The Boy On The Wooden Box Essay

The story, The Boy on the wooden box, is a memoir by Leon Leyson describing what it was like to live in Poland during the Holocaust. Leon was one of the youngest people on Oskar Schindler's list. Throughout this time he had to work in a factory in order to stay out of concentration camps. Leon describes the horrors he saw, and experienced first hand some including, severe beatings, near-starvation, and the fear of death every day for six years. While in hiding, Leon heard about the mass murders of the people in the concentration camps; he held onto hope despite the fear he felt. This story is told through the perspective of a real survivor during the holocaust; this makes it easier for the reader to imagine the events and struggles he went through.

Leon was born in Narewka, Podlaskie, Poland on September 15, 1929. His father, a craftsman at the time, needed to relocate for his work. There were rumors that there was danger from anti-Semitism; the family believed that in a modern city like Krakow nothing could happen to them. A year later, the Nazis invaded Poland; that was when he was given the miraculous gift of being a worker in one of Schindler's factories, with his family. Leon worked twelve-hour shifts for Oskar Schindler, but he was happy to be alive with his family. Living a life in fear is not what most people dream of, but Leyson’s family thanked god everyday that they were still alive. After the war, Leon Leyson was determined to put the past behind him and to build a new life. He moved to California, where he started a family with his wife Lis, and two children. He worked as a schoolteacher, and came to write this book; The Boy on the Wooden Box. Sadly on, January 12, 2013, died in Fullerton, California at the age of eighty