Name: The Seven Year Dress by Paulette Mahurin
Item: The Seven Year Dress
Author: Trenzle Review

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Helen Stein’s life story is told in Paulette Mahurin’s book The Seven Year Dress. When Helen, a teenager, was taken from her family and brought to Auschwitz, she experienced its horrors but also discovered human decency and selflessness, which enabled her to survive despite all the odds.

Paulette Mahurin is a writer whose books I’ve read and enjoyed. I was drawn to and struck by her sense of compassion and her sympathetic approach to depicting the struggle. A really unsettling read was The Seven Year Dress. When considering the Holocaust, sexuality is not a natural thought that comes to mind. It’s not that I believed that during World War II, sex was rationed like grain and gas, it’s just not something that comes to mind.

I’m equally certain that rape occurred in light of the horrors of the death camps, but, one again, it’s not something one often considers. Paulette Mahurin visits a location I’ve never considered going, and she does it with a ferocity of spirit that is, to be perfectly honest, a little shocking. Is telling a gruesome tale brave or just uncomfortable? Let’s investigate that, then.

Helen seems a little disconnected as she tells her story. This practical coping method can be found in memoirs written by those who experienced the atrocities of the camps. When the story starts, Helen is a woman eager to talk to a college student who is looking for a room. She demands that the tale be relayed.

Knowing what is to come makes the pleasant closeness of her family in the beginning all the more painful. I’ve always appreciated how delicately Mahurin writes. Her writing is an exercise in pinpoint impact, getting right to the reader’s emotions.

For this reader, the story’s sexual awakening is where things start to go sideways. Don’t get me wrong; sexual desire is a normal part of being human, and I don’t object to Helen having it. I find the dynamics in Flowers in the Attic where she and her brother are hiding to be a little unsettling. Because the issue is so serious, it makes sense that authors would want to avoid expressing any weak feelings that would seem trivial in comparison to the gravity of the danger they are seeing.

I was troubled, really troubled, but it’s true, right? I watch a lot of true crime, and one of the things that really annoys me is when people claim that they think someone is guilty just because they behaved differently than expected. In truth, because every person is different, we are unsure of how we would respond in those circumstances.

Remember that just because something isn’t mentioned in The Seven Year Dress doesn’t mean it wasn’t probably a very genuine circumstance for people. Though she may not express herself as directly as the adult survivor Helen does in her famous diary, Anne Frank does recognise the emergence of feelings. Helen is eventually found and sent to Auschwitz.It’ss no spoiler to say that she survives as we meet her in the modern day.

A fictional work, The Seven Year Dress. You will be let down if you enter expecting historical accuracy. It is a skillfully written survivor tale that emphasises the lingering suffering of this terrible incident. There are many excellent and moving non-fiction books available. If you ever find yourself in St. Petersburg, Florida, I would recommend stopping by the Florida Holocaust Museum. The museum displays a horrible eyewitness narrative of Auschwitz and pays tribute to those whose lives were lost. Their catchphrase, “Erase the Hate,” is simply sound advise for a more contented world.

About The Book

One of the darkest times in human history was the insane design and execution to rid the world of Jews and “undesirables.” At the hands of the powerful evil madman Adolf Hitler, families were ripped apart and millions were slaughtered. Persecution, torture, devastation, and enduring the unthinkable remained for those who lived.

This is the story of one woman who lived to tell her story. This is a narrative of how a young beautiful teenager, Helen Stein, and her family were torn asunder, ultimately bringing her to Auschwitz. It was there she suffered heinous indignity at the hands of the SS. It was also there, in that death camp, she encountered compassion, selfless acts of kindness, and friendship.

Written by the award-winning, best-selling author of His Name Was Ben, comes a story of the resilience of the human spirit that will leave you thinking about Helen Stein and The Seven Year Dress for years to come after the last page is shut.

The Review