The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson

During quarantine, I have been using a lot of my time to read. I had checked several books out at the Champaign Library before the stay-at-home order took place, but never got around to reading many of them. However, spending all of my time at home gave me the opportunity to read some of the books I did not previously have time to read, and I decided to start with The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson. Looking back, I think it was a good choice, as the book was so intriguing that I almost couldn’t put it down.

The Boy on the Wooden Box is the true story of the author, Leon Leyson, and his life during World War II. The story begins with Leon (called Leib Lejzon at the time) and his Jewish family living in their small home in Narewka, Poland. Narewka is a small village that is populated mostly by Christians, but is also resided in by many Jews, who are not really seen as different people at the time. His father and oldest brother work in the much larger city of Krakow. Eventually, the family moves to Krakow so they can all live together. Leon makes many friends who do not see him as a different person because of his being Jewish, These friends show Leon the many advantages of living in such a large city, a completely unfamiliar place that Leon soon comes to love. However, this newfound happiness doesn’t last long. The Nazi invasion of Poland spreads to Krakow, making the city a dangerous place for Jews. The Christians living in Krakow turn against the Jews because of Nazi propaganda, including Leon’s friends. Leon’s father loses his job at the factory where he works, and is even arrested for a time. This sudden change in tones was quite surprising for me, and it set the pace for the rest of the book; the future is almost always uncertain and filled with danger.

However, the lives of Leon’s family changes when his father is hired by a man named Oskar Schindler. Working for Schindler gives the family a permit to stay in Krakow, away from the ghetto where the Nazis are sending the Jews of Krakow. Eventually, the Nazis decide to send the remaining Jews to the ghetto, including Leon and his family. Life in the overcrowded ghetto is miserable, as Leon’s family has no source of income, food is very scarce and disease is everywhere. When the ghetto becomes full, the Nazis purge the ghetto, and send its residents to new, even worse ghettos known as concentration camps. Leon is sent to the concentration camp Plaszow, where he is separated from his family and forced to face horrible conditions by himself. He realizes that he will not survive if nothing changes. This part of the book makes the situation worse and worse, making the reader think that it will continue to worsen even more. I thought the sequence of events in the book wss similar to the events in Leon’s life: one change can completely change it. My thoughts at the time were that the conditions would eventually be so bad that they could not get any worse and would have to get better. This turned out to be the case when suddenly, Leon’s life sees a spark of hope.

Leon discovers that Schindler has written a list of the names of Jews he wanted to save from the harsh conditions of the camp Plaszow and move to his factory. Even more shocking, his own name was on that list because his father worked for Schindler in the past, but it was crossed out for some reason. Desperately, he pleaded with one of the Nazis watching the line of Jews moving to Schindler’s factory that he could be allowed to join them, and was finally allowed to go. When I read this part of the story, I immediately thought that this event was too unrealistic to be true, but then realized that it was still possible, though unlikely. Leon and his family worked at Schindler’s factory for over eight months, until the tide of the war turns and Germany is on the losing side, forcing the Nazis to leave Poland. Schindler is seen as an enemy to the Nazis, making it a poor choice for him to return to Germany. Instead, he flees to America, but gives each Jew working for him the necessary materials to survive before leaving. Leon’s family trades these materials for a sizable amount of money, enough to allow Leon and his parents to immigrate to the much safer country of America, and his surviving brother and sister to immigrate to Israel. The remainder of the book describes the events that followed the sudden transition, which include Leon attending military school and recieving a better education, becoming a teacher, and finally deciding to share his story with the world.

Overall, I thought this story was very unique. There are so many instances where the reader thinks that certain events cannot possibly have happened in real life, but the voice of the narrator is so passionate and detailed that the reader is reminded that a story such as this cannot possibly be made up. (It also helps that the story includes many pictures from Leon’s life, including the picture of Schindler’s list with Leon’s name on it.) The author makes great use of foreshadowing, and there is a surprising amount of detail in his words, considering that most of the events in the story happened to him over 70 years before the book was published. My personal opinion was that while the book as a whole seemed to be written for younger readers, as there were not very many high-level vocabulary words, the plot and format of the book made it almost impossible to stop reading. I’d definitely recommend this book for reading during this time of social distancing.

My rating: 4/5