Elli becomes depressed, but still receives honors in school.Įventually, all of the Jews in her town are rounded up and sent to the ghetto in a town 14 miles away and her father was sent, along with other men, to Komaron, a forced labor camp, and Elli, her mother, and brother were sent to Auschwitz. The town crier, whose announcements formerly amused her, now fill her with dread, because they announce one more thing Jews must do, or one more thing they are not allowed to do.

On March 19th, 1944, Hitler's army took Budapest- but now, this means that everyone is chanting 'Heil Hitler' and yelling at Elli- taunting, 'Hey, Jew Girl!'- on the 27th of March, all Jews must register with the town hall. Bubi comes home of his own accord, however- luckily, because other people who had gone to Budapest did not return. Her brother, Bubi, is handsome and smart and goes off to study in a Jewish seminary.Įlli's father tells her not to take the things that Hitler says on the radio seriously- he insists it's not literal, but the situation becomes so tense that he wants to travel to Budapest to bring Bubi home. Her mother is unsentimental- and while Livia as a child thinks this is because her mother doesn't love her, it's really because she wants Elli to be self-sufficient. The story: Livia, called Elli, is a clumsy 12 year old girl, she does not think she is pretty, and she is gangly. Livia Bitton-Jackson is returning to Seeshaupt, a Bavarian town in Germany, to tell her story. This book begins with a Foreward, 50 years after the events portrayed.

Bubi i have lived a thousand years