We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

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Surviving Evil.

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter is a book that will grip you and won’t let you go until the last page. It’s the story of the Jewish Kurc family and their odyssey during WWII. After extensive research, the author masterfully wrote about the true lives of her family members’ fight for survival during one of the most horrific times in history, the Holocaust. Georgia Hunter effortlessly and beautifully melds together a lesson in history with an eye-opening raw tale of endurance. This book grabbed and squeezed my heart so hard, at times I almost found it hard to breathe. Each page kept me reaching for the next to see what would happen.

You may have learned about the atrocities of the Holocaust in school, how millions of Jews were exterminated in an unfathomable genocide, but unlike history books We Were the Lucky Ones brings you right into the lives, minds, and hearts of a Jewish family who lived through it.

It’s an important book that should be widely read, so that history can never repeat itself.
This book was a book club selection, and to be honest, I did not vote for it. When the other members nominated it I almost dreaded reading it knowing it would be heartbreakingly sad and horrifying. How could it not be when it’s about the Holocaust? While I have never regretted reading any books about the Holocaust in the past, it is a very dark subject, one that you have to brace yourself to read. This one was definitely worth facing. Like all the other members of my group, I am sincerely glad I read We Were the Lucky Ones. Of course, this book roused up a good discussion at our meeting as we mulled over so many of the scenes that were seared into our minds: the ghettos, the liquidations, digging their own graves in the middle of nowhere, people of all ages strung up by their necks in the streets slowly suffocating for all to see as warning. For what?—senseless hate and evil. But the book also focuses on the relentless determination and final triumph for this family. They weren't just lucky; they were also resourceful and brave. Ultimately it is a celebration of life and love in the midst of a cruel world.

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