Daniel's Story

Daniel's Story is a 1993 children's novel by Carol Matas, telling the story of a young boy named Daniel's experiences in the Holocaust in World War II.

Plot summary

Daniel barely remembers living a normal life before the Nazis came to power in 1933. He can still picture once being happy and safe, but his life changed when the Nazis took over Germany. No longer able to practice their religion, vote, own property, or work, Daniel's family is forced from their home in Frankfurt. First, they are deported to Łódź, Poland, where he meets a girl he comes to love. The place is liquidated and the Jews are transported to Auschwitz.Daniel and his father find Erika and find out there mother is dead. Daniel survives the death camp and is transferred to Buchenwald. He endures to witness the camp's liberation in 1945.

Though many around him lose hope in the face of terror, Daniel is supported by his courageous family. He loses them all except for his father and his cousin Friedrich, and together they struggle for survival. Yet he manages to retain his life, hope and dignity through the horrors of Hitler's terrors. He does not die.\

Only Daniel and his father live

Characters

• Daniel (Protagonist, also Narrator)
• Mother- Ruth (Died of sickness)
• Father- Joseph (he is the only reason why Daniel and him survive the war)
• Erika (younger sister of Daniel, she plays the violin at Auschwitz but dies of starvation soon after the Liberation)
• Uncle Peter (husband of Leah and favorite uncle of Daniel. Arrested for a parking ticket, and cremated by the Nazis, and his (or somebody else's) ashes were returned to Auntie Leah)
• Oma Rachel (Father's (Joseph's) mother. She became too weak to work in Lodz, so she was sent to the hospital. The next day, the Nazis cleared out the very same hospital, and it only occurs to Daniel at the last second that Oma Rachel was still there. He believes it is to late and heads home only to find that who but none other than Oma Rachel was there, safe and well. As it turns out, she escaped by taking a doctor's outfit and mask and just walked out of the building. The next day, the Nazis come to the door asking for Oma Rachel because they were sending everyone who was listed at the hospital the previous day on a transport to a death camp. Father argues with them that Oma Rachel is well and is healthy enough to work, but still, the Nazis beg to differ on the subject on whether or not she goes.)
• Opa Samuel (Husband to Oma Rachel, Father's (Joseph's) Father. He goes on the transport with his wife. Father refuses, but after some reasoning and tears, he reluctantly agrees to let them go.)
• Peter (a young boy whom Daniel meets and befriends; he is beaten up by a Pole, and died on a train after the attack.)
• Uncle Leo
• Uncle David (Daniel's uncle who moved to United States)
• Uncle Walter (deported to the death camp.)
• Uncle Aaron (Daniel's uncle who moved to England)
• Auntie Leah (Daniel's strict aunt who was shot in the second part of the story, while trying to save her children Brigitte and Gertrude from deportation).
• Auntie Hannele (died of being starved and shot for rebelling. Uncle Walter's wife.)
• Oma Miriam (made Daniel a Hitler youth uniform. Killed herself with an overdose of sleeping pills a month after Daniel's bar mitzvah)
• Opa Karl (died before the story takes place)
• Friedrich (Daniel's cousin and the son of Auntie Leah; becomes Daniel's friend)
• Mr. Schneider (Daniel's German teacher who doesn't like Jews)
• Rosa (Daniel's first love/married at the end)
• Karl (Daniel's boss in the photography studio at Buchenwald, and a part of the resistance.)
• Adam (Daniel's friend while in Auschwitz. Part of the Lodz resistance, he is killed by SS soldiers)
• Auntie Anna (sister)
• Mia, Gertrude, and Brigitte (Daniel's cousins, Uncle Peter's and Auntie Leah's daughters, Friedrich's sisters. Gertrude and Brigitte are selected for deportation from the Lodz Ghetto, and are shot with their mother when she tries to remain with them. Mia runs toward them as they are shot and is grabbed by a guard, thrown in the truck and presumably taken to her death in Auschwitz – Daniel, Father and Friedrich hear nothing of her at war's end).
• Nathan, Jacob, and George (Leo and Anna's children, who were killed)

Sections

• Pictures of Frankfurt

In this chapter, Daniel (the narrator) start describing us all the pictures that has in his photo album.

• Pictures of Lodz (Ghetto)
• Pictures of Auschwitz
• Pictures of Buchenwald