Personal stories of eight Jewish men and women—who, as children, survived the Holocaust—are the frame for a study of the hardships and bigotry they faced after liberation. In a style similar to his Hidden Children (1993), Greenfeld tells this story in chronological order, organizing his chapters into Liberation, After the Liberation, The DP Camps, and, finally, The Survivors: An Afterword. While each of these victims experienced detainment and liberation in different ways, their stories represent a sampling of thousands of lives. The first chapter introduces each: Ann Shore, born Hania Goldman, who was freed from a hiding place in a hayloft where she had spent two years, to Larry Rosenbach, who escaped a death march from Flossenburg to Dachau. Others include Judith Bihaly, one of the hidden children, forced to disguise her Jewishness even before the war. This detail becomes a significant theme throughout the narrative as Greenfeld reinforces the existence of overwhelming prejudice and discrimination that was a significant part of Jewish life before and after liberation. As a result, most of these children found themselves in situations almost as horrifying as their lives during the war. While the format makes these individual lives difficult to follow, the depictions of living behind fences in poorly equipped displaced-persons camps or being sent home, only to find a new family unwilling to budge, will chill the soul and leave a lasting impression. These children survived to tell their stories, but Greenfeld makes it abundantly clear how many did not and why. (Nonfiction. 11+)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-688-17752-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
On July 30, 1945, after transporting the atomic bomb to Tinian for the Enola Gay, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed in shark-infested waters and sunk. In the largest wartime loss of life for the navy, 880 of the ship’s 1,197 men found themselves in the water, 250 miles from the closest land. When they were eventually rescued, only 317 men had survived. How had it happened that a ship as important as the USS Indianapolis had been unescorted in waters where Japanese submarines were known to lurk, and Captain McVay had not been notified? Why was Captain McVay court-martialed, when accountability clearly extended beyond his role as captain? Nelson is telling two stories here: the wartime story of the USS Indianapolis and the story of Hunter Scott, a young boy doing a history project for school. Scott got interested in the Indianapolis after watching Jaws with his dad, and a character in the movie tells of the Indianapolis and the shark attacks on the men. Fascinated, Scott chose this as his topic for a history fair. He did research, wrote letters to survivors, and began to feel something was not quite right in the story, that Captain McVay and his officers were more heroic than negligent, and the record should be set straight. The story of the USS Indianapolis is fascinating, and Nelson capably puts that story in the context of the war and the events leading up to it. Less successful is the melding of the two stories of ship and young researcher. The story of Hunter Scott sandwiches the war story, but it is important in its own right, and Scott, along with survivors and a congressman, plays a key role in the exoneration of Captain McVay. As engaging as the best historical fiction, this will appeal to any reader who likes history and a good story at the same time. (photographs, maps, bibliography) (Nonfiction. YA)
Pub Date: May 14, 2002
ISBN: 0-385-72959-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2002
Cooper (From Slave to Civil War Hero, 1994, etc.) expands on the topic introduced to young readers in Jacob Lawrence's Great Migration (1993): the movement of a million rural African-Americans from the South to cities in the North between 1915 and 1930. He perceptively explores the sweeping changes that movement caused, including the creation of large African-American communities and coalitions, the growth of black-owned businesses, the increased political influence of these voters, the cultural ferment of the Harlem Renaissance, and white backlash, North and South. Despite occasional brief quotes, this is a digest rather than a documentary history, couched in general statements and focusing more on issues, organizations, and statistics than individual experiences; the systematic if impersonal result will be a workhorse in library collections but is unlikely to find a popular audience. The dim black-and-white photographs are a mixture of portraits and street scenes. (endnotes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-15)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-525-67476-4
Page Count: 85
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
