I just currently started reading "Emil and Karl" by Yankev Glatshteyn. This book opened my eyes and it truly made me see the sacrifices people made, and how strong some friendships turned out to be. Even though I just started reading this book, it's truly amazing how I was dragged into this book so quickly because of all the fascinating details, and the characters as well. I can relate to this book so much, because I know what the main characters are going through.
     Emil and Karl are two boys who are present during the time of the Holocaust. However, only one is Jewish and the other one is not, and both live in Vienna. They both attend school, which only consists of non-jews who torture and make Karls' and emils' life a living hell each day. What surprised me the most is the fact that Karl is not a jew, so technically hes "supposed" to be against Emil, if he wants to fit in. However, Emil is the one he sticked up for Karl when all the other students and even one of the teachers was calling him a "disgusting jew.''
       The fighting and name calling at school got so far to the point where Emil stopped going to school. I found that very upsetting. Kids who are so little, who don't even understand what is happening and are just hearing rumors about how "all jews are bad" hurt Emile to the point where he didn't want to show his face in school again.
      I think the reason why so many parts of this book touched me is because I am a Jew myself. And in elementary school I was the only Jewish kid in my school. In 5th grade I had many kids in my class, who didn't like Jews and the things they had said made me feel really bad about myself and who I am.
          I found what Karl did by sticking up for Emile like that, was very very very brave. Even though Karl knew he would have to put up with being bullied every single day just for sticking up for what he thought was right, he still decided to do it. I would have loved to have a person stick up for me like that.
          Karl is a strong character overall. His father left him, and than the bad people had come and took his mother away, so right now he's all alone.
         This book is very good so far, and I'm really excited to continue reading it and seeing how the plot changes.