Review by New York Times Review
MY JEWISH GREAT-GRANDPARENTS made the fortunate decision to leave Europe in the first decade of the 20th century, so my closest personal connection to the Holocaust was through my high school French teacher, Annette Berman. Annette was a 15-year-old Jewish schoolgirl living in Paris when World War II began. As restrictions and fear mounted during the German occupation, she and her family hid for weeks in her best friend's apartment; then, using borrowed identity cards, they traveled to a remote village where Annette spent the next two years disguised as a Roman Catholic, delivering messages and explosives for the French Resistance on her bicycle. Reading the heartstopping journeys of the child survivors in "Hidden," "Hidden Like Anne Frank" and "The Whispering Town" drove home to me that Annette's incredible story is far from unique. The fictional account of the French child Dounia Cohen in "Hidden" is the most achingly familiar. "Hidden," written by Loïc Dauvillier, is a graphic novel, and the vibrant and respected tradition of that genre in France is well represented here by the illustrator Marc Lizano's exquisite attention to period detail and the subtle, complementary shading of the colorist Greg Salsedo. Dounia, who is about 6, finds herself suddenly shunned by teachers and classmates the first time she wears to school the obligatory yellow star identifying her as Jewish. After the police take her parents away in a frightening nighttime raid, neighbors hide her in their apartment. When that becomes too dangerous, Dounia escapes to a farm in the French countryside, where she stays for the duration of the war. The ultimately hopeful story, translated from its original French by Alexis Siegel, is told in flashbacks by the elderly Dounia to her granddaughter, Elsa. Though readers may be tempted to race through to find out what happens, Lizano's illustrations reward careful observation, as in a sequence in which a "photograph" of Dounia's missing parents appears in the background of some of the frames on a page, bigger each time, until it fills an entire frame. It's a quiet, moving depiction of Dounia's increasing anxiety about their fate. Also in translation - from Dutch, this time - is "Hidden Like Anne Frank: Fourteen True Stories of Survival," by Marcel Prins and Peter Henk Steenhuis, in which Holocaust survivors narrate their wartime experiences with straightforward and often heartbreaking honesty. The first account belongs to Prins's mother, who inspired the collection. All these hidden children survived the war, but not all their families did, and there's a tremendous range of emotion expressed here. Like Anne Frank's, these few voices stand out and speak for the millions whose stories remain untold. Laura Watkinson's nuanced translation makes each storyteller's voice distinct, and the text is enhanced by photographs. My favorite is the picture of a wedding group taken on the day the war ended in Europe, showing all the people who had hidden in a single household, as well as the couple who hid them; the two resistance workers who helped; and the infant daughter of the bridal pair, who met while in hiding. These accessible stories, full of hard truths, are touching, thrilling and agonizing by turns. Be warned: Parents may find "Hidden" more painful to read than children will. Rounding out this literary threesome of resistance and escape is "The Whispering Town," a picture book written by Jennifer Elvgren and illustrated by Fabio Santomauro. The setting is a Danish fishing village, but one of the book's charms is how little context you need to understand it: There's a war, and Anett's family is hiding refugees and sneaking them to safety by boat to neutral Sweden. Anett's job is to bring food to the Jewish mother and child hidden in her basement, where she finds her way down the dark stairs by following the sound of their whispers. When Anett's father worries that the refugees might get lost in the dark when they flee to the harbor, Anett suggests the whole village whisper directions to them as they go. The publisher of "The Whispering Town" recommends the book for children ages 7 to 11, but it feels appropriate for reading to very young children as an introduction to the subject of the Holocaust. It's definitely the least harrowing of the three books. The threat to the escaping mother and child is only hinted at in the bales of barbed wire that accompany the Nazi soldiers whenever they appear, in the worrying absence of the father in the Jewish family group, and in the villagers' ominous, repeated warning: "Stay safe." Santomauro's thoughtful illustrations, with their restrained colors, subtly remind the reader of the village's determined solidarity. Reading these books, a few jolting truths hit me. The most shocking was that all the survivors were, at some point, simply lucky. Their hiding places were overlooked in a raid, or they weren't home when it happened. Every one of them, including my French teacher, spent the war using a false name; I was struck by how seriously even the smallest children took their situation right from the start, and how smart and cooperative they had to be to make their disguises convincing. Those who were lucky enough to be reunited with their parents after the war faced the often difficult task of getting to know them again. The most memorable image from "Hidden" is the full-page portrait of Dounia's mother on her return from a concentration camp. She's utterly changed: shorn and emaciated, her eyes still wide with unspeakable horror. During the war, hope sustained those who had reason to hope. Afterward, as life settled into a constant uphill battle against grief and loss - both emotional and material - there was often no respite in view. The final, tragic note running through these narratives is the reluctance many survivors felt about sharing their wartime experiences. Annette Berman was truly one of the lucky ones - someone who was not so damaged that she couldn't bear to talk about her past. Because these stories must be shared. "Hidden," "Hidden Like Anne Frank" and "The Whispering Town" are worthy additions to the library of remembrance. ELIZABETH WEIN is the author, most recently, of "Rose Under Fire" and "Code Name Verity."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 6, 2014]
Review by Booklist Review
First published in the Netherlands in 2011, this powerful book has personal origins; Prins' mother was a Jewish child hidden with a Christian family during WWII. Hers is among the 14 first-person narratives representing a breadth of experience not always so similar to the famous story referenced in the title. Some of the children were hidden in plain sight because they did not look Jewish; others barely identified themselves as Jewish until the war forced it upon them. Each life was at the mercy of neighbors, and the contradiction between the enormous bravery of ordinary people and the callousness of informers is always potent. Places like Hollandsche Schouwburg, Westerbork, and Auschwitz appear in each successive story, as civil liberties and livelihoods are stripped away. Photographs and original documents complement the narratives. A glossary of terms appears at the end of the book and definitions of terms appear as footnotes when first appearing in the text. This is a powerful read where survival not happiness is the goal.--Dean, Kara Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Kindled by his mother's own story and drawing from original interviews, Prins and co-author Steenhuis compile 14 accounts from Dutch-born individuals who lived in hiding as children during WWII. Rita Degen (Prins's mother) was yanked from school and sent to a foster family where she was forced to change her name and pretend to be age five to avoid having to wear a yellow star. Jaap Sitters was harassed at school after friends' parents became members of the National Socialist Movement; he chillingly recalls the claustrophobic crawlspace where he lay hidden in silent darkness. Auschwitz prisoner Bloeme Emden describes surviving deplorable conditions and the aftershocks of trauma after returning home: "I was bald and emaciated. He [my boyfriend] didn't recognize me until I spoke. Everything about you can change, but voices stay the same." These first-person stories of heroism and inhumanity explore the true scope of Holocaust atrocities, while also serving as a testament to resilience. Maps, footnotes, past and current photographs of the interviewees, and a glossary are included; additional resources are available on a companion Web site. Ages 12-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-While Anne Frank may have been the most famous of those who went into hiding during World War II, there were hundreds of others who did just about anything they could to escape the Nazis. Though most did not survive, this compilation of 14 stories describes those who did live to tell their tale. Inspired by his mother's account of hiding when she was just six years old, Prins interviewed other survivors. The tales are all horrifying and harrowing in their own ways yet are marked by an unvarnished tone that conveys an immediacy that sweeps readers into the narrative, making this tragic episode of history real and dramatic. One survivor had as many as 42 different addresses, while another describes hiding under floorboards for hours while German officers walked overhead. The threat of exposure by collaborators was ever present, and the trauma didn't end after the war, as most lost many family members or had their homes given away and all traces of their former lives were gone. Photographs of the contributors, both now and then, as well as a glossary are included. An accompanying website with excerpts, maps, animations, and other material is quite engaging and worth perusing. This moving and powerful title is an important addition to any history collection.-Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This volume includes compelling first-person accounts of survival during the Holocaust and WWII in Holland, including coauthor Prins's mother's experience. Readers will encounter incredible acts of courage, both from the subjects themselves and the Resistance fighters and ordinary people willing to risk their lives. Family photos and archival images appear throughout; a glossary and pictures of the survivors today are appended. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Dutch survivors of the Holocaust remember their years as hidden children. During Hitler's reign of terror, paths to survival for Jews were few and involved secrecy, danger, vigilance, and the kindness and bravery of strangers. Fourteen men and women recall their experiences with amazing clarity, detail and honesty. There are several commonalities in the accounts. Most began their ordeal at very young ages and had to take on heavy responsibilities and new identities, enduring frequent moves, incidents of near discovery, and unending fear and uncertainty. Some found compassion and love among their rescuers, and others were treated callously by sponsors who accepted them only for the stipend that the resistance organizations paid. After the war, most of them found that nearly all their family members had been killed, relationships with surviving parents were awkward, their homes had been given to other people, and postwar authorities were slow to help them resettle. The accounts are told in a matter-of-fact tone, with no attempt at sentimentality or self-pity. Photos of the survivors before the war and of some of their temporary homes and families accompany the text, and photos as they are now are shown at the end. Each memoir is poignant and heartrending on its own, and the compilation gives the reader a stunning sense of the horror of the Holocaust. Terrifying, haunting and powerful. (foreword, glossary) (Collective memoir. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
