Beck mentions that he enjoyed it, which is not unheard of for victims of sexual assault, but he talks of it fondly and doesn't mention it at all as being abuse. At points the book succumbed to being a wall of text.Īnother strange thing is one particular point in the story where Beck mentions how an older man had sexual relations with him as a child. Beck does a lot of name listing which can get tedious and confusing. To put it bluntly, I got bored a lot and struggled to get through much of the book. I know he wrote it so it's from his own experience but the book can be difficult to read at times. That being said.I feel this book doesn't do Beck's life justice. Mamsi was a very endearing character as well, an incredible person. His account of his life has a lot of value and shows the unique challenges faced by gay Jewish people during the war. His life was fascinating accidentally becoming a revolutionary at a young age all while trying to find himself through many jobs, lovers, friends, and tragedies. Gad Beck was an incredible human being who saved so many lives and really was a backbone of gay Jewish survival during the holocaust. I felt a bit disappointed with this book. If anyone reading this runs across information regarding the second book, PLEASE message me. I would very much like to read the continuation of his story. It is definitely not what I was expecting from a Holocaust memoir and the Epilogue in my edition mentions there is a second part to his memoirs but I have been unable to locate it. I guess the fact that he was able to escape the camps in addition to his gay (meaning happy here) outlook on life allowed him to recall such a horrific period of history with such frivolity and good-naturedness. But still, he managed to do significant work in the underground freeing others. He had and made extensive connection and largely survived because he maintained an underground existence. Gad Beck was lucky enough to survive a Holocaust double whammy gay Jew combo and not even get sent to any of the camps.

This CANT be a Holocaust memoir, can it? Apparently it is.

I was expecting something along the lines of other Holocaust books I have read, namely a depressing, heart-wrenching tale of the depravity of the human race.

We were given an extensive list to choose from and I picked this one because we have been told how if the Nazis had actually exterminated the Jews, gays would have been next. I had to read this book for a class on the Holocaust.

An Underground Life by Gad Beck