Book Description

She was a young German Jew.

He was an ardent member of the Hitler Youth.

This is the story of their parallel journey through World War II.

Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck were born just a few miles from each other in the German Rhineland. But their lives took radically different courses: Helen's to the Auschwitz extermination camp; Alfons to a high rank in the Hitler Youth.

While Helen was hiding in Amsterdam, Alfons was a fanatic believer in Hitler's "master race." While she was crammed in a cattle car bound for the death camp Auschwitz, he was a teenage commander of frontline troops, ready to fight and die for the glory of Hitler and the Fatherland. This book tells both of their stories, side-by-side, in an overwhelming account of the nightmare that was WWII. The riveting stories of these two remarkable people must stand as a powerful lesson to us all. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Great for youth to read
This book is geared for youth, and I think it's okay for kids from age 10 on up. Older teenagers and adults should be sure to check out Heck's other two books, "Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika," and "The Burden of Hitler's Legacy." All three books contain good stuff that is left out of the other two books - for example, Parallel Journeys contains the Jewish perspective of Ms. Waterford, and is written for youthful readers; Child of Hitler focuses on the events prior to and during the war; and The Burden of Hitler's Legacy provides a lot more detail about the events leading up to the end of the war, and the events after the war. I strongly recommend all three books, and promise you that you will not come away with the feeling that you have read the same story three times.

Parallel Journeys
This book is about two people living in two very different worlds. One is a Jew who gets sent to a concentration camp and the other is a member of the Hitler Youth. One strong point was how the author put the book together, on a timeline of events. You get to see both sides of the story. It got me hooked because I was waiting to see what happened to them. I thought this was a very good book to read, especially if you want to teach kids about the Holocaust.

Unbelivable!
This is probably the best Holocasut book I have ever read, which is a real honor considering how many I have read. I cannot belive the truth of this book and how you are afraid to end it because you will loose a friend. I was impressed how each story told was backed up by facts and took you through the entire ordeal from childhood to present. In the book it tells the story of a woman who is a Holocaust survivor and a man who is in the Hitler Youth and becomes a pilot for the Nazis. It is the real-deal when it comes to Holocaust literature and I reccomend it it you are new to this area, and I reccomend it if you have been at it for years!

One of the best Holocaust books I've ever read!
I thought that Parallel Journeys was an amazing and informational books, and I thought that it was the best Holocaust book that I have ever read. (And that it is a lot of books) And why, people ask, do I like Parallel Journeys so much? It is because it gives both sides of the Holocaust: one of a Nazi and the other of a German Jew. It was amazing, and I learned quite a bit for it. And the way it was written: with one chapter of the Nazi's story and the next of the Jew and so on, was amazing. Both stories facinated me, and I will never forget the huge amount of information that I learned from it.

Parallel Journeys
This book was very enlightening because it shows the view of a woman (Jew) Helen Waterford and a man (Hitler Youth) Alfons Heck. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

"Think of it as a game, Jack.
Play the game right and you might outlast the Nazis."

Caught up in Hitler's Final Solution to annihilate Europe's Jews, fifteen-year-old Jack Mandelbaum is torn from his family and thrown into the nightmarish world of the concentration camps. Here, simple existence is a constant struggle, and Jack must learn to live hour to hour, day to day. Despite intolerable conditions, he resolves not to hate his captors and vows to see his family again. But even with his strong will to survive, how long can Jack continue to play this life-and-death game?

Award-winning author Andrea Warren has crafted an unforgettable true story of a boy becoming a man in the shadow of the Third Reich.

Reviews (14)

A boy in the Nazi Death Camps
Surviving Hitler, by Andrea Warren, is a story about a boy named Jack Mandelbaum. He is a Jewish boy and lives during the time of WWII. He is separated from his family and lives in a concentration camp. He has to survive in them. He is very determined to survive in the camps because he wants to meet with his family after the war.
During his time in the camps he meets a man named Aaron who gives him vital information about the camps. He also tells him that if he cannot work, the Nazis will kill him. He tells him about the ovens. What I think is the most important rule that Aaron told Jack was that this was just a game that Hitler was playing. Jack was in that game. If Jack lost, he would die, but if Jack won, he would survive the Nazi death camps and live after the war was over.
I recommend this book because it had a lot of good description, great quotes, and a very interesting and unpredictable plot. I would rate this book a 4 1/2 out of 5 and not a 5 out of 5 because it didn't give many details about his life after the war or about the other characters lives after the war. This was an all around good book that I enjoyed very much.

Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps
Boy Survivor
Are you interested in World War II and the Nazi death camps and what it was like for the Jews? If you are, you should definitely read this book. It is a true story about a Jewish boy named Jack. Jack lived a normal life with his family in a Polish village called Gdynia. His family was well off and happy. He loved the beach and got into trouble. He was a normal boy. He didn't really practice Judaism. He didn't understand the war and he didn't care, until the Nazi occupation. That changed everything. Jack and his family are forced into a ghetto and later separated and sent to concentration camps. As Jack is moved from camp to camp, he meets new friends and he finds himself changing. All he wants is to survive. All the time he is wondering what happened to his family and when the war will be over. He is always worrying about sickness and what is happening to his family and where they are. Are they even alive? Sometimes he thinks he should just give up and die, but each time he manages to get through, right? You'll have to read and find out!
I loved this book. I have read a lot of books this year, a few were about World War II, and this was one of my favorite. This book really helped me understand what the concentration camps were like. I had always wondered what is was like and I tried to find a good book but none of them was as descriptive and real as this one. One of the reasons was that this story is true. The depth of this book really gave me a great idea about World War II. I got lost in it and never wanted to stop reading. I definitely recommend this book. I would only recommend it to people who can handle detail and gruesome facts. It has to be in detail, it's true! It may be detailed but it is still one of the best books I've ever read.
This book showed what kind of courage, hope, mental strength and faith it took to survive the camps. The most physically strong person could be the first to die, but the strong in heart were the last survivors.

A boy at camp
Surviving Hitler was about a boy named Jack who was jewish. Jack lived with his mom,sister,brother, and dad. Jack's dad heard that the nazi's were coming for the jews. Jack's dad sent his family to live with his father in a small village. Jack's dad did not go because he did not have enough money. Before Jack and his family left Jacks sister went to stay with her aunt so she could help her aunt with the baby she just had. Jack and his family finally arrive at there grandfathers house. They stay there for a while then the Nazi's come and put all the jews in little houses with more than one family. Jacks father still has not came back to them. One night in the middle of the night Nazi's came and made the jews immediately leave. Jack and his family waited in line and when it was there turn jack showed the soldier that he had a nazi work stamp. Jack thought it would get his whole family through , but it only got him through. Jack was seperated from his family. Jack was moved to several different camps for his good labor. Then he met a really good friend and they were moved to be camp cooks. Jack would have died a couple of days later if he had not worked in the kitchen. You will have to read the book to see if Jack survives or if he will be reunited with his family.

Holocaust Surviving
Surviving Hitler is a wonderful survival story depicting courage, and friendship in a great, breath stopping story about a boy in a Nazi death camp. Jack's faith, courage, and friendship with Moniek help him get through the hard time in his life and survive Hitler. This story is interesting to me because Jack is about my age and sometimes what happens to him can relate to life now. The story taught me about the Holocaust in a way that I could learn it better than usual. Jack can be an idol for people who are going through very hard times in their lives to show them that they can survive it. This book is so good that it is now one of my favorite books of all.

True Holocaust Story
Surviving Hitler is one of the best Holocaust books I have read. I love to read about it and this book makes you feel as if you are acually there with him in the death camps. I like the saying,"This is all a game.You must win to live."It is both dramatic as well as a little bit scary.I hope that people will read this book and realize what life was like for the Jews in concentration camps.This is clearly the best non-fiction book I've read. ... Read more

Book Description

Jewish teenagers David, Yitzhak, Moshe, Eva, and Anne all kept diaries and were all killed in Hitler's death camps. These are their stories, in their own words. Author Jacob Boas is a Holocaust survivor who was born in the same camp to which Anne Frank was sent. Includes a photo insert. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Good Source of Information on the Holocaust
Have you ever wondered what life for Jewish teens was like during the Holocaust? David, Yitzhak, Moshe, Eva, and Anne were five Jewish teens who lived and died during the Holocaust. Each of their lives and deaths are captured in this book, which uses factual information and chosen portions of their diary entries to compare their experiences. Boas efficiently chooses information to show what was happening at different times and places. His choice of entries, like Anne writing "...in spite of everything I still think people are really good at heart," supports the main theme that it is in the human nature to never give up hope. This book is very informational and eye opening, although it does not develop the five individual stories, which would make it more interesting and understandable. This book is good for anyone, but young adult readers will probably get the most out of it beacuse the main characters are young adults. This book made me want to learn more and gave me a greater understanding of the Holocaust.

we are witnesses
We are witnesses by Jacob Boas, is a GREAT book to read it gives you different views of teenagers that went through diffuculty during the holocaust. As you know, the person who was in charge of the holocaust was Hitler. All the teeangers talked about hope they always had the hope to live and to have their own family. They never talked about hate, they never said they hate hitler the only thing that they said was that he was responsible for what was happening. This was shocking to me because I would hate the person who had my family killed. Wouldn't you?

Ok I guess
This book was OK. I had to read it for school but I agree that it had way too many narrations in it and the only thing that captured the teens' feelings and thoughts were the scant entries from their diaries. This book didn't move me at all. If the author had put more of the kids' entries in it, it might be more effective.

Touching, sad, but moving and worth the read
Although many people think that reading such books as these, the accounts of teenagers who died while under the Nazi regime, is depressing...people should tell them, it should be. This book was very good, and I read it a few years ago during a class that I had to take. Everyone had read the Diary of Anne Frank, but although this includes excerpts of hers, I was interested to know what others thought. Whether or not they were as optimistic as she was. If you are looking for a read that will give you different perspectives on how teenagers thought about the Holocaust, this is the book for you.

We Are Witnesses
We Are Witnesses: Five Teenagers Who Died In The Holocaust is written by Jacob Boas. We are witnesses is a book of diaries of five jewish teenagers. The five diaries belong to David Rubinowicz, Yitzhak Rudashevski, Moshe Flinker, Eva Heyman, and Anne Frank. The book tells you what the teenagers thought and felt. The book takes you through the life of the teenagers during the Holocaust. All the teens were waiting for liberation from differnt country. Yitzhak was waiting for liberation from the Russian army and Anne was waiting for the D-Day team. Some of the teens had some one special who they cared about Moshe with his secret girl and Anne with Peter. Liberation never came for any of the teens. The liberation was only days after there death. The teens all died in a concetration camp, some were exterminated, others died of sickness or hunger. This book didn't really reach me like I thought that it would. I think there was to much narriation and not enough from the veiw of the teens. Over all it was a so so book. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (22)

WWII as seen through the eyes of a child.
Though this story is told as Marion saw it as a young child, it nevertheless remains a powerful and moving documentary of the most devastating war our planet has ever known.

This book is also a very good WWII primer. It would be required reading for a class entitled "WWII 101".

Marion Blumenthal spent her early childhood in Hoya, Germany with her brother and parents. They were a happy, prosperous Jewish family who owned a successful shoe retail business. But Marion's safe, secure world was shattered by the rise of the Third Reich in Germany. The Nazis, the dominant political party of the Third Reich, implemented their radical racial attacks against Jews, Gypsies, Slavics, Homosexuals, Communists, and whomever else was seen as a threat to Aryan purity. This meant the end of life as Marion knew it. Each passing day was a struggle to stay alive and out of the Nazis' clutches.

Despite their best efforts, the Blumenthal family fell prey to the Nazis. They eventually landed in Westerbork, a camp from which the prisoners where shipped to their deaths in places such as Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. The Blumenthals were transferred to Belsen, and despite their bleak future, Marion clung tenaciously to the hope that better times would come for her and her family. To bolster her and their spirits, she set about collecting four perfectly-shaped pebbles from the grounds of the camp. This was her metaphor for her family which, hopefully, would remain as one till the end of the war.

As the war dwindled to a close and Germany suffered one defeat after another, camp prisoners were shuttled along the remains of the Germain railways as the Nazis tried to desperately conceal the evils they had commited in the abandoned camps. Just when it seemed the war would drag on forever, Marion, her family, and their fellow prisoners were intercepted and liberated by Russian troops.

A beautiful story of inspiration, courage, and keeping a positive attitude even in the most dire of circumstances.

Its a great story of a family's courage during the Holocaust
I am in 6th grade and 11 years old. I love holocaust stories better than anything and this is definitely a five star book! I have read this book and it is fabulous. Marion and her family show great courage as they fight the battle of antisemitism. I love this book and I want Marion Blumenthal to know that it has touched me very much. It was so stirring that I couldn't put it down. If you liked this book, you should read Never to be Forgotten by Beatrice Muchman. (You can order it here on Amazon.) Marion, her mother, brother and father are wonderful testimonies of strength and courage during WWII. Anyone else who has a story like this should tell it. There are to many people out there who love these stories alot, I'm one of them. Thankyou for sharing your story with us Mrs. Blumenthal!!! It is fantastic!

Moving story from a child's point of view
"Four Perfect Pebbles" by Lila Perl and Marion Blumenthal Lazan, tells the story of young Marion's life in Hoya Germany during the rise of the Nazis. The story goes from Holland to Bergan-Belsen where the Blumenthal family ends up. And then after the war in the United States.
While this is book for the younger reader, this is a book that can be enjoyed by anyone at any age. Truly this book should not be missed.

A Must-Read
FOUR PERFECT PEBBLES is just one of thousands of such stories that mandate telling and retelling. Simply and beautifully, Perl relates one little girl's mode of survival through one of history's most heinous periods. As the author of another Holocaust book, FAR ABOVE RUBIES by Cynthia Polansky, I read everything I can get my hands on pertaining to the Holocaust. This one is a gem that must not be overlooked.

Mary Cooke and Kate Robinson's review
Brief summary and Review:

Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story is a wonderful book of how a family stays together through thick and thin. The story is about one Jewish family's struggle for survival during the Nazi occupation of Europe. The family includes Ruth Blumenthal, the mother, Walter Blumenthal, the father, Marion Blumenthal, the daughter, and Albert Blumenthal, the son. The Blumenthals lived in concentration camps for six years which included Westerbork in Holland and the notorious concentration camp of Bergen-Belson in Germany. Conditions in these camps were so terrible that nearly half the camps population died of disease, starvation, exposure, exhaustion, or brutal beatings. The book received its name from young Marion's search to find four perfect pebbles of almost the same size. If Marion could manage to find these four pebbles, she felt that it meant her family would remain whole and be strong enough to survive the Nazi reign. This game kept young Marion's mind on things other than dead bodies lying around, the rumbles of her starving tummy, and the want for her family and life to go back to normal. This is a great story about the importance of family and diversity. I would encourage everyone to take this book home with them today and experience the true account of one family's struggle through the Holocaust. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

Richie's Picks: HITLER YOUTH
"To continue reading their favorite books, the Scholl children formed their own clandestine reading circle and shared forbidden books with others.Hans found himself in trouble again when a Hitler Youth leader caught him reading a book by a Jewish author.The leader ripped the book from Han's hands.'This filth is forbidden,' said the leader.
"On the night of May 10, 1933, in many German cities, university students and Storm Troopers carried flaming torches and marched behind trucks and oxcarts filled with banned books.In Berlin, Bert Lewyn watched as the Storm Troopers and students tossed the books onto a huge pile and then poured gasoline over it.They touched the pile with their torches.'The whole thing exploded into a column of flame many feet high,' said Bert.'I was too scared to say a word.'
"The work of Heinrich Heine, a German poet of Jewish origin, burned among the books.One hundred years earlier, Heine had warned, 'Where one burns books, one will, in the end, burn people.' "

I grew up in suburban Long Island with quite a few Jewish friends.A bunch of them had parents who stuck them in Commack's experimental Extended School Year Program in the mid-Sixties, as my mom did with us. We were tracked together in high school, worked together on Student Council and National Honor Society, and got together for rock concerts, birthday parties and cast parties.To varying degrees we were all pretty good students and all a little bit wild.

"Although a poor student himself, Hitler had definite ideas about education.For Hitler, education had one purpose: to mold children into good Nazis.As soon as the Nazis came to power, they took control of the public schools, called National Schools.They threw out oldtextbooks and implemented new ones.They rewrote the curriculum from top to bottom, so that it only taught Nazi-approved ideas."

They also threw out any teachers who wouldn't get with the new curriculum, as well as all the Jewish teachers.

Being just one generation removed from the days of WWII and the Holocaust, I have always had a desire to understand how a whole nation could seemingly be accomplices in the murder of six million Jews, some of them close relatives of guys I'd spent weeks camping with and girls with whom I'd often shared saliva.

"In April 1933, the Nazis passed the Law Against the Overcrowdingof German Schools.The new law placed a limit on the number of Jews allowed to attend elementary schools, secondary schools, and universities.'They [the Jews] have no business being among us true Germans,' explained one Nazi teacher to his students"

HITLER YOUTH doesn't totally solve the mystery for me of how you convince a country to commit such unspeakable atrocities and for the world to condone the evolving process for so long.But as with Susan Campbell Bartoletti's previous award-winning books, HITLER YOUTH is an impeccably researched and eminently readable informational book that goes much farther in explaining the inexplicable than any book I've ever read.Much of the power of HITLER YOUTH comes from the author beginning the book with initial presentations of a dozen young Germans from those days--with photos and thumbnail bios--and then presenting significant amounts of the story in the words of those twelve people.

Included among those twelve are a real hero and heroine, two young siblings who would eventually help form the famed White Rose resistance group:

"Without doubt, his father, Robert Scholl, was proud of his son.He had once told his children: 'What I want most of all is that you live in uprightness and freedom of spirit, no matter how difficult that may be.'
"Those were words that Hans and Sophie Scholl would never forget.Over the years, the brother and sister grew deeply disillusioned with National Socialism.They resented the loss of individual rights and personal freedoms.They wanted the right to make their own decisions and lead their own lives.
" 'I must go my own way, and I do so gladly,' Hans once wrote to a friend.'I'm not anxious to avoid a host of dangers and temptations.My sole ambition must be to perceive things clearly and calmly.'
"Sophie said it another way.In her diary she once wrote, 'After all, one should have the courage to believe only in what is good.By that, I do not mean one should believe in illusions.I mean one should do only what is true and good and take it for granted that others will do the same.' "

The Hitler Youth was established in 1926.They were kicking Jews out of school in 1933.I can't help but feel that if you were an adult or young adult and hadn't figured it out by then, you had to be racist, extremely ignorant, or both.That includes a number of American journalists of the time who gave the Hitler Youth movement rave reviews.That people inside and outside of Germany did not raise their voices in outrage during the rise of Hitler cost the world those six million innocent Jewish lives, the lives of six million other "enemies of the Reich" (including homosexuals), as well as the millions and millions of additional deaths and scared lives from among those who fought in WWII.

The lesson for me has always been to cherish my own First Amendment rights and to shout out about prejudice, about invading other countries, about book burning, and about questionable political agendas involving public schools.

It is my hope that readers of HITLER YOUTH will perceive connections with today's and tomorrow's current events and that the book will inspire them to similarly shout out when they perceive intolerance in their world.
... Read more

Reviews (112)

The best Holocaust book I have read for a long time.
The Holocaust was a horrible time for everyone. The Holocaust began when the Germans were losing World War II. Hitler, a German dictator, wanted to feel powerful, even when his country was almost defeated. Since the Americans were too strong to be hurt, Hitler began to believe that all Jews were different and did not deserve to be treated equally. By abusing and killing them, he could get his sense of power and make another complication for the Americans. He began sending the Jews in small countries, like Hungary, to concentration camps. There they were forced to work long hours of labor with little food. In these camps there were rooms, called gas ovens, where Jews were killed if they were too weak or there wasn't enough room in the camps. Sometimes hundreds were killed at a time. Very few Jews during the Holocaust survived, but those that did can tell us how they were mistreated just because of their beliefs. Livia Bitton-Jackson is one of those survivors and in her book, "I Have Lived a Thousand Years" she retells her history of growing up in the Holocaust filled with suffering and pain.
In a small town called Somorja, a thirteen year old girl named Ellike lived with her mother, father, and her brother named Bubi. This was before Hitler invaded her town and Elli was happy. She went to school, attended her synagogue, and wrote poetry. She studied very hard in school because she wanted to enroll in a nice school in Budapest where Bubi went. Budapest was on a very nice side of town with big buildings and paved streets. On Somorja there were no fancy schools, buildings, and the only paved street was the main road and Elli dreamed of seeing it. But her dreams were shattered when the Germans invaded Budapest during the night. Luckily Elli's brother dodged the Germans and got on a train back to Somorja before they had a chance to close the train station. Most of Bubi's classmates were caught and shipped to concentration camps. Next, Hitler started to pass laws. The Jewish schools were closed. They were forced to surrender all of their jewelry and most valued possessions. They had to wear a yellow start to show they were Jews. They could not talk to Christians. Finally, they were moved to the ghetto, a small cramped area where twenty Jewish families were forced to live in the same small yard. Sometimes, there were eight different families living in the same house. A few days before the relocation of that specific ghetto, German soldiers came. They demanded that everyone bring any books, scrolls, or even pictures to them for safe keeping while the Jews were moved. They were hesitant but they had no choice, so they carried all of their books into the front yard. The Germans later burned the pile that had so many religious scrolls and bibles in it. Three days after that, they were put in cattle cars where 85 of them stayed for four days with out food or water. They were being transported to Auschwitz, the concentration camp. After the long cattle car ride and arriving in Auschwitz, all the children younger than 16 and over 50 were sent one way and the other girls were sent the other. Elli was 13 and the officer that was supervising the sorting should have sent her in the proper group. However, he saw that she had blond hair and let her go with her mother. The Germans prized long blond hair and blue eyes. If the officer had made Elli go with the younger children she would have been killed in a gas oven like Elli's aunt was. Then, the people that survived the "sorting" were shaved bald, put in showers, and given a gray dress and a pair of shoes. They weren't really anyone anymore. They were just Auschwitz workers.
This story about the Holocaust seems to sad to be true. I don't see how anyone could be that evil to another human. Hitler killed hundreds of children and adults just to feel powerful. After Elli was freed, a german woman came up to her and thought that she was 62 years old because of how weak and bruised she was. This story is really sad but it is also a warning about how much racism can hurt others. I would suggest he book "I Have Lived a Thousand Years" by Livia Bitton-Jackson to anyone who wants to learn about the Holocaust.

I Have Lived A Thousand Years - An Amazing Story
I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson is beyond an amazing story. It tells the life of thirteen-year-old Ellie Freidmann during the Holocaust. Ellie is a Jewish girl who is forced from her home, along with her family, to the ghetto and then to many different concentration camps, including the worst, Auschwitz. Her father is taken away from them very early in the book, which is then followed by other losses. The book is almost guaranteed to make you cry, as it is not only filled with grief and loss, but also with an almost unreal amount of determination and love. Ellie and her mother's strength is almost unimaginable. I highly recommend this book to everyone. It really opens your eyes up to what hate and prejudice can lead to. Even though it contains large amounts of sadness, reading the book gives you a very encouraging feeling, to know that evil didn't and can't prevail.

awsome!
Well I think that it was very cool that everyone gave it 5 stars. It definitley deserves it too. Its an awsome book! I love it and think Livia Bitton Jackson is an amazing person!

Experience
"Jew girl, Jew girl." This phrase was laid upon Elli Freidmann as the uprising of Hitler was proclaimed. She was only at the age of thirteen when she, her brother, and mother where token away to a concentration camp called Auschwitz. Elli was to be one of the few that were selected to transported to what was soon too pronounced as hell on earth. She was facing the world in new view, full of unexpected and unfortunate events.

The thing that I really liked about this is that it shows what the people of the holocaust went through. As opposed to telling. This way it gave me more of an insight as to just what was echoing in the fog. I liked that throughout Elli's experience she was still able to keep a brave and faithful spirit. I feel that especially in times as those it's best to believe and hold onto something, so that you may hold tight to your life in return.

I really enjoyed it due to the fact that it is indeed a true story. She did a very well job in allowing readers of all kind to experience what others hopefully will never have to endure. The only thing is that I don't think I would read anymore books as this one, only because it makes me sad to think and actually know what this corrupt world has allowed to happen. Other than that I have no regrets as to reading this book, in many ways it has opened my heart and mind.

I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Book Review
When I read this book for the first time, I first thought, "WOW!" This book is about a 13 year old Jewish girl who gets sent to different concentration/labor camps throughout Hungary, Germany, and Poland. Although many life-threatening and traumatizing things happened to her, she still had hope, and she did not give up. The things in this book that I valued most were the fact that there was great detail, and it was powerful/moving. I liked the fact that there was so much detail, because nothing was non-descriptive. When I read the author's words, a very clear picture popped up in my mind, and if it wasn't that detailed, then I wouldn't have been able to understand the book as well as I did. An example of this is when the reader sees Bubi standing on the other side of the fence, and having been abused and worked almost to death. I also liked the fact that it made me cry. When books make someone cry, they are usually very powerful or moving. The part in this book that made me cry, was the part where the Germans trick the women into getting their soup, and then attacking them. The idea of this horrified me. This book made me see that the Holocaust only happened some 70 years ago, and that the world was obviously a very different place than it is now. Having discriminations against someone because of their race or religion is no way to live life; you have to embrace things. When I first got assigned to this book, I was worried that I would not like it, but once I got into it, it was easy to lose track of time and read the night away. I Have Lived A Thousand Years is an amazing book, and I highly suggest reading it during your free time. ... Read more

Book Description

"HANNELORE, YOUR PAPA IS DEAD."

In the spring of 1942 Hannelore received a letter from Mama at her school in Berlin, Germany--Papa had been arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Six weeks later he was sent home; ashes in an urn.

Soon another letter arrived. "The Gestapo has notified your brothers and me that we are to be deported to the East--whatever that means." Hannelore knew: labor camps, starvation, beatings...How could Mama and her two younger brothers bear that? She made a decision: She would go home and be deported with her family. Despite the horrors she faced in eight labor and concentration camps, Hannelore met and fell in love with a Polish POW named Dick Hillman.

Oskar Schindler was their one hope to survive. Schindler had a plan to take eleven hundred Jews to the safety of his new factory in Czechoslovakia. Incredibly both she and Dick were added to his list. But survival was not that simple. Weeks later Hannelore found herself, alone, outside the gates of Auschwitz, pushed toward the smoking crematoria.

I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree is the remarkable true story of one young woman's nightmarish coming-of-age. But it is also a story about the surprising possibilities for hope and love in one of history's most brutal times.

... Read more

Reviews (72)

A teen's view of The Cage
I recommend this novel to everyone. Fulled with suspense and intrigue, it really kept my interst. I was not expecting this to happen. I had to choose a novel to read for a book report for English class. I picked this one beacuse I have read other books about the Holocaust and have found them interesting. After reading this novel, I have discovered that it is unlike any other novel about the Holocaust. I learned much more about the Holocaust and recieved much more insight into this topic from this book than from any other one. This novel is about Riva, a young girl living in a ghetto during WWII. Although it is a sad topic, I enjoyed learning about life in a ghetto. It was very interesting to learn how the characters could survive day to day in such horrible conditions. Riva survives the loss of her brother and mother and a deportation to a concentration camp. She becomes a mother to her young brothers. All these trials and tribulations make Riva a much stronger person. Through out the book, I felt her stong will and motivation contributed to her character. I grew to love Riva and felt as if I was part of her family. I felt depressed if something bad happened to her and happy when she had success. I recommend this book because you can clearly witness the change and growth, both postive and negative, in one character due to the Holocaust.

Brina's Review
I happen to love holocaust book. I read this book when I was 11 years old and loved it. I read the second book and Ruth Minsky Sender's other book. The story is about a girl who lived in a ghetto during the war. She is seperated from her father. She lives with her brothers and mother. Her mother is taken away leaving her incharge of her brothers. She works hard and finds out that her brother is very sick. Eventually, she too becomes sick. She tries to work at home. To learn the rest of this young girls story reader Sender's great book. I would recommend this book to ages 12-100! I think lessons can be learned from this great book. If you enjoy this I recommend to also read "To Life" (the second book of The Cage)!

The Cage
Recommendation

I would highly recommend this book to people in the ages between 13-and older. If you would like to learn about the holocaust, its great because this book shows strength, courage and how to make it through the hard times. I really liked this book because I really liked learning about what happened back then and what went on. Back then the Jewish police would go to peoples house to make sure they were home and they didn't escape. One night Riva and all her brothers are sleeping, and they hear a knock on their door, it's the Jewish police." Riva and her brothers hold their breaths and wait." The police just wanted to make sure that they were in their house. The book also showed leadership because when Riva's Mother gets taken away, so Riva takes care of her two brothers. The Child Welfare department went to Rivas house to put them in all different homes, but when Riva heard that she was determined to make sure that did not happen. Riva was first thinking " Maybe they would be better off and find good homes, be happy .Is it wrong to want to hold our family together?" then she thought it over again and said to child welfare ' "A mother does not give up her children! A mother does not give up her children."

Incredible
The Cage is such an incredible book. I learned so much! I would recomend it to ANY PERSON who wants to hear a REAL story of a young Holocaust prisoner. This book taught me so much. I could read it a million times. I learned so much about history, but most importantly about life. I think it is the best Holocaust book I have read, and i have read MANY! Riva's story is extremely easy to understnad, unlike other Holocaust books. I never wanted to put it down, and i cried like 3 times. Riva's story is one word: INCREDIBLE

Stories from World War II
This book was about the holocaust. It is just many of the stories from the war. This story takes place in lodz, Poland and camp Mittelsteine, Germany.
I liked this book because it gave me more knowledge of what really was going on in Europe during the war. I disliked all the horrible trageties that took place.
This book tells about a happy family living in Poland during the war. They are first raided then made to wear yellow stars to on whatever they wear. The Germans trick them into going to the train stations and they promise them that they will see their family members but they really aren't. What actually happens is that they are sent to concentration camps and all their belonging are taken away from them. Most are killed in a number of cruel ways. Riva's mother is taken away and she is left to take care of the kids. They all try to stick together for as long as possible. This was a very sad time and I will remember this book always. I'd recommend this book to younger people who are interested in the holocaust. This book was written for younger readers. It isn't too gruesome but it gets the point across. I wouldn't recommend this book to children under thirteen because it might be hard for them to understand what is happening. Some of the names are really hard to pronounce also. This book requires somewhat of a mature audience. ... Read more

Book Description

Award-winning author Alison Gold presents the little-know story of Chiune Sugihara (1900-1986), a Japanese diplomat who risked everything to save the lives of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. Sugihara chose to issure visas to Jews escaping Lithuania, despite the fact that his superiors strictly forbade him to do so. For the first time ever, his unforgettable story, as well as the stories of those he saved, are made accessible to adolescent readers. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Chiune Sugihara--Righteous Among the Nations
Chiune Sugihara's story needed to be told. In a dark period of Japanese history, one man listened to his conscience, discussed the consequences with his wife and children, and chose to do the right thing. In the early days of WWII, Sugihara, a diplomat to Lithuania, issued thousands of life-saving visas to the Jews of Europe against the direct orders of his superiors. After the Russians took over Lithuania, Sugihara was forced to close the Japanese Embassy, but he continued writing visas until the last possible moment.

The rest of Sugihara's story is anti-climactic, dealing with his diplomatic career throughout the war. After the war, the Soviets sent the Sugihara family to a Siberian detention camp. When they were finally repatriated, Sugihara was immediately dismissed from government service for disobeying orders. He spent many years in obscurity before finally being found by some of the grateful Jews that he had saved. Near the end of his life, he received some well-deserved acknowledgement by both the Japanese and Israeli government including being recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations."

Alison Leslie Gold, who has written several other non-fiction books of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, tells the story of three families. Besides Sugihara's story, Gold describes the experience of a Jewish family from Poland and another from Lithuania who received Sugihara visas. Gold focuses on Solly and Masha, children from those families. She interviewed them as well as Sugihara's widow, Yukiko, for first hand accounts of the heroic and tragic events described in this book. Masha's family used their visa to travel to Japan and survived the war. Tragically, Solly's family repeatedly delayed using their visa until it was too late to use it resulting in many family members' deaths at the hands of the Nazis. Solly found it quite ironic that a Japanese man tried to offer his family assistance at the beginning of the war and the first American face that he saw when he was liberated at the end of the war was a Japanese American soldier.

The photographs in the book help readers understand that this is a true story that happened to real people. There are photographs of all three families and additional photos from the time period. The photos are separated from the narrative in two clumps. Though this distracts from their impact, they are still powerful.

This is an easy to read introductory book on the incidents in Lithuania. However, I found information on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum web site that was not included in the book. In the web site's section on Sugihara, I learned about the interesting larger story involving the Dutch council, Jan Zwartendijk and his involvement in helping the Lithuanian Jews. I also learned that Yukiko was Sugihara's second wife.

Gold is non-judgmental towards Japan's involvement in WWII and of Sugihara's father's involvement in occupied Korea. However, she seems to lose some of that impartiality when she adds comments on Sugihara's conversion to Russian Orthadoxism. She adds the comment that he did not forget his Buddhism and Shinto religions from his youth (10). I wonder how she knows that detail of his conversion.

The research that went into A Special Fate could have been better documented. Gold's sources are summed up in an author's note at the beginning of the book and an author's acknowledgement at the end. The book does not include a bibliography for further reading or works consulted.

It is estimated that Sugihara wrote 6,000 visas. Now there is a group numbering over 40,000 descendants known as "Sugihara Survivors." Even in later life, Sugihara remained a humble man and once said, "I didn't do anything special....I made my own decisions....I followed my own conscience and listened to it" (175). Yukiko also should be commended, because had she dissuaded her husband, he might not have written the visas that saved so many lives. Karen Woodworth-Roman, MS Library Science

A great and exciting story!
Chiune "Sempo" Sugihara is one of the little known heroes of the Holocaust. This is rather unfortunate, as Mr. Sugihara was probably responsible for the saving of more Jews than any other individual! While serving as Japanese Vice Consul in Lithuania in 1940, Mr. Sugihara, against the express orders of his government, issued some 6,000 visas to people (individuals and families) desperately seeking to avoid the Nazi death machine. This book is the story of Chiune Sugihara, from youth to honored old age, and also the story of two young Jews, one whose parent took the visa and ran, and one whose parent waited too long.

This is a great and exciting story! I got this book for my twelve-year-old daughter, but found that I liked it just as much as she did. I really enjoyed this story of one man standing up and doing what was right, in spite of the costs. If you are looking for an uplifting story, one that teaches an invaluable lesson, then I highly recommend that you get this book!

This book should be required reading for all of humankind!
Alison Gold has documented with elegance the selfless humanity of Sempo Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat of the World War II era. Against the orders of his superiors, Mr. Sugihara wrote 6,000 visas in an effort to spare the lives of Polish and Lithuanian Jews. Through Alison Gold's brilliantly crafted accounts, we learn of the horrors and atrocities of the Holocaust, of the mixed fates of several families who were granted visas, and of the injustices to which the Sugihara family was subjected as a result of Sempo's courageous response to human torment. In several places throughout this magnificent book, Ms. Gold introduces Japanese phrases that do much to enrich our understanding of cultural concepts at the core of the Sugihara's way of thinking and living. We learn of the considerable influence that Mrs. Sugihara had on her husband's decisions. While this book was written for a young adult audience, most adults would find its content engrossing.

The ripple effect of an act of kindness
This is a beautiful book. I had to check the total number of pages after the first 10 pages, because I knew I would want to read the whole book in one sitting. "Hands reaching... for visas for life." Some people had never seen a Japanese person before. We hear the ice on rivers breaking up with loud cracking, we taste the Lithuanian pancakes with cheese filling and jam, we experience the shock of watching an American movie to then walk out into the light and see Russian tanks rolling down the street. The writer carries us gently through a lot of history, pain and beauty. I thought this would be a depressing book about the Holocaust, I was very wrong. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Each of us can make a difference
This is such a powerful little book. I used it with my sixth grade class as part of a unit on Japanese internment camps with the books Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and Under the Blood Red Sun by Graham Salisbury. While these books are excellent at helping students to understand what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II, it wasn't until I read them Passage to Freedom that the students began to more fully understand that they could take a stand as individuals to stop prejudice. Each of us, if we are brave enough, has the power to make a difference. Chiune Sugihara was brave, and he was determined to do what he knew in his heart was right. Because of him, thousands of Jews escaped from certain death. This book is priceless.

A real hero
Ken Mochizuki's excellent telling of the events during the early days of WWII when Chiune Sugihara saved thousand of Jews by giving them visas. In a dark period of Japanese history, one man, a Japanese diplomat, listened to his conscience, discussed the consequences with his wife and children, and chose to do the right thing. After the Russians took over Lithuania, Sugihara was forced to close the Japanese Embassy, but he continued writing visas until the last possible moment. Dom Lee's muted and detailed illustrations superbly enhance the story.

This is a wonderful book.
It should be required reading for U.S. immigration and consular officials. Having lawful orders to obey (Sugihara's instructions from his government were lawful, and no different from instructions given to US officials) does not absolve one from responsibility for others. This is an important lesson for children and adults.

The illustrations are haunting.

It is a book that you and your children will not soon forget.

It's a great book
I'm a 6th grade student who likes to read. I thought the book was interesting. It had good illustrations. If you don't know what a visa is in this story it's like a passport. I don't want to spoil the story for you so I won't tell you anymore of the story.

A very important book for children and adults.
A wonderful book, with an important story. Mr. Sugihara was one of those Japanese who do not follow sheepishly every instruction given to him by his government, and thank God! Using his conscience and humanitarian spirit, he helped saved the lives of many Jews, and he did this by disobeying instructions of his own government, which at that time in history was allied with the Nazis. Not only does this story deserve to be told, it needs to be told to an international audience. Mr. Mochizuki has written one of the most important children's books of the 20th century! Bravo! ... Read more

Book Description

A Life in Hiding

When the German army occupied Holland, Annie de Leeuw was eight years old. Because she was Jewish, the occupation put her in grave danger-she knew that to stay alive she would have to hide. Fortunately, a Gentile family, the Oostervelds, offered to help. For two years they hid Annie and her sister, Sini, in the cramped upstairs room of their farmhouse.

Most people thought the war wouldn't last long. But for Annie and Sini -- separated from their family and confined to one tiny room -- the war seemed to go on forever.

In the part of the marketplace where flowers had been sold twice a week-tulips in the spring, roses in the summer-stood German tanks and German soldiers. Annie de Leeuw was eight years old in 1940 when the Germans attacked Holland and marched into the town of Winterswijk where she lived. Annie was ten when, because she was Jewish and in great danger of being cap-tured by the invaders, she and her sister Sini had to leave their father, mother, and older sister Rachel to go into hiding in the upstairs room of a remote farmhouse.
Johanna de Leeuw Reiss has written a remarkably fresh and moving account of her own experiences as a young girl during World War II. Like many adults she was innocent of the German plans for Jews, and she might have gone to a labor camp as scores of families did. "It won't be for long and the Germans have told us we'll be treated well," those families said. "What can happen?" They did not know, and they could not imagine.... But millions of Jews found out.
Mrs. Reiss's picture of the Oosterveld family with whom she lived, and of Annie and Sini, reflects a deep spirit of optimism, a faith in the ingenuity, backbone, and even humor with which ordinary human beings meet extraordinary challenges. In the steady, matter-of-fact, day-by-day courage they all showed lies a profound strength that transcends the horrors of the long and frightening war. Here is a memorable book, one that will be read and reread for years to come.

1973 Newbery Honor Book
Notable Children's Books of 1971–1975 (ALA)
Best Books of 1972 (SLJ)
Outstanding Children's Books of 1972 (NYT)
1973 Jane Addams Award Honor Book
Children's Books of 1972 (Library of Congress)
The Buxtehude Bulla Prize 1976 (German Award for Outstanding Children's Book Promoting Peace)
1972 Jewish Book Council Children's Book Award

Reviews (68)

GREAT BOOK!!!
The book I have read is called The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss. Harper Collins Publishers published it in 1972. This is a fiction book that is based on the events that have happened in World War II. It is during the Holocaust in WWII, and explains all of the emotions a specific family of Jews went thorough during their life in hiding.
In this book, the De Leeuw family from Winterswijk, Holland, hear on the radio about the Nazis moving in and taking the Jews away to work camps. There is Ies, the father and Sophie, the mother. There is Annie, the main character and the narrator, her older sister Sini, and her oldest sister Rachel.
After a while, their family and friends start to move to America, deeper into Holland, or stay and brave the Nazis in hope that the allies will win the war soon. Soon the Jews have many unfair laws against them, made by the Nazis. The De Leeuw's lose a lot of friends just because they are Jewish, and the Jews have to give up their jobs and quit school.
The family breaks up into different hiding places in other family's houses where Annie finds out the truth behind the work camps, and the horrors going on in them. They spent a couple of years in hiding, go through many dangerous times, and await the end of the war.
I think this book is sad because the Jews went a lot of pain and sadness. I agree with the author when she says how destructive the Holocaust was because she experienced it first hand. It brings up a lot of questions such as why Hitler and the Nazis were doing these things to the Jews. This book relates to the racism going on today.
After all, this book brings the reader back to the Holocaust and brings up points on the issue, especially to respect others. AM

The Upstairs Room
In class I was assigned to read The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss. The story takes place during the Holocaust in the city of Usselo, Holland. The main character is Annie. She is a small girl with dark hair. She has two sisters and her mother gets very sick. I have also read the book Parallel Journeys by Eleanor Ayer, with quotes from Alfons Heck, a German soldier, and Helen Waterford, a Jew. Both Parallel Journeys and The Upstairs Room are about the Holocaust and what it was like to be a Jew. I feel that the message of The Upstiars Room was to treat all people equal. During the Holocaust, Hitler hated the Jews and was killing them. The Jews had to hide so that they would not be killed, but if they were found, they would be sent to work or extermination camps. Hitler established the Hitler Youth in which there were ranks. If you got to the top of the ranks, you would then be moved to the German army. I think The Upstairs Room is an excellent book. It was very exciting. It made me imagine myself as Annie. I think Johanna Reiss did a good job telling the story as Annie. I would recommend this book to girls from grades six and up because there was some language inappropriate for young childrenand some boys that read The Upstairs Room told me that it was a girl's book. I hope this book review helps you decide if you want to read The Upstairs Room.

The Upstairs Room by Stephen MacPherson
This book is based om Johanna Reiss's experiences in the world war 2 as a young girl becoming a young woman. Annie is just about 6 years old and words of Hitler coming to power and war are starting to arise. Annie lives in Holland and it is the year 1942. The german soldiers are starting to make their way toward Winterjswik where Annie lives. Ies, Annie's father believes they should go to america because the Germans are coming way to close. His wife, Sophie says she couldn't go to America and start all over again because she has kidney problems which gives her terrible migranes. Sophie feels that if Ies builds a house right on the edge of Wintersjwik, the part not near where the soldiers are coming they'll be just as safe in America. The family soon moves to the new house because the Germans come to close and they just get out in time. Sophie soon has to go to the hospital because her condition is way too bad. All their jobs are taling awy and they are not allowed to travel because they are Jewish. Soon their not allowed to visit their mom at the hospital so Annie gets permission from the governor. Soon Ies feels unsafe and finds a farmer to hide with. Ies finds a farmer to find Annie and her two sisters, Rachel who is a teacher and Sini who has her milking diploma. The farmers name is Mr. Hannink. Annie and Sini go to Mr. hannink's home where they will hide. Rachel doesn't go and stays with her mom. Mr. Hannink soon feels the germans are coming onto his hiding of Jews so he sends Annie and Sini to the Oostervelds where he says their gonna stay for only 2 weeks. They end up staying there for almost 2 years and almost got caught by the Germans from a check up one night but they were hidden in a closet where they couldn't be seen. They were there for the 2 years until canadian soldiers came through their town and freed them. After the war Annie had crooked legs but she got joined back up with her Father and 2 sisters and went back to Wintersjwik. But unfortunately her mother died from her bad condition.

Excellent
The Upstairs Room is an excellent book about Jews hiding during WWII. The main character is Annie de Leeuw. She was a nine-year-old Jewish girl living in Holland. Slowly Annie and her family were forced to quit school and their jobs. The loss of freedom destroyed Annie's spirit. She longed to be able to see her friends and play outside. The de Leeuw's decided to hide when they realized the Nazi's would be taking them to concentration camps. The entire family could not hide in the same location, so they split up. Annie's mother was ill, so she remained in a hospital. Annie and her sister, Sini, hid upstairs in the Oosterveld's farmhouse. Her father and sister, Raquel, stayed with a retired minister. Annie and Sini were cramped in a very small space, which was incredibly cold in the winter. The girls often spent many days in bed to keep warm. Annie was often forced to walk back and forth across the room to strengthen her legs because they began to grow irregularly. The girls had to hide in a closet for days on end when Nazi soldiers used the Oosterveld's house as an office. The Oosterveld's took excellent care of Annie and Sini and became quite attached. The entire time spent in the room was stressful and depressing for the girls. They were only allowed to go outside a few times during the their time in hiding. Annie and her family hid for two years before they could return to their home. The sacrifice the Oosterveld's made to save the girls is incredibly moving. The strength and perseverance Annie and Sini possess will inspire readers for years to come.

The Upstairs Room
I really enjoyed The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss. It was one of the very few books that has kept me pulled in and interested the entire time. The characters were real, and the story gave distinct detail about their physical appearances and individual personalities. It shows the struggle of a Jewish family trying to stay together, and most of all stay alive. You feel as though you are right there with the characters though every life threatening account with the German Nazi's.
The people who will like this book are individuals that may be interested in World War II, or the history of Germany and Holland during the 1940's. This could also be intriguing for people who enjoy reading about life struggles and how people have overcome them. ... Read more

Book Description

CHILDREN OF THE SHOAH tells the story ofthree young girls who survived Adolph Hitler's most notorious death camp and a young Polish Jew who defied Hitler by masquerading as a Catholic fighter in the Polish Resistance. During World War II, Hitler murdered about one and a half million men, women and children at Auschwitz - the Nazi's largest extermination complex.Most of the victims were Jews.As Soviet forces advanced on Auschwitz in the winter of l945, the SS began evacuating the camp, force-marching 60,000 prisoners to Germany.About a fourth died from starvation and exposure or were shot by the SS for falling behind.In January, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz and found 7,000 prisoners alive.Among them were three young children from Tomaszow Mazowiecki, a town in central Poland. Tova Friedman, 6, Rachel Hyams, 7, and Frieda Tenenbaum, l0, had not only survived the Jewish ghetto in their town but two slave labor camps.They even survived the so called "children's camp" at Auschwitz, which in reality was a holding area for the gas chambers.CHILDREN OF THE SHOAH is a haunting first person memoir of these three girls, their accounts combining the immediacy of the child's experience with the sophistication of adult hindsight.These intensely moving stories are a remarkable gift of insight into the Holocaust years and its implications for all of us.The dramatic and moving photographs throughout the book add to the powerful and lasting emotional feeling that the readers will take with them."NIEUWSMA, HAS DONE AN IMPRESSIVE JOB OF CAPTURING THEIR VOICES AND PRESENTING COHERENT ACCOUNTS OF THEIR EXPERIENCES."-PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"THE BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS THROUGHOUT ARE A TESTAMENT TO THE PEOPLE WHO BECAME NUMBERS DURING THE WAR." - SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL"HEARTRENDING�AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF HOLOCAUST LITERATURE." CHICAGO TRIBUNE"ORAL HISTORY BECOMES AN ART FORM�A COMPELLING ONE-SITTING READ." - FOREWARD MAGAZINE"THESE INTENSELY MOVING STORIES ARE A REMARKABLE GIFT OF INSIGHT INTOT HE HOLOCAUST YEARS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR ALL OF US."- THE HORN BOOK"AN EXTRAORDINARY,SENSITIVE LOOK AT THE CHILDREN OF AUSCHWITZ." - AMAZON.COM"HEARTWRENCHING AND HORRIFYING." - LOS ANGELES TIMES

Reviews (1)

Previously published as "Kinderlager"
Previously published as "Kinderlager" (1998), "Surviving Auschwitz: Children of the Shoah" is the companion book for the PBS special of the same title.In 2001 "Surviving Auschwitz" was named to the Top 10 List of Holocaust Books by the Institute for Higher European Studies in The Hague.For more reviews and comments see "Kinderlager: An Oral History of Young Holocaust Survivors." ... Read more

Amazon.com

Nominated for a 1998 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War is Anita Lobel's gripping memoir of surviving the Holocaust. A Caldecott-winning illustrator of such delightful picture books as OnMarket Street, it is difficult to believe Lobel endured the horrific childhood she did. From age 5 to age 10, Lobel spent what are supposed to be carefree years hiding from the Nazis, protecting her younger brother, being captured and marched from camp to camp, and surviving completely dehumanizing conditions. A terrifying story by any measure, Lobel's memoir is all the more haunting as told from the first-person, child's-eye view. Her girlhood voice tells it like it is, without irony or even complete understanding, but with matter-of-fact honesty and astonishing attention to detail. She carves vivid, enduring images into readers' minds. On hiding in the attic of the ghetto: "We were always told to be very quiet. The whispers of the trapped grown-ups sounded like the noise of insects rubbing their legs together." On being discovered while hiding in a convent: "They lined us up facing the wall. I looked at the dark red bricks in front of me and waited for the shots. When the shouting continued and the shots didn't come, I noticed my breath hanging in thin puffs in the air." On trying not to draw the attention of the Nazis: "I wanted to shrink away. To fold into a small invisible thing that had no detectable smell. No breath. No flesh. No sound."

It is a miracle that Lobel and her brother survived on their own in this world that any adult would find unbearable. Indeed, and appropriately, there are no pretty pictures here, and adults choosing to share this story with younger readers should make themselves readily available for explanations and comforting words. (The camps are full of excrement and death, all faithfully recorded in direct, unsparing language.) But this is a story that must be told, from the shocking beginning when a young girl watches the Nazis march into Krakow, to the final words of Lobel's epilogue: "My life has been good. I want more." (Ages 10 to 16)--Brangien Davis ... Read more

Reviews (27)

A Child's View of the Holocaust
When Anita Lobel wrote this memoir, she did not try to write in a sopisticated "literary" style. She didn't try to "doctor" the events with years of hindsight and thinking. Instead, she wrote "No Pretty Pictures" with the clarity and simplicity and paradoxical depth of a child's mind. Anita's story begins in Krakow, Poland, where she is born into a middle class home and the future looks to be filled with ease, pleasure, and a good education. However, the Nazis change all that. With their invasion of the city and eventually, all of Poland, Anita and her brother must flee. At first they manange to escape to the Polish countryside with their nanny, and when that fails, they go to the ghetto with Anita's mother. But the inevitable finally happens, and Anita and her brother find themselves confronted with the ultimate evil...a concentration camp. "No Pretty Pictures" doesn't end there, and goes even further to chronicle the challenges and differences of the war's aftermath. This book is a valuable addition to a Holocaust collection-memoirs really are the best books written about a subject, and Anita's is wonderful. The thing that makes this one stand out from the others is the way experiences are captured with a child's sense of fear and safety, comfort and pain, and good and evil.

The author's memoir of growing up during World War 2.
This book was very sad, but it is a book that needs to be read. The author, Anita Lobel, was barely five when the Nazis invaded her home in Poland. As a young Jewish girl, she grew up persecuted. As the Nazis created more regulations, Anita and her little brother went into hiding, posing as the children of their Catholic nanny. Yet they were caught and sent to a concentration camp. All the odds were against them, yet the two children - just ten and eight years old - managed to survive three concentrations camps and a forced march. Anita grew up to illustrate children's books. One would never guess she had such a horrifying childhood - until reading this book.

No Pretty Pictures, A child At War By Cassandra
No Pretty Pictures, A Child At War

No Pretty Pictures is about a young girl who has to find her way back to her religion while she tries to understand the meaning of life. She starts out as a normal girl but with one difference. She was a Jew at a wrong time. Her name is Hannah. She has a little brother, a mom, dad, and a nanny. (The nanny is Christian.) Her dad left her and her family when she was five to go and fight in Russia; that is when things go wrong.
People know about the holocaust but few of us have lived through it. Well, this story is about a girl that does. When she was five years old she had to leave to go to a concentration camp. She leaves with her brother, and soon realizes that her life will never be the same. Her mom has papers that say she is a Christian so she doesn't have to go to the camp, but Hannah and her brother don't.
She goes through many hard times, and wonders if she will ever see her parents again. She was in the camps and away from her family for about six years, but she was away from her father the longest. Her father left and was not heard of until six years later when Hannah was in the hospital because she and her brother were diagnosed with tuberculosis. She was put in a hospital for more than three years but she was able to go to a real city. There, she learned the true meaning of life with a little surprise.
I really enjoyed this book. Many books have been written about World War II, but I feel like this one gives a better understanding about what really happened during the holocaust. I think that this book did have its strengths and it weaknesses. One strength is that it gave a good look at what happens to the kids that were in the holocaust, let alone everyone else. It made me feel like I was actually in the book, and it gave great detail about what happened to them and how they felt about the Nazis. One weakness was that it didn't give a clear description about how her family was reacting to the holocaust. Also, her dad left, but then he shows up in the end, but we don't really know what happened to him.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes learning about a new religion, and for someone who enjoys getting into a good book. I would not recommend this book to someone who was younger than nine because it is a harder book to read. I had many "favorite" parts in the book. Most of my favorite parts were the action parts. Many times they would talk about how the Nazis would treat Jews, and it made me feel like I was in the book, and I was one of the Jews who were being tortured.
This book made me think of a lot of questions. Some of them were, how would she react to the new change? How does her mom feel about her family being in the camps, and not her? Did Hannah ever lose hope? How would her brother feel about the experience? And to my surprise, all of them were answered.
I would definitely read this book again because it was so good, and I would still be surprised at some parts. I think this is the best book I have ever read about the holocaust. I hope that the author will try to make a book as good as this one once again.

A great read!
Summary:
In 1939, when Anita Lobel was five, German soldiers marched into Krakow. Anita's father, the owner of a chocolate factory and a Jew, runs away in the middle of the night. As a child, Anita Lobel spent years hiding from the Nazis and trying to protect her little brother. The two children have to work through