SOMEONE NAMED EVA

Nazis came to Milada’s village in Czechoslovakia and tore families apart. The men and older boys were shot, Milada found out later, and the women were sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp near Berlin. But Milada’s family is not Jewish, and Milada’s fate is to be transported to Poland and later to Germany to be “Germanized,” as part of the Lebensborn program of kidnapping non-Jewish, non-German children with blonde hair and blue eyes and retraining them to become good Germans. Given a new name, trained in the German language and adopted by a German family, Milada—now Eva—struggles to retain her true identity. This little-known side of the Nazi era will fascinate young readers. Milada is a well-drawn character who resists “repatriation” and dreams of returning home. An important addition to the Holocaust curriculum. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)