The Book of Aron
In 1940, the Germans forcibly moved all Jews in Warsaw to a designated area, and built a fence to prevent them from leaving. Life in the Ghetto was difficult, and became harder with every passing day. This is the story of young Aron, a troubled child even before the German invasion; he did poorly in school, didn’t get along with either his family or other children, and was generally unpleasant to be around. Piece by piece, Aron’s life is stripped away: his brother and father are rounded up and taken to a work camp; his mother contracts typhus; his miscreant companions are caught smuggling and disappear. These dire circumstances force him into the orphanage run by real-life children’s rights activist Janusz Korczak, who somehow takes a liking to Aron, and who is the real, perhaps only, heart in this story of fear, deprivation, and death.
There’s very little in this book to like; the Ghetto, and the Nazis, weren’t known for bringing out the best in people, and Shepard excels at showing us the worst. The sights, sounds, and smells are dirty, jarring, and unappetizing, with no relief except for the dark humor inherent in Aron’s amoral behavior. Even Korczak is difficult to face, as his idealism causes pain. Yet Shepard keeps the reader entranced with his attention to detail—never have so many words been devoted to the watching and killing of lice, for example—and in those details we experience life as it must have been for countless Jewish children. In their lives, Korczak was the only adult who, until the very end, taught that children have the right to respect, and the right to make mistakes. His perspective adds a tiny glimmer of hope to an otherwise very dark story.
