Little Boy I Know Your Name

Little Boy, I Know Your Name by Mitchell Raff is a personal and emotional exploration of the author's journey as a Holocaust survivor's son. The book is a powerful exploration of the trauma and pain that can be passed down through generations and the author's struggle to come to terms with his own identity and sense of self. The book is divided into Part One, “A Mother's Betrayal,’ and Part Two, “The Inheritance.” The first part is a detailed account of the author's childhood and his relationship with his parents, who were both Holocaust survivors. The author's parents, Moshe and Giza, were both survivors of the Holocaust, and their experiences had a profound impact on their lives and their relationships with their son. The author's mother, Giza, was particularly traumatized by her experiences during the war, and her behavior towards her son was often erratic and abusive. The author describes how his mother would usually lash out at him, physically and emotionally, and how he would feel like he was walking on eggshells around her. The young boy is torn from her home, whipped with a belt, denied food, and kidnapped to Israel at the age of ten. This is the story of a boy who has been systematically taught to hate himself and who eventually breaks free from trauma to become the man he has always wanted to be.

Despite the challenges he faced in his childhood, the author's parents did their best to provide for him and give him a stable home. They were both hardworking and loving, but their demons and struggles also haunted them. The book's second part is a more introspective exploration of the author's experiences as a Holocaust survivor's son. The author describes how he struggled to come to terms with his own identity and sense of self and how he felt like he was living in the shadow of his parent's experiences. The author explores the theme of silence and secrecy in his family and how it was often used to cope with the trauma of their experiences. He describes how his parents rarely talked about their experiences during the war and how this silence created a sense of mystery and shame around their past. The sophistication in the characters of his parents is brilliantly conveyed in this narrative. The author describes his father as a broken man and cleverly captures the psychological troubles of his mother. The prose is crisp — lyrical — and filled with emotionally rich, albeit disturbing passages. Mitchell Raff is a great storyteller who succeeds in capturing the most complex of human emotions, finely drawing a portrait of a dysfunctional family while pulling readers into the darkness inhabiting his inner world. Moments like when the author’s mother sees him for the first time after she abandoned him at an orphanage are profoundly moving — the mixture of sadness and longing and her sense of desperation are impeccably written. Little Boy, I Know Your Name is a memoir that reads like fiction, emotionally rich and transporting. It is a story of being broken and then walking towards healing and freedom, and readers will enjoy the role played by Marie in the author’s journey.