Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 by Aranka Siegal

Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 Reviews

• 
  Lisa

  A perfect introduction to the Holocaust for young adults and grown-ups alike, told by one of its survivors.
  
  This is a touching, truthful, sensible memoir, showing the experience of the author, growing up as a Jewish child in Hungary during the Second World War. It explains the slow development of the terror, breaking into the childhood of Aranka Siegal step by step. It is a readable, captivating, beautifully told story, without any of the cheap effects of recent "Holocaust fiction" (with its inherent danger of losing grasp of real historical processes).
  
  Along with Anne Frank's diary, and Singer's childhood memoir
  A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw, or
  When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, it is a worthwhile, authentic read, and a way for young readers to gain adequate access to history. Unfortunately, the quiet truth of these books is not as popular as the showy production for mass consumption without reflection, playing with alternative truth posing as literary freedom.
  
  I strongly recommend it against all odds, fully aware that it will not be found in huge piles on mainstream bookstore tables, advertised and labelled "stunning", "amazing", "simply thrilling", "incredibly bold", "innovative", and so on.
  
  I will quote one comment on Siegal's book, though, that speaks for itself. This is what Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer had to say about it:
  
  "This is the book that should be read by all those who are interested in the Holocaust and what it did to young and old."
  
  If that is what you are looking for, read this. If you want graphic violence and "horrified fascination" with Hitler, check the YA bestseller lists.
• 
  Empress Reece (Hooked on Books)

  I've been putting off writing this review because I've been debating on whether to rate it a 2 or a 3. I had thought I had settled on a 3 until I wrote my review and realized that a 2 more accurately portrays my feelings.
  
  I honestly was disappointed in, first, the execution of the story. I felt like it was bogged down with sooo many extraneous, and very unnecessary details (i.e. we learn all about when one of the characters start their period) yet its missing a lot of, what I thought, are the more important parts of their story (i.e. we aren't told anything about their time in Auschwitz?)
  
  It left me wishing that the book had a good editor and wondering if it was dumbed down because it's meant to be a kids story or because certain periods of time were too difficult for the author to rehash??
  
  I also felt like this story was very flat. Even though I do have sympathy for what they went through and endured, I felt like this book did nothing to envoke those emotions from me.
  
  My son and I read this book together as one of his required 6th grade, Newberry Award and Honor reading books and he didn't enjoy it very much either. It's a difficult book to read, especially for kids, with the Hungarian names and the way the story is written. It's really not a good book to introduce your children to the German occupation and Holocaust. I want my son to really understand what happened and feel something when he learns about the Holocaust and this book just didn't do that for either of us.
• 
  Terri Lynn

  I hate to label this as young adult nonfiction because so many people have a prejudice against any book labeled for children or young adults and so miss out on some wonderful and fine literature.
  
  This autobiography begins in 1939 when a little Jewish Hungarian girl Aranka Davidovitch, known to all as Piri, is 9 years old and visiting her grandmother Babi on her small farm across the border near the town of Komjaty in the Ukraine. Trouble erupts between Hungary and the Ukraine and the border is sealed. It is a year before Piri is taken home by her parents back to Beregszasz, Hungary after her mother has yet another baby. At this time, Adolph Hitler is on the move and Hungary is taken over by the Nazis. Babi refuses to go to Hungary and leave her little house and land. She comments that her daughter- Piri's mother- is foolish to be having yet another baby (she has daughters who are grown and married with their own kids or else in college or working)during a war. Some of the family has fled to the USA and Babi urged the family to send Piri and her sisters there too and even tried to fund it but Piri's mother resists until it is too late.
  
  Being back in Hungary is hard. Piri's dad has been dragged into the Hungarian military and ill treated because he is from the Ukraine originally and he is a Jew. He is sent off to the Russian front where he becomes a prisoner. The family owned a business and a Christian man was left to run it (It got to where Jews couldn't run businesses and serve Christians) who became a real SOB and refused to give Piri's mother much of the money. She had a hard time providing for the family and many of the hardships left me in tears. How can you feed your children when you have curfews, can't go to the store or even go out until an hour when everything is purchased, or go in stores owned by Christians even if you do have ration coupons?
  
  Piri's mother tried hard to keep her family together and encouraged and she was very clever. I never would have thought up some of the amazing things this determined mom did. I had to cheer her with everything she tried and she did manage, even if barely.
  
  I wondered if I could stand reading this knowing as I went in that the only survivors of the war would be Piri and one sister Iboya. I knew going in that Babi, Piri's mom and dad and sisters and brothers (including that war baby girl Joli) would die. I knew that Piri and her family would be sent along with the Jews in their area to Auschwitz in a cattle car. They were told it was a work camp. How did little Joli die? At that camp, Nazis often tossed little toddlers and babies into the air and either bayoneted them as they fell or shot them just for fun but many also were suffocated to death in panic and agony in the gas ovens. I have nightmares about it sometimes though I am not Jewish and was born long after the war in the USA. I ache for those who were there to suffer. Children like Joli haunt me. How could we let it happen? Why did we wait until we were attacked?
  
  At any rate, this also uplifted and inspired me. Courageous Babi, resourceful Mom, and those sweet sisters who did all they had to do and faced all they had to face without complaint and who even helped hide Jews who piled in from other areas- this is my definition of hero.
  
  I recommend this to everyone of all ages. The book actually ends when they are shoved on to the cattle car and we do not have to see their suffering and death at Auschwitz. The book is an inspiring story of the lives of this family, their courage, their love for one another, and how they made lemonade when life gave them lemons.
• 
  Natalie

  Since I'm on the Newbery Quest, I don't really look at what the books are about before I start reading them. I was a little upset when I started listening to this book and discovered it was a book about the Holocaust.
  
  I do not read books about the Holocaust.
  
  I used to read them all the time. In fact, many of them were on my favorite books list, I was always deeply touched by what people could overcome and endure.
  
  Then I went to the Holocaust Museum in DC. I spent 3 hours sobbing my way through the displays and came out deeply traumatized. It was at that moment that I decided to never read another book about the Holocaust. Emotionally, I just couldn't handle it. When I went to Germany and my friends insisted we go to Dachau, I had to completely emotionally cut myself off from feeling anything. I spent most of my time sitting outside enjoying the giant poplar trees while my friends had their own personal, emotional experiences.
  
  The Holocaust should be remembered. It should be taught and places like Dachau and the Holocaust Museum are crucially important. Horrendous cruelty and evil should not be forgotten because we need to make sure it never happens again. Stories matter. For me, personally, I just can't continually revisit that evil. It hurts too much. I have already read a lot of stories and I'm grateful that I got to visit those historically important places, but it's not something I care to revisit.
  
  That is the short story of why I don't read books about the Holocaust, and why I wasn't thrilled when I started listening to this Newbery book.
  
  I was more surprised than anyone when I got completely wrapped up in the story. It's a true story and it was beautifully told by Aranka. She focused on her life in Hungary, living under the threat of Germany's invasion and how her life slowly began to erode. Her mother was a powerhouse and an incredibly inspiring woman. Most of the men were already gone to fight in the war and the women were left to fend for themselves. Aranka's mother took care of there large family with ingenuity and grace.
  
  Aranka takes her story up to the point where they are taken to the ghetto and about to be shipped out with all the other Jewish people the Germans rounded up. I think I saw that she wrote some other books about what happened afterward, but I won't be reading those. I was actually relieved that this book ended before they got to the camps.
  
  The narration was beautifully done as well. Aranka and her family's courage is truly inspiring and I'm glad that she chose to share her story, as I'm sure it was painful, in a lot of ways, for her to do so. I was impressed with the kindness and humor she kept in her narration, in spite of knowing how it all ended. It got me thinking about everyone who survived the camps and how courageous they were to pick up whatever pieces were left and start over again. It never ceases to bring tears to my eyes.
• 
  Hafsa Sabira

  Those who like reading on WW2, this is a good book for you. The plot takes place in Hungary where gradually the cruelty of the war takes place. Even though Piri and her family try to remain strong till the end, they soon start to fall apart as the Nazis start invading Hungary. The simple diction of this novel will take you to Piri's world which crumbled down the moment the war began.
• 
  Linda Lipko

  A 1982 Newbery honor book regarding the holocaust, this is written about events leading up to the deportation of the author's family to Auschwitz in 1944.
  
  Happy and carefree, Piri spends summers with her grandmother in Beregszasz. During 1939 sudden changes occur as it appears the nation is in the debt of Adolf Hitler. Unable to return to Hungary because the borders are closed, we watch as increasingly the slovac nations are swallowed up by Germany.
  
  When Peri is able to return to her family, she learns her father is now in the military and destined for the Russian front.
  
  There is a slowness throughout the story as day by day, little by little, Germany's Hitler becomes increasingly bent on the destruction of the Jews.
  
  Unlike some other holocaust books, this one focuses on events as they unfold, almost in a slow-motion fashion time stands still and then moves a little faster, faster, faster toward the enevitability of destruction.
  
  Recommended.
• 
  CLM

  A heartbreaking autobiographical Holocaust narrative about the childhood of the author, Aranka Siegal, and her family in Hungary as they slowly became consumed by World War II and the anti-Semitism of nearby Germany and its military.
  
  As someone who is a quarter Hungarian, I was fascinated and found heroine Piri's story compelling yet at times hard to follow. A list of characters and a map would have been helpful - I am so ignorant of geography I did not understand that Piri's grandmother Babi's farm in Komjaty was in the Ukraine.
• 
  Ginny Messina

  
  A Newbery Honor book, this describes the author's experience as a young girl living in the Ukraine and also a small town in Hungary and then in a Jewish ghetto at the beginning of World War II. Aranka Siegal captures the fear and uncertainty of her family’s life and also her mother’s determination to protect the family’s dignity under intolerable circumstances.
  
• 
  Erin L

  Started non-fiction November with this short book about Hungary in WWII. Very well written and interesting to see the events unfold from a greater distance and a child's point of view. Like the Diary of Anne Frank, you know the child is being sheltered from much of the realities and doesn't fully comprehend the situation. But unlike Ann Frank, this is written post-war and not as diary entries so the author has a better perspective on where things are ultimately headed.
  
  Disturbing and sad, yet another reminder of how deep humanity can sink.
• 
  Lauren

  Memoir about WWII/Holocaust from the perspective of a girl from Hungary. Covers the period from initial German occupation through to boarding the train to Auschwitz. I can see students having trouble reading this independently due to slow pacing and necessity of background knowledge. But the story is powerful as an adult because you watch the gradual stripping of rights and know where it's all leading.
• 
  Lëtz‘Read

  I read this book as a child. Was quite impressed.
  I remember it 35-40 years later.
  But the French title is the biggest example ever of a wrong translation. As the biblical reference to the scapegoat is not addressed at all. Will this ever be corrected?
• 
  blmagm

  I had the privilege of hearing the author and concentration camp survivor Aranka Siegal present at Shenandoah University's Children's Literature Conference. The audience listened with rapt attention as she spoke of her growing up years in the ghetto and then as a worker at both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen before being liberated. This novel in which she herself is the main character Piri is based on Siegal's actual experiences. What could be an overwhelmingly bleak book because of the subject matter is actually not. Piri's mother Mrs. Davidowitz, among others in the book, is such a heroic figure. Despite her losses of which there are many, the loss of her husband to the Russian front and the disappearance of her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter, she shoulders on, performing many acts of bravery and compassion. Despite what is happening all around her, she tries to maintain as normal a life as possible for her remaining children. She clings to Jewish traditions and her faith to offset her despair. She even sets up a makeshift home even within the midst of the shelter. I will want to follow up with Siegal's book Grace in the Wilderness: After the Liberation 1945-1948.
• 
  Cheryl

  Aranka Siegal tells the story of her childhood in Hungary at the time of the Nazi invasion. Well written and absorbing. This is a Newberry Honor Book.
• 
  Grace

  Dreadful. Absolutely dreadful.
• 
  Janice

  This is a novel written by a survivor of the Holocaust. She was a young girl from a small town in Hungary. Her Grandmother lived across the border in the Ukraine. This area is also very close to Czechoslovakia. In fact, my grandfather's family came from a town just a few miles away from where this young lady lived. I was attracted to this book for many reasons, the most important being we must never forget what happened with the Nazi's & their quest to eliminate the entire Jewish population in all of Europe in the 1930's & 40's. The author describes a wonderful childhood, but as the Nazi occupation grows, it starts to affect her & he family's lives in heart breaking ways. She is very descriptive, you can feel their angst, their hunger & their pain. We all know the ending for many of these people...it still made me cry. I personally knew a man, originally from Budapest, who was in a concentration camp. Because this area of Europe was one of the last to be taken over by the Nazi's, some younger, healthier folks had a better chance of surviving the concentration camps, as it was towards the end of WWII.
• 
  Kim

  I remember getting this book for Hanukah the year I turned eight (oops, now I have revealed my age!) It is, of course, the story of one girl and her family in Hungary during the Holocaust and how they survive only for most of the family to ultimately be lost. I saved my copy and when my daughter was nine, I gave it to her. Oh, how times have changed. I don't think children read about the Holocaust as often today as they did when I was growing up - we all knew survivors and our parents, if not the children of survivors, grew up surrounded by them as well. There was no thought to filtering out the brutality of the Nazi regime for children, but when I gave this to my own child, I wondered if it was appropriate for her to read. At any rate, I loved this book but my child did not; I imagine this is best suited to a child who enjoys reading and learning about history, particularly the brutal and soulless Nazi regime. Still, I would recommend this book for a good reader of ages eight or nine, and an average reader of ages 10-14.
• 
  Amber Scaife

  This memoir follows Piri, a young girl in a mid-to-lower class Jewish family living in Hungary during WWII, through hearing rumors of mistreatment of Jews in other areas, to being evacuated from their home and moved into a ghetto, and ends with them being packed into the train headed for Auschwitz. It's sad and moving and terrifying, and, I think, one of the more mature picks for the Newbery Honor list I've read (which are generally books aimed at middle grade readers - I'd put this one firmly in the YA category). Guardedly recommended - it's certainly not a happy read, but fairly well done for what it is.
• 
  Jen

  This is definitely more appropriate for the upper end of the Newbery Award. I loved this memoir, and the detail of life for a Hungarian Jew during World War II. I hadn't known much about Hungary during this time, though I love the country. The Soviet takeover following is much more imprinted on the national culture. The framing of this story was unique, as well, focusing not on the camps, but on the gradual fall to Hitler's demands. Piri is a relatable and engaging character, and the actions of those around her are understandable, as well.
• 
  Ellen

  This was a short book, but it took me forever to get through because it wasn't paced very well. Too little happened for half the book, and then too much happened all at the end. And the ending? The author ends this book as she and her family are heading to Auschwitz. She later wrote a book about her life post-liberation, but nothing about her time in the camp. Of course it's an individual's choice to share their memoir, but I really wanted to know what happened to the side characters during that part of their lives.
• 
  Jessica

  I'm sure I must have borrowed this from Millard North Social Studies, as was stamped inside the cover, and meant to give it back, but it's a bit overdue. After 20 years on my bookshelf, I finally read it and enjoyed the details as it helped with really understanding how life changed on a day to day basis for Jews in Hungary with Germany gaining power. It doesn't touch the concentration camps which makes it very different from other Holocaust books I've read. Worth a read!
• 
  Jaide B

  To be honest, reading this was a bit of a chore, and it took me far too long to finish. I don’t know if that was due to the writing style, or the appropriately-depressing nature of the book. I am sorry for what Piri/Ms. Siegal went through; however, reading these memoirs left me feeling dark, hopeless and unhappy.
  
  Despite the Children’s Newberry Award, I would label this as a YA book. Rape is mentioned, and Piri and other girls were groped when boarding the trains.
• 
  Jennifer Meikrantz

  This is required reading for seventh graders in my local school district, so I was surprised to find multiple mentions of men violating women and girls, even using the word "rape." I don't think I could've handled that at that age. So while it is an interesting insight into the time period, I wouldn't recommend it for middle schoolers.
• 
  Cheri

  This is a heartrending account of one young girl's experience of the Holocaust. Even though the author was a child at the time, and the book received a Newbery Honor, it's not a book for children. I wish there had been a final chapter to say what happened to all the people we got to know in the book, especially to Piri's family.
• 
  Becky

  Somehow I missed all of the "life during the holocaust" books that are usually required in school, so Upon the Head of the Goat was very impactful for me. As it is a child's perspective, it is very light on politics or the war at large, and instead gives a very personal perspective of one girl and her journey from "normal life" to Auschwitz.
• 
  Tiz

  It was well written, but the book ends before the worst begins. I love that she survives, but you don’t know much more about her family and what happened. I thought history wasn’t going to repeat itself...it appears it is in many places in the world right now.
• 
  Gribblet

  An account of a relatively idyllic childhood interrupted by world war two, and eventually, Auschwitz. It ends with the boarding of the cattle cars, and I'm grateful that someone had the presence of mind to write a whole book about the way things were before, the way they never will be again.
• 
  Shella

  This is one of the Newbery honor books in the 5 year segment that I’m reading this semester. It is the only reason I read it. I’m sure during its time it was fine. Now, the middle school book market is flooded with WW II books especially featuring Jewish characters. This has become the only history the majority of students know. While important, there are so many other aspects of history and atrocities that students need to read about. Since I’m at a fatigue level with this topic- three stars is about as high as I will rate it. I do think this is more of a YA book due to some of the content that was not really necessary to drive the plot.