations, and poetry offer ways to experience alongside Hollander-Lafon her lived experience, both in the death camp and in the the Holocaust’s aftermath, as she, despite all odds, lives through Auschwitz’s atrocities and builds a new life after the war. Her book shows the beauty, hope, and presence of God while not flinching from an open-eyed portrayal of the worst violence and brutality that humans are capable of inflicting on each other.
"Magda Hollander-Lafon's experience of the Holocaust may parallel that of the Romanian-born Elie Wiesel, but her approach is even more abstracted and poetic. Instantly recognizable details of dehumanization, complicity, and endurance are all present, but with the goal of developing a spiritual and therapeutic vision of survival beyond the amassing of evidence. The enormous recent growth in publication of both saved firsthand accounts and post-memory analyses forms an additional appreciative context for Hollander-Laffon's singular work, not least as it is written by a woman, when most original accounts were produced by men."
"The brevity of Magda Hollander-Lafon’s Four Scraps of Bread only magnifies its power. Part prose, part poetry, it takes us into the gates of Auschwitz, where her sensitive observations and intense self-examination open up the inner world of the Lager. One must appreciate the power of her words; more importantly the integrity of her example. I was moved, touched, frightened, and horrified. One must be grateful for such a distinct act of witness." —Michael Berenbaum, director, Sigi Ziering Institute
"Magda Hollander-Lafon's experience of the Holocaust may parallel that of the Romanian-born Elie Wiesel, but her approach is even more abstracted and poetic. Instantly recognizable details of dehumanization, complicity, and endurance are all present, but with the goal of developing a spiritual and therapeutic vision of survival beyond the amassing of evidence. The enormous recent growth in publication of both saved firsthand accounts and post-memory analyses forms an additional appreciative context for Hollander-Laffon's singular work, not least as it is written by a woman, when most original accounts were produced by men." —Seán Hand, University of Warwick
"Magda Hollander-Lafon’s book shines with an unquenchable yearning for life despite the appalling suffering and brutality it portrays. Through the eyes of her memory we see the whole gamut of human reactions to unspeakable suffering and cruelty. We connect with them at extraordinary depth through the heart of a tortured child whose hope never died. This is a heartbreaking, compassionate, triumphant book filled with a rare insight into human evil and suffering." —Gemma Simmonds, CJ, Heythrop College, University of London
"An extraordinary memoir that is a valued and appreciated addition to the growing library of Holocaust literature, "Four Scraps of Bread" is unreservedly and emphatically recommended for community, college, and university library collections." —Midwest Book Review
"[E]very once in a while a book is published which grabs us by the throat, the mind and the heart and makes us look, think, reflect and allow ourselves to be challenged. Such a book is Magda Hollander-Lafon’s Four Scraps of Bread, a brief memoir, part poetry, part prose, of her experience as a child in Auschwitz. There are few such original accounts written by women and few in which the horror and cruelty are balanced by such extraordinary spiritual depth and resilience, and such unrelenting self-confrontation in search of hope." —Thinking Faith
“Four Scraps of Bread is highly and unreservedly recommended. . . [It is] an exceptional and moving read.” —Reviewer’s Bookwatch
“The images Hollander-Lafon sketches in Four Scraps of Bread are often brutally evocative; so it is with this book. She gives us a hint of what she and the others suffered. . . . She trusts us to feel the pain. And, to remember.” —Neworld Review
“As a profoundly personal quest for meaning, Four Scraps of Bread makes an important contribution to Holocaust literature and is highly recommended for parish libraries.” —Catholic Library World
"'I did not understand how people changed so much: Some became executioners, others became victims,' writes Holocaust survivor Magda Hollander-Lafon in Four Scraps of Bread, a slim volume of piercing, simple-yet-profound reflections on her journey through hell and back." —Sojourners
“The book’s reflections, prose, meditations, and poetry offer ways to experience alongside Hollander-Lafon her lived experience, both in the death camp and in the the Holocaust’s aftermath, as she, despite all odds, lives through Auschwitz’s atrocities and builds a new life after the war. Her book shows the beauty, hope, and presence of God while not flinching from an open-eyed portrayal of the worst violence and brutality that humans are capable of inflicting on each other.” —Emily Sanna, associate editor, U.S. Catholic
The images Hollander-Lafon sketches in Four Scraps of Bread are often brutally evocative; so it is with this book. She gives us a hint of what she and the others suffered. . . . She trusts us to feel the pain. And, to remember.
"Magda Hollander-Lafon’s book shines with an unquenchable yearning for life despite the appalling suffering and brutality it portrays. Through the eyes of her memory we see the whole gamut of human reactions to unspeakable suffering and cruelty. We connect with them at extraordinary depth through the heart of a tortured child whose hope never died. This is a heartbreaking, compassionate, triumphant book filled with a rare insight into human evil and suffering."
"Magda Hollander-Lafon's experience of the Holocaust may parallel that of the Romanian-born Elie Wiesel, but her approach is even more abstracted and poetic. Instantly recognizable details of dehumanization, complicity, and endurance are all present, but with the goal of developing a spiritual and therapeutic vision of survival beyond the amassing of evidence. The enormous recent growth in publication of both saved firsthand accounts and post-memory analyses forms an additional appreciative context for Hollander-Laffon's singular work, not least as it is written by a woman, when most original accounts were produced by men."
Four Scraps of Bread is highly and unreservedly recommended…[It is] an exceptional and moving read.
"The brevity of Magda Hollander-Lafon’s Four Scraps of Bread only magnifies its power. Part prose, part poetry, it takes us into the gates of Auschwitz, where her sensitive observations and intense self-examination open up the inner world of the Lager. One must appreciate the power of her words; more importantly the integrity of her example. I was moved, touched, frightened, and horrified. One must be grateful for such a distinct act of witness."
Four Scraps of Bread is highly and unreservedly recommended…[It is] an exceptional and moving read.
