"In 1945 the war ended. The Germans
surrendered, and the ghetto was liberated. Out of over a quarter of a
million people, about 800 walked out of the ghetto. Of those who
survived, only twelve were children. I was one of the twelve." For more
than fifty years after the war, Syvia, like many Holocaust survivors,
did not talk about her experiences in the Lodz ghetto in Poland. She
buried her past in order to move forward. But finally she decided it was
time to share her story, and so she told it to her niece, who has
re-told it here using free verse inspired by her aunt.This is the true
story of Syvia Perlmutter — a story of courage, heartbreak, and finally
survival despite the terrible circumstances in which she grew up. A
timeline, historical notes, and an author's note are included.
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 5-9–In thoughtful, vividly
descriptive, almost poetic prose, Roy retells the true story of her Aunt
Syvia's experiences in the Lodz Ghetto during the Nazi occupation of
Poland. The slightly fictionalized story, re-created from her aunt's
taped narrative, is related by Syvia herself as a series of titled
vignettes that cover the period from fall, 1939, when she is four years
old, until January 1945–each one recounting a particular detail-filled
memory in the child's life (a happy-colored yellow star sewn on her
favorite orange coat; a hole in the cemetery where she hides overnight
with her Papa). The book is divided into five chronological
sections–each with a short factual introduction to the period covered.
An appended author's note tells what happened to Syvia's family after
the war. A time line of World War II, beginning with the German invasion
of Poland, is also included. This gripping and very readable narrative,
filled with the astute observations of a young child, brings to life
the Jewish ghetto experience in a unique and memorable way. This book is
a standout in the genre of Holocaust literature.–Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Only 12 children survived the Lodz ghetto, and
Roy's aunt Syvia was one of them. But for more than 50 years, Syvia kept
her experience to herself: "It was something nobody talked about." Roy
didn't know, and she admits that she didn't want to know. She always
avoided Holocaust history. She was afraid of it; when she was growing
up, there was no Holocaust curriculum, no discussion-just those images
of atrocity, piles of bones, and skeletal survivors being liberated. Her
father, too, was a survivor, but he seldom spoke of those years, and
with his death, his story was lost. But a few years ago, Roy's aunt
began to talk about Lodz, and based on taped phone interviews, Roy wrote
her story, presenting it from the first-person viewpoint of a child,
Syvia, in simple, urgent free verse in the present tense. Each section
begins with a brief historical introduction, and there is a detailed
time line at the end of the book.Syvia is four years old in 1939,
when the Germans invade Poland and start World War II. A few months
later, her family is forced into the crowded Lodz ghetto, with more than
a quarter of a million other Jews. At the end of the war, when Syvia is
10, only about 800 Jews remain-only 12 of them are children. Syvia
remembers daily life: yellow stars, illness, starvation, freezing cold,
and brutal abuse, with puddles of red blood everywhere, and the
terrifying arbitrariness of events ("like the story of a boy / who went
out for bread / and was shot by a guard / who didn't like the way the
boy / looked at him"). When the soldiers first go from door to door,
"ripping children from their parents' arms" and dragging them away, her
father hides her in the cemetery. For years thereafter, she's not
allowed to go outside. In 1944 the ghetto is emptied, except for a few
Jews kept back to clean up, including Syvia's father, who keeps his
family with him through courage, cunning, and luck. As the Nazis face
defeat, Syvia discovers a few others hidden like her, "children of the
cellar." When the Russians liberate the ghetto, she hears one soldier
speak Yiddish, and the family hears of the genocide, the trains that
went to death camps. At last they learn of the enormity of the tragedy:
neighbors, friends, and cousins-all dead. There's much to think t and
talk about as the words bring the history right into the present. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews