HIDDEN HOPE

An adolescent girl and a toy duck helped save hundreds of Parisian Jewish lives during World War II.

Jacqueline Gauthier, a heroic Jewish teenage French Resistance member, posed as a Christian social worker and bicycled her way through the streets of Paris during the German occupation. She carried a wooden toy duck on wheels in her satchel, ostensibly to homes with children as a plaything. This was a ploy; unbeknownst to Nazis who’d overtaken the city and were on the constant lookout for hidden Jews, the toy had a secret compartment. Inside were false identity papers—not bearing the stamp Juive (the French word for Jew)—that Gauthier clandestinely ferried to desperate Jews so they could flee the city undetected and unharmed. Also unknown to the Nazis: The “social worker” undertook this task at enormous personal risk, for she was Jewish herself. Her real name was Judith Geller, and she had hidden her own parents and brother and carried her own fake documents. Boxer tells Judith’s story in an understated manner, making it all the more heart-rending; succinct sentences heighten dramatic tension. The illustrations, rendered in watercolor, gouache, and pencil, are somber, in keeping with the story’s dark themes and images of terrified people literally hiding in the shadows. Judith’s red beret and the yellow duck stand out to deliberately keep readers’ focus on them throughout. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

This quiet book rightfully helps a little-known Holocaust heroine emerge from the darkness.