An Underground Life was written by Gad Beck. This has been, so far, my favorite text in the course. It was a fantastic read and the tone was light-hearted and humorous. Humor is not expected when reading a Holocaust memoir, but I think this is the directionality in which Beck wrote his book. Two major aspects in his book was his homosexuality and his religion, Judaism/Zionism. From the very first page he is unapologetically gay. Beck slips in several anecdotes of his sexual and romantic affairs. Sex is also the last thing a reader would expect from a memoir. Further into the book is when he focuses on Judaism by going to the synagogue and reading the Torah.
In class, we were assigned to pick out the dates he mentions in each chapter and correspond the dates with what happens. For example, the beginning of chapter 3 Beck notes that on March 12, 1938 Germany invaded Austria. Also, he notes that on April, 1, 1938 his family was forced to moved out of their apartment and move into a “Judenhaus.” The fluctuation between global history and his family’s history makes his story seem more surreal.