The Holocaust was a very dark period in world history, one of the worst times. Between the mass genocide, fear, disgusting concentration camp experiments, and the aftereffects, the Holocaust left its mark on the world. The Berlin Boxing Club tells the story of a young Jewish boy living in Germany in the mid to late 1930s. Karl Stern is an average boy, he goes to school, keeps his head down, helps his parents out when he is home, and does not talk about being Jewish. Hitler’s rule greatly affects the entire country, but especially those with even a drop of Jewish heritage in their blood. Those who were not killed were beaten or tortured or experimented performed on them without consent. Many were branded with numbers, starved, mutilated, and almost any twisted, atrocious thing a human being is capable of. The Berlin Boxing Club provides a different perspective at which to view the Holocaust, and allows the reader to sympathize even more for those involved in any way.

The Stern family lives a normal life. Karl’s father, Sig, owns and operates an art gallery in Berlin that brings in most of the family’s money. Karl attends school, as does his younger sister Hildy. Although they are not practicing Jewish people, they are of Jewish descent and when Hitler comes to power they know they will most likely be in trouble. The book centers around Karl’s trials and tribulations. He becomes known as a “Jew” at his school and gets badly beaten by other older boys, and eventually expelled for his family’s Jewish heritage. After meeting him at his father’s gallery, Karl begins learning the sport of boxing from German world champion boxer, Max Schmeling. Although at first not very strong or trained, Karl quickly picks up Max’s teachings, eventually becoming good enough to compete. He only loses when he fights one of the older boys from his former school tells the referees and judges that Karl is Jewish, therefore disqualifying him from competing. As Hitler’s regime becomes stronger, Sig’s business suffers greatly, he has his artwork stolen, and the gallery vandalized while the family was forced to live there. Karl must take charge and help his family as best he can, and he does. Eventually Karl asks the famous boxer for help, and Max is able to get the Stern family safely to America, away from the persecution. 

The book received many accolades upon its publishing. In 2012 The Berlin Boxing Club received the Sydney Taylor Award (for Teen Readers). The Association of Jewish Libraries calls it a “novel that entwines Karl’s personal struggles with the historical ones of the period including “degenerate” art and the Nazi menace, well-developed characters and a tense plot propel this page turner.” The book received a warm welcome on the literary scene for being a very balanced historical fiction novel that could appeal to a younger demographic while still staying true to history.

The setting of this novel is one most students and educated persons are familiar with. The Holocaust is taught in almost all history classes in the United States, as well as most other countries that do not believe in or allow censorship. It is known as one of the worst times ever in history, and affected countless people around the world. Hitler’s rule sought to eliminate all people who were not “perfect” and would take away from the pure German race he wanted to create. The Nazis killed, tortured, threw in to concentration camps, performed abhorrent experiments on, and ruined the lives of many many innocent human beings. Among the many groups Hitler wanted to eliminate, The Berlin Boxing Club centers around Jewish people and their treatment in the mid to late 1930’s, Germany. Other persecuted groups include, but are not limited to, the disabled, the mentally ill, the Polish, the gypsies, the communists, homosexuals, and anyone who did not fit into the perfect Aryan race desired. Those who were just killed, some considered to be lucky. In the novel, Karl’s family was very lucky for having the possibility of escaping, as it was not possible for many others. The concentration camps are still known today for the world’s worst torture. Gas chambers, cold experiments, invasive and unnecessary surgeries, starvation, and mental torture all could have been possibilities for the fictional Stern family had they stayed in Germany.

Although there have been many many books written on the Holocaust, most are non-fiction or close to it. The Berlin Boxing Club is a piece of historical fiction that comes from a newer, fresher perspective. A lot of books written about the Holocaust were written from a Jewish person’s perspective, but what makes this book stand out more, is the fact that it is written from the perspective of a semi-Jewish teenage boy. Especially since the main character, Karl, and his family are not practicing Jewish people, it adds emphasis to the fact that Hitler was so very against anything that didn’t fit into his perfect Aryan mold. Even if a person did not identify as Jewish at the time, if their ancestry had any Jewish people in it, they were marked as Jewish and therefore undesirable. A person with Jewish heritage could go to church and Hitler would still consider them a Jew. The book is marketed towards young adults, and spares readers many of the very gruesome details of the Holocaust. It is a book that can spark a younger person’s interest in history, while also not being overwhelmingly violent. Especially coming from a young person’s perspective, it allows younger readers to relate more and achieve a better understanding of this time in history, unlike what they would learn in a classroom. 

Although many people are familiar with the events of the Holocaust (genocide, concentration camps, Doctor Mengele, etc.), The Berlin Boxing Club sheds a different, slightly more positive, light on what was arguably the worst time in history. In the book, boxing saves Karl and his family. Without Max Schmeling and boxing as a sport, the Stern family may have not been able to leave the country for a better life. The book has Karl and his family managing to make it out of Germany and to the United States, safely. There were indeed thousands of persecuted people who managed to make it to other countries including the United States, but that was not the norm for people living in fear during the Holocaust. As mentioned earlier, most people who were not considered “perfect” by Hitler and the Nazi regime were killed or worse. What people may be less familiar with, is the fact that even those non-practicing Jewish people were also persecuted by not just Nazis but Nazi supporters. Not only were adults sought out and killed, but children in schools. The popularity of boxing in the 1930’s as compared to today is quite different. Being a world class boxer in the 1930’s meant international fame and fortune, while today the many other more widely televised sports are football, soccer, basketball, etc. Max Schmeling was especially famous at the time and was known as both a model for Hitler’s perfect man, but also as a savior of Jews. 

The Berlin Boxing Club sheds a little more light on what was one of the darkest times in world history. The perspective of a young Jewish-by-ancestry teenage boy allows younger readers to connect more with the text and the history, as well as sympathize more with the survivors and victims of the Holocaust. Though the Holocaust is taught in school all across the world, The Berlin Boxing Club adds new understanding to what is already known by combining historical accuracy with the perspective of a teen boy to make it easier for a younger audience to relate to the text and the history. 
