The Big Lie: A True Story

By Isabella Leitner

The Pulitzer Prize–nominated author recounts her Holocaust experience—her imprisonment at Auschwitz and her dramatic escape—in this book for young readers.
 
As World War II rages in Europe, the fighting seems far away from Isabella Leitner and her family. Only rumors of Nazi horrors have reached them, and they feel safe in the small Hungarian town of Kisvarda. That is, until March 20, 1944 . . .
 
Overnight, Isabella’s whole world changes. Suddenly, she must wear a yellow star, be inside by curfew, and cannot go back to school. And that’s only the beginning. Her family is rounded up by Nazi soldiers. They are put in cattle cars and taken to Auschwitz, a death camp in Poland. Only Isabella and three of her sisters are kept together, the rest of their family is forced to separate parts of the camp. Together, the four girls face their worst fears—until they get a chance at freedom.
 
The Big Lie offers a look at history through the eyes of a woman whose strength and hope helped her overcome the worst of human nature. Leitner’s “approach allows readers to appreciate the young Isabella’s incomprehension of the Final Solution even as she generates a coherent and compelling narrative” (Publishers Weekly).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Release date: Nov 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781504078962

Isabella Leitner

Isabella Leitner (1921–2009) was born and raised in Hungary. On her twenty-third birthday, she was deported to Auschwitz along with her mother, four sisters, and brother, an experience she wrote about in her acclaimed memoir Fragments of Isabella, which was published in 1978 and named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. A motion picture based on the book was produced by the Abbey Theater in Ireland. In 1945, the author immigrated to the United States and married Irving A. Leitner, who served in a US Air Force bomber squadron during World War II. The mother of two sons, Peter and Richard, whom she considered “her greatest victory over Hitler,” Leitner also wrote Saving the Fragments: From Auschwitz to New York and The Big Lie: A True Story.  

Book preview

This book is dedicated to the memory of my youngest sister, Potyo. With my love, I am trying to obliterate the forces of hate that killed you.

This photograph of Isabella was taken just before the events described in this book.

CHAPTER 1

My name is Isabella, and I was born in a small town called Kisvarda.

Kisvarda is located in the northeastern part of Hungary. Today, about nineteen thousand people live there. Of these, only a handful are Jews.

When I lived there, in the 1940s, almost four thousand Jews called Kisvarda home. I was one of them.

I first opened my eyes to the world in Hungary, as did my four sisters and one brother, our parents, their parents, and their parents before them. No one can remember how far back in time our family tree was planted in Hungary, but it is certain that it was a very long time ago.

Today, the date March 20, 1944, might seem like a day in ancient history. Yet to me, it is not very long ago. I can remember the day clearly.

Spring is beginning. Soon the trees will be green again, and flowers will peep out of the earth.

My sister, Potyo, is the baby of the family. She has just become a teenager. Then come Regina, Philip, myself, Chicha, and Cipi. All of us are bright, active young people.

We all know that war is raging in Europe, but the fighting is far away from Kisvarda. We know that Nazi Germany has invaded the countries around us. We hear rumors that terrible things have happened—and are still happening—to Jews in those countries.

But what

Reviews for The Big Lie

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A short, snappy look at the Holocaust. Unfortunately, it's so quick that it's rather forgettable.

[jenunes_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting book, the Big Lie: A True Story is the tale of Isabella Leitner, a Holocaust survivor as she recounts the journey of terror she and he family had to survive. Geared towards younger readers, The Big Lie is a gentle introduction to the Holocaust. There is still mention of death camps, crematories, and so on. Leitner does not sugarcoat the truth. Instead, she focuses on the story of hope as this family overcomes even the strongest obstacles to stay together.

[raizel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Isabella Leitner describes her life from March 20, 1944, the day after the Germans invaded Budapest, through her family's journey to Auschwitz to the end of World War II and her family's reunion with their father in America. An afterword gives a brief history of Nazi Germany. A map in the middle of the book shows the countries and cities mentioned.