Great Escapes #1: Nazi Prison Camp Escape by Michael Burgan, illustrated by James Bernardin

Nine-year-old Bill Ash knew he wanted to be a pilot even before the day in 1927 when he saw Charles Lindbergh in Dallas, Texas. But the Depression hit his family hard and left little time to think about flying. Then, in 1939, war was declared in Europe and, wanting to fight Hitler, Bill went to Canada to join the Royal Air Force there. Turns out, Bill was a natural in the air.

By 1942, he was flying missions from England to Europe in a Spitfire. And he was successful, that is, until March 24, 1942, when his plane was fired on. He crash landed in France, and with the help of some kind French people and the French resistance, almost made it back to England via Spain. But almost doesn't count - Bill was discovered and arrested by the Gestapo in Paris.

Bill was questioned and tortured to give up the names of the people who helped him in France. Thinking about the young girl named Marthe who had helped him, Bill was able resist the many beatings by the Gestapo. Eventually, he was sent by cattle car headed to Germany. There he was sent to a Nazi prison camp for POWs called Stalag Luft III. 

Once he reached Stalag Luft III, the urge to escape was great. But the first attempt failed and Bill found himself spending two weeks in solitary confinement a/k/a the Cooler. Undaunted, Bill and some of his fellow POWs kept trying to escape, followed by two weeks in the Cooler and nothing to eat but bread and water. 

When Stalag Luft III became crowded, Bill and others were sent to another POW camp in Poland via cattle car, which proved to be yet another failed escape attempt. In Poland, Bill and 24 other men decided to dig a tunnel from inside the latrine. They figured the smell of the latrine would keep the fastidious German soldiers away. Finally, in March 1943, thirty-three men were ready to escape. And Bill did make it to freedom, until he was caught...again. After even more escape attempts, Bill found himself back in Stalag Luft III, where he discovered he was known as the Cooler King.

Back where he began life as a POW, there were more escape attempts until finally in 1944 came the good news that the Allies had landed in France, and by 1945, they were in Belgium on their way to Germany. Bill and the other prisoners were forced to march from Stalag Luft III to Spremberg, Germany, where they were loaded on to cattle cars. By now, Bill and other POWs were ill, and taken to a military hospital outside Bremen, Germany. By the time he had recovered, the British were shelling the camp Bill was in, not realizing there were POWs there. Bill made one last escape attempt. This time he succeeded and was able to tell the approaching British tanks just were they Germans had positioned their tanks. 

Finally, after 13 attempted escapes, the war was over for Bill Ash and he was a free man.

Bill Ash in his Spitfire meeting the
Canadian Prime Minister

Great Escapes is a debut series and it is getting off to an exciting start with Nazi Prison Camp. Presenting Bill Ash's story in this short, but action-packed historical fiction novel is a great way to get reluctant readers reading as well as giving kids interested in WWII stories something different. After all, most kids know about Nazi concentration camps, but not much about what happened to POWs, and may have even just assumed they were immediately killed. 

There are sidebars to Bill's story in the first three chapters with information about The Depression, Concentration Camps, Spitfires and Other Aircraft of World War II, The Resistance to German Rule, andThe POWS of World War II. These are all topics readers will encounter throughout the novel. Sometimes I find sidebars intrusive in historical fiction. It was nice to read them at the beginning of Bill's story so that the exciting escapes weren't interrupted with information and readers already know what they need to know. And since it is a story about POWs, it is also a good way to introduce them to the Geneva Conventions that "spelled out how countries would treat prisoners of war."

There is a Selected Bibliography and an Author's Note in the back matter. A map is included at the beginning, but I wish it were a more detailed map to give young readers a sense of place and distance. Descriptions of Bill's escape attempts are detailed and riveting. Bill Ash's story is a survival story par excellence. 

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was an EARC gratefully received from Edelweiss Plus

Bill Ash passed away in 2014 at the age of 96. You can read his informative obituary HERE 

Violins of Autumn by Amy McAuley

While it may be hard not to make some comparisons of Amy McAuley's Violins in Autumn with the very excellent Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, I think it is always better to form my opinion about a book on its own merits.

It is 1944 and Adele Blanchard, her friend radio transmitter Denise Langford, and two men have just parachuted into Nazi-occupied France as undercover agents for the Britain's Special Operations Executive, or SOE, to work with the French Resistance sabotaging German operations in preparation for D-Day.

Of course, the landing doesn't go exactly as planned.  One of the men is arrested almost as soon as they hit the ground, but Adele, Denise and the other man, Bishop, find each other and make their way to the agreed upon meeting place with Pierre, a member of the French Resistance.

It's not long before the two girls must make their way to Paris,  With false papers, they impersonate two French girls traveling by bike, securing Denise's radio in a suitcase to one of them.  But along the way, Adele and Denise witness a British plane crash after being hit by enemy fire.  They manage to find and rescue the American pilot, Robbie, before the German's do.

The three continue on to Paris, but along the way, they run into some Germans.  Denise and Robbie manage to get by them, but Adele is stopped and her bike to taken away.  Now she must go on on foot, and she's still a long way from Paris.  Luckily, a car comes by and she gets a lift from a Dr. Devereux all the way to Paris.  Devereux gives her is address should she need it.

But Adele and Robbie never show up at their safe house, and she discovers the it has been compromised and everyone was arrested.  With no place to go, Adele rides the metro day after day, avoiding Germans and possible capture.  Eventually, she ends up at the house of Dr. Devereux, where she has a brief encounter with his Nazi-collaborator wife in the process of leaving her husband.  Adele, Denise and Robbie finally find each other. but they must find a safe way out of France for Robbie as well as perform the tasks they are supposed to do as agents for SOE until the hear the coded message from London: "The long sobs of the violins of autumn" signaling that the allies are beginning their preparations of D-Day.

OK, so this doesn't sound majorly exciting, but take my word for it, Violins in Autumn is a very exciting novel.  It is full of espionage, intrigue, danger, kindness, cruelty, and even love.  In the course of this historical fiction novel, McAuley manages to work in lots of information about how operatives for the SOE are trained, how the Gestapo conducted interrogations and how messages were sent and received by couriers like Adele in the resistance.  And what dangerous jobs these were.

One of the things I like when I read a book like this is discover something I don't know.  I knew coded messages where sent between the allies and their operatives in the field, but I didn't know that the one signaling the start of  D-Day within 24 hours to operatives and resistance workers was from the first stanza of Chanson d'Automne by Paul Verlaine: The long sobs of the violins of autumn/would my heart with a monotonous languor.  

But Violins of Autumn is, above all, a story about the deep friendship that develops between the two young women who must rely on each other at a time when it is hard to know who one can really trust.  This can be especially difficult when each person can hide behind a false identity. To begin with, Adele is really Betty Sweeney, a 17 year old American who had been sent to boarding school in Switzerland when her father remarried, spoke German and French with native fluency and moved in with her English aunt and uncle when the war began.  Like Robbie, she lied about her age.  And if Adele is really Betty, it stands to reason that Denise is someone else, too.

If you enjoyed Code Name Verity, most likely you will enjoy Violins of Autumn and hopefully appreciate them both for their differences, because both are well worth reading.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was borrowed from the Webster Branch of the NYPL

To learn more about the real lives of female SOE couriers and radio transmitters like Adele and Denise, see the chapter on Great Britain in Kathryn Atwood's book Women Heroes of World War II, 25 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance and Rescue (my review here)

For more information on Special Operations Executive operatives can be found here.

Tools of the SOE Trade (Note the radio
in the suitcase)

This is book 10 of my Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry

Victory (Resistance Book 3) by Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis

With Victory, Book 3, the talented team of Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis will bring their graphic novel trilogy about kids working in the French Resistance during World War II to its conclusion when it is published on July 17, 2012.

Victory begins after the Nazi occupation of France and one month after the allied invasion of Normandy.  For the first time, victory seems to be a possibility for the allied forces, but tensions are also running very high.  As Nazi losses increase, so does their cruel treatment of their victims.  And now, to make matters worse, there is infighting among the different resistance groups.

Paul Tessier has just gotten himself arrested by the Milice (a paramilitary group of Frenchmen formed by the Germans to do their dirty work) to find out what cell another resistance worker is being held in.  When he is freed, Paul hurriedly reports back to his friend and fellow resistance worker Jacques with the information.

Meanwhile, Paul's older sister Sylvie is still dating a German soldier in order to get information from him about Gestapo plans.  When the soldier tells her that the Gestapo is going to search in the Jura Mountains for the Marquis, a group of resistance fighters, she immediately reports back to Jacques and Paul.  Trouble is, however, it looks like Sylvie is beginning to fall for the German soldier, which could be a real problem.

Paul and Jacques now want the resistance workers to arm themselves with stolen German weapons.  Since they only have a few weapons, they decide to sabotage a trains using what they have and manage to get more of from the Germans on the train. In retaliation and believing the citizens of this small southern French town know who attacked the train, the Nazis begin to execute 10 townspeople every hour until someone turns the saboteurs in.

While all this is going on, Marie, Paul's younger sister, has been deeply depressed about their father, who is missing in a German POW camp, and their Jewish friend and former neighbor Henri, whom Paul and Jacques helped to escape to Paris earlier, where he was reunited with his parents that everyone had believed to be dead.  While out walking in the woods, Marie finds a downed allied airplane with a wounded pilot.  She gets Paul to help her hide the pilot so his wounds can be taken care of.  The pilot was on a mission to deliver a message to resistance fighters in Paris from DeGaulle in London about the direction he wants the resistance to go in now that the Germans are losing the war.  Naturally, Paul and Jacques volunteer to complete the pilot's message, arriving in Paris just in time participate in the Battle of Paris that ultimately leads to its liberation from its German occupiers and the return of Charles DeGaulle.  But not before a few surprises for Paul.

Victory is every bit as exciting, informative and well done as the previous two volumes, and every bit a well written as Resistance and Defiance.  This story, like it predecessors, is full of intrigue, adventure, danger, and suspense.  Altogether these excellently done graphic novels give an interesting perspective on a part of World War II most people don't really know about and would probably not like to think about their kids participating in - young peoples involvement in resistance movements throughout Europe.  But it makes you realize how incredibly brave these young people were in the face of such odds.

Leland Purvis has also continued to produce exceptionally well detailed drawings perfectly matched to the text and Hilary Sycamore's coloring only adds to the over effect of the graphics.

All in all, the Resistance trilogy is well worth reading and should be appeal to the most reluctant readers.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This was received as an E-ARC from netgalley.com

Victory will be published on July 17, 2012.

Henderson’s Boys: The Escape by Robert Muchamore

Robert Muchamore is the author of the very popular CHERUB series.  These are series books about the orphaned minors who are members of CHERUB, which stands for Charles Henderson’s Espionage Research Unit B, and modern day spies working with British Security Service.  

The Henderson’s Boys series is a prequel to the CHERUB series and takes place during World War II.  It begins as people all over Paris are fleeing south before the arrival of Hitler’s Army, with one exception.  Marc Kilgour, 12, is an orphan who has just run away from the abusive orphanage he has lived his entire life in.  He arrives in Paris and finds what looked to be a very comfortable, abandoned house to live in.  That is until the Nazis show up and torture him for information about the real occupant of the house - Charles Henderson 

At the same time, Paul, 11, and Rosie Clarke, 13, are pulled out of school by their father, Digby Clarke, a traveling salesman for the Imperial Wireless Company.  They are loaded into his Citroën along with stacks of papers and head south to Bordeaux to try to return to England.  On the way, the town they stop in is bombed by Nazi planes and just before he dies, Clarke tells the kids they must find Charles Henderson.

After the Nazis leave, Henderson returns home, finds Marc and after some very exciting adventures in Paris, these two also hit the road looking for Clarke and his children before the Nazis can find them and the papers Clarke has in his car.  

The papers at the center of this story are the blueprints for a miniature transceiver designed by a French Jew named Luc Mannstein.  France and Britain were both a little wishy-washy about acquiring the plans even though the transceiver would have been a real boon in the war because of it portability.  The Nazis had a great deal of interest in it and promised safety in Poland if Mannstein would supply the blueprints to them.  But, Clarke now has the blueprints, so there is a pressing need for him to get out of France.  

Henderson’s Boys: The Escape takes place over a short but crucial period of time during the fall of France.  Part One covers June 5, 1940 to June 6, 1940 and Part Two covers June 14, 1940 to June 15, 1940.  And France has been turned into a large, chaotic country for everyone, but especially for people who don’t know each other to find each other - Will the Clark kids and Henderson meet up?  And what becomes of Marc?  

Henderson’s Boys: The Escape is a brilliantly written, graphically depicted, gritty, action-packed novel and no one is more surprised that I liked than I am.  I don’t usually like these kinds of stories, and yet, Muchamore’s novel held me spellbound.   It truly spares no punches, is at time brutal, has mild language and sexual references, and lots of violence.  It is not for the fainthearted, yet it really is no worst than many of the other  popular YA novels kids read.  

Curious?  You can read the first two chapters and find out more about the Henderson Boys series here.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+ 

This book was purchased for my personal library

The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson

Eva Ibbotson was an unusual writer. She didn’t begin publishing children’s books until she was 50 and, she didn’t publish The Dragonfly Pool until she was 83. In addition, because of her own unhappy childhood, she had penchant for happy endings.

Yet, when I first began reading The Dragonfly Pool, I didn’t think I would like it. But I was wrong. The story begins in London, in the spring of 1939. Everyone is preparing for the expected war, and the Hamilton household is no different. Tally Hamilton has received a scholarship to a boarding school in the countryside. She doesn’t really want to go and leave her friends and her family, her dad Dr. Hamilton and her two aunts May and Hester.

Tally is quite pleased, however, when she reaches the school, Delderton, to find it is nothing at all like the schools she has read about in books, rather it is a progressive school where students can pursue their interests. Tally quickly settles in and makes friends with the other students, particularly with Julia.

One Saturday, while at the movies with Julia, Tally sees a newsreel about a small country in Europe named Bergania, whose king is trying to hold out against Hitler who wants to use the small country to his advantage. Tally immediately feels herself drawn to this country, particularly the young boy who is the king’s son.

Later, she school receives an invitation from Bergania to participate in a dance festival it is holding. Tally manages to convince the school to participate in the dance festival as a show of support to the small country. The Deldertonian kids make up a dance, and travel to Bergania. One day, while out walking around, Tally meets the Prince of Bergania, Karil, and together they go exploring the forest that surrounds the town. There they come across a pool of water, the Dragonfly Pool, a favorite place of Karil and his father. Karil asks Tally why they had come to Bergania and she tells him about the newsreel. She thought the King was strong and brave to hold out against Hitler’s pressure and she wanted to come as a show of support. Tally and Karil become instant friends.

As it happens, one of their escorts, science teacher Matteo, was once a very good boyhood friend of the King, but had long ago parted ways over a disagreement. On the day of the dance festival, the King and Prince Karil, ride into the center of town, and just as the King is opening to festival he is shot dead by people hired by the Gestapo. Before dying, the King asks Matteo to look after his son.

The real adventure begins when it is time to leave Bergania and the students, led by Tally, must try to sneak Karil back to England with them because the Gestapo men want to take him into their custody and send him to Colditz, a castle in Leipzig used by the Nazis as a POW prison.

After successfully getting Karil to England, and it is a very exciting part of the book not to be missed, he and Tally both assume he will now be a student in Delderton. But that is not to be. Instead, he is taken by his dreaded and dreadful nursemaid the Countess Frederica, nicknamed the Scold by Karil, to the large, but shabby London home of his grandfather, the Duke of Rottingdene. It seems no one has any money in the Prince’s family, including himself, but they still live like they do.

Will the prince ever succeed in being able to attend Delderton and be with the only friends he has ever had?

This was an exciting, adventurous novel, based on real events with the exception of Bergania. Bergania is an imaginary country in the center of Europe, making The Dragonfly Pool a true Ruritanian tale. And although the story is a wonderfully delightful blending of fact and fiction, the characters are quite well rounded and realistic, though I can’t say that about the school or the country of Bergania. Bergania reminded me a bit of Genovia from The Princes Diaries having that same kind of fairytale feeling to it. And of course, Delderton did remind me of Hogwarts without the magic and the internal enemies.

Consequently, this is a book that should be read in the same spirit as Harry Potter. It should really not be missed, especially if you are a fan of Eva Ibbotson. And because it is written by Eva Ibbotson, you know in advance there will be a happy ending, so the joy is in the journey getting there.

This book is recommended for readers ages 8 and up.
This book was borrowed from the 67th Street Branch of the NYPL.

Eva Ibbotson discussed aunts (Tally has 2) and happy endings at Eva Ibbotson: Ogres, aunts and happy endings

Eva Ibbotson passed away last October at the age of 85. You may read her obituary at the following site:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/24/eva-ibbotson-obituary

Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf

Joan Wolf has written novel based on truth. The first part of Someone Named Eva is based on the famous massacre of the residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia. The second part is based on a little known practice of the Nazis in which children who looked Aryan were forcibly taken from their families, placed in a Kinderheim (children’s home) and Germanized. After their Germanization was completed, they were adopted by German families.

The novel begins in the middle of the night on June 10, 1942, a few weeks after Milada Kralicek’s 11th birthday. There is a knock on the Kralicek’s front door and armed Nazis order the family to pack a few things and go with them. In the yard, Milada, her mother, grandmother and baby sister are separated from her father and older brother. Before they leave the yard, Milada’s grandmother surreptitiously gives her a star shaped garnet pin and tells her she must always keep it to remember who she is. The stars had always held special meaning for them; growing up, her grandmother had taught Milada all about the constellations and how the North Star can always help you find you way home.

On the road, they are joined by the other women and children of Lidice. These are all people who had believed that they were safe from the Nazis because they were not Jewish, but Hitler was enraged about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich* in Prague by two Czechs. He gave an order that all adult men over 16 were to be executed, all women were to be sent to a work camp, the village of Lidice was to be burned to the ground and all children suitable for Germanization were to be removed. Wolf does not go into all the grime details of this terrible event, but the reader does slowly learn something about it as the story goes along.

From Lidice, the women and children are driven to Kladmo, where they are held in a large gymnasium. The floor is covered with hay and each family quickly claims a space for themselves on the floor. On the second day, two men go through the gym, looking over the children and picking a few to go with them, including Milada. These children have one thing in common - blond hair and blue eyes. They are lined up and examined, including measurements of their noses and heads. Even the color of their eyes is compared to an eye color chart. Late on the third day, Milada is taken away from her mother, who is later sent to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. Milada and one other girl are put on a bus by themselves. In reality, it is estimated that around 100,000 children were stolen from their families for Germanization just as Milada is.

The girls are taken to Puschkau, Poland, a village surrounded by barbed wire. It is filled with Nazi women and girls who look just like Milada – blond hair, blue eyes. She is at a Lebensborn center, where she is about to be Germanized. Here, Milada ceases to exist as she is turned into Eva, an Aryan girl.

Milada/Eva spends two years at the center in Puschkau being Germanized, better known as brainwashing – learning how to speak German and how to be a proper Nazi wife and mother. There are no shortages here, none of the hunger she had felt at home, and there are always new warm clothes and shoes whenever they are needed. Though she tries hard to hang on to her original identity, Milada begins to slip away and Eva takes over.

After two years, Eva is adopted by a German family, and her new father is the commandant of Ravensbrück. At first, life is good there, with the exception of the terrible smell that permeates the air, and she begins to forget her past life in Czechoslovakia. One day, she wraps her grandmother’s star shaped pin in a handkerchief, puts it away in a draw and forgets about it. Then one scary day, Eva realizes she can no longer remember what her real name was. But by now, it is 1945 and Germany’s fortunes have started their downward turn. Eva is about to experience yet another major upheaval in her young life.

Someone named Eva is narrated in the first person by Milada, enabling Wolf to take two otherwise complicated and horrific subjects and present them in a very simple straightforward way, ideal for younger readers. There is also a long Author’s Note at the end of the book explaining the events that took place in Lidice and afterwards. Lebensborn centers were not originally intended for Germanization and indoctrination, but for reproducing racially correct babies. Nevertheless, during the war they took on this second task. I highly recommend Someone named Eva.

Someone named Eva has won a number of well deserved awards:
2007 Junior Library Guild Spring Selection
2007 VOYA Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers
2008 CCBC Choices
2008 Society of Midland Authors Children’s Fiction Finalist
And to date, this novel is on 11 Children’s Choice Lists

More information about Someone named Eva may be found on Joan M. Wolf ‘s website at Joan M. Wolf 
Joan M. Wolf, who wrote Someone named Eva, is not to be confused with Joan Wolf, author of Christian fiction. They are two different people.

This book is recommended for readers aged 9-12.
This book was borrowed from the Yorkville Branch of the New York Public Library.

*Reinhard Heydrich, nicknamed “the Hangman” was a particularly hateful, cruel man and one of the architects of the Final Solution. He was named Reich Protector of Bohemia-Moravia in 1941. His job in Czechoslovakia was to organize and coordinate the deportation of Jews and other enemies of the state to death camps.

Don’t Say a Word by Barbara Gehrts, translated by Elizabeth D, Crawford

When I was young and naïve, I used to think that if people were German during the Third Reich then they must also be Nazis. This, I later learned, was not actually true.   Even though most people did support the regime, there were some who did not. But we will never really know how many silent dissenters there were, because they had to keep their mouths shut, which explains the title of Barbara Gehrts book. If they didn’t, they could meet the same fate a people like Sophie Scholl – a mock trial and a death sentence.

Don’t Say a Word, a translation of Nie wieder ein Wort davon, is the story of the Singlemann family living in a middle class suburb of Berlin. It is narrated by 13 year old daughter Anna Singlemann. Anna’s father, Franz, is an high ranking officer in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (German Air Ministry); her older brother Hannes is in the Hitler Youth and will soon be in the Hitler Youth Flying Corps; Anna is in the League of German Girls and Mrs. Singlemann is a stay at home mom. To the outside world, they look like the perfect Nazi family, as do their close relatives, the Rolands: Uncle Oskar, Aunt Lore and their children Erik, Wolfgang, Ursula and Lisabeth. Yet, neither family supports the Nazi government.

The story begins in 1940. The English have just begun bombing Berlin and rationing is beginning to really be felt. To deal with the food shortages, the Singlemann’s and the Roland’s share a large plot of land, where they plant potatoes and do the work themselves. To deal with the bombs, they build bomb shelters in their homes. In the beginning of the book, Anna spends a great deal of time describing their everyday life, including the effect some of the new laws against Jews are having on her friends and neighbors. For example, one elderly couple tells Anna that they found their little terrier dead in his basket; but Anna thinks they got rid of the dog when Jews were forbidden to own pets. Later, just before Christmas, Anna learns that her best friend, Ruth, who was half-Jewish, had committed suicide along with the rest of her family because the situation for Jews had become so much worse..

Soon, the war also begins to intrude on their lives. First, Erik Roland is drafted and sent to fight at the eastern front in Russia. Not long after, news of his death arrives. But the biggest and most distressing surprise for Anna and Hannes comes when their father is arrested by the Gestapo. Anna description of the Gestapo’s search of their house is chilling. To explain his absence, they are ordered to tell people that their father is away on a business trip for an unspecified amount of time, even though everyone knows that is a euphemism for “arrested.” And while the details of why Herr Singlemann is arrested are not clear, the impression the reader is given is that her father, using his high position in the air ministry, is involved in some kind of underground or anti-government activity.

As events unfold, Singlemann’s arrest, imprisonment and trial begin take on a very Kafkaque quality. At every turn, the family is reminded that their lives are controlled by the government and they are never given reasons for decisions. Frau Singlemann is only allowed to visit her husband occasionally, but must show up everyday and ask for permission after waiting hours to speak to an official. Eventually they receive notice that their father has been executed and disposed of. Traitors were not permitted to be buried by their family under the Nazis They do, however, receive a bill for the cost of Herr Singlemann’s imprisonment, trial and execution, a common practice of the Nazis for those arrested for crimes against the state.

Shortly after his father’s execution, Hannes is sent to a work camp, where, because of his father, he is treated quite harshly despite being a hard worker. Even after he becomes seriously ill, he is treated with distain or simply ignored until things go too far. Back home, Anna and her mother find it increasing difficult to get by. The bombing of Berlin is getting more intense and coming closer to the area where they live. Eventually, the house is hit, rendering it unlivable.

When the book ends, rather abruptly, the reader is given some sense of closure in terms of the other characters, but not Anna, other than that she survives. The author, Barbara Gehrts, has included an Afterword explaining that she and her mother survived, but that is all. It was a very unsatisfying end to an otherwise interesting book. It is a novel that is based on the author’s real experiences during the war, including the part about her father.

Don’t Say a Word was originally written in German and translated into English, so something may have been lost in translation, as often happens. In the German edition, Anna is called Hanna and Singlemann is spelled Singelmann. Small points, but I always wonder why it is done. Despite the ending, it is worth one’s while to read this book, if only for the realistic portrayal of the way the Gestapo felt so entitled to treated people whose loyalty is suspect.

This book is recommended for readers age 12 and up.
This book was borrowed from the Hunter College Library Juvenile Literature collection.







This is book 2 of my YA of the 80s and 90s Challenge hosted by The Book Vixen
This is book 4 of my YA Historical Fiction Challange hosted by YA Bliss

From the Archives #3: The Chalet School in Exile by Elinor Brent-Dyer

Elinor Brent-Dyer’s Chalet School series is about an international school set on the fictitious lake Tiernsee in the Tyrolean Alps of Austria and narrates the adventures of students and staff. The series begins in 1925 with the novel The School at the Chalet. and The Chalet School in Exile is number 14 in the series. The Anschluß or annexation of Austria into the German Reich on 12 March 1938 provided Brent-Dyer with some new and exciting material with which to continue the series. Altogether, she managed to write six books in which the war forms a part of the story to a greater or lesser degree.

The Chalet School in Exile begins in February 1938. Concerned about the widespread attraction of Nazism among Austrian youth, Madge (Bettany) Russell, the founder of the Chalet School, and her husband, Dr. James ‘Jem’ Russell decide to move the school across the lake near his sanatorium on the Sonnalpe for safety.

A plebiscite vote was supposed to be held in March to determine whether Austrians wished to remain independent or become part of the Reich, but it never happens. When the Nazis march in and take possession of Austria, parents start to make arrangements to remove their daughters from the school. Before anyone leaves, however, the students get together, form a peace league “and vowed themselves to a union of nations, whether they should ever meet again or not.” (55) The vow is signed by every girl at the Chalet School, but creates a problem of where to hide it, since it could put so many girls at risk should it somehow fall into the hands of the Gestapo:

“Many of the girls were well on in their teens, and, from all accounts, Hitler and his crew were perfectly capable of punishing them. Already there were whispers of concentration camps.” (56)

They decide to hide the paper in a cave and a picnic excursion to it is arranged, which includes Joey Bettany, Madge’s younger sister and former Chalet School student, Dr. Jack Maynrd from the sanatorium, and several students including Robin Humphries, the Russell’s ward. On the way, they meet Frau Eisen and her son Hermann, who gives them the Heil Hitler greeting instead of the traditional Tyrolean Grüss Gott. Hermann notices an envelope in Robin’s pocket and decides it might be important. After a while, Hilary and Robin decide to slip off to the cave. When they don’t return, the group begins to get very worried. Joey finds Hermann at the cave, who admits he had followed the two girls and had seen them enter it. Though they search the cave, they find no evidence of Hilary or Robin having been there. The Peace League Pledge was definitely not in the place they had intended to hide it in.

Once in the cave, Hilary and Robin realize that they have been followed, decide not to leave the Peace League Pledge there and find another way out of it. On their way back to the picnic area they meet Dr. Gottfried Mensch, who drives them home. Two hours later Joey is carried into the Russell’s home by Dr. Maynard and that night, they become engaged.

In late April a man from the Gestapo shows up with an arrest warrant to take everyone from the picnic to Innsbruck, where they have been accused of espionage against the Reich. Joey refuses to go and the British Consul is called in to deal with the Gestapo agent. Ultimately, only Jack Maynard goes to Innsbruck. The Consul, however, suggests that they close the school or move it elsewhere, and warns that it is only a matter of time until the sanatorium is closed by the Nazis.

The Gestapo detains Jack Maynard for a week and when he returns, Jem tells him of the plan to move the school again, advises him to marry Joey quickly and get her and Robin out of the country. Before leaving, a group of girls, including Joey and Robin, along with science mistress Nell Wilson decide to do some shopping in town. Everyone is careful about what they say and do after the incident with the Gestapo until late afternoon. While having coffee in a Gasthaus, Joey notices a skirmish out on the street and sees

“an old man with a long, grey beard, plainly running for his life. A shower of stones, rotten fruit and other missiles followed him. Stark terror was in his face, and already he was failing to outdistance his pursuers.” (119)

Robin, recognizing the man as Herr Goldmann, the Jewish jeweler, runs out of the Gasthaus, followed by Joey and the rest of the party. They surround Herr Goldmann,, but when Joey reminds the leader of the gang of the kindness he was shown by Goldmann and his wife in his time of need, he retorts

‘He’s a Jew! Jews have no right to live!’ declared Hans Bocher sullenly. ‘Give place, Fräulein Bethany, and hand over the old Jew to us! Better take care, or you’ll be in trouble for this. Let him go! We’ll see to him!’ (120)

Miss Wilson, meanwhile, drags Robin and Goldmann into the Gasthaus and persuades the owner to let Goldman escape through his back door. Then she pushes Robin at the owner and tells him to get her to the Sonnalpe at once. When Miss Wilson returns to the street, she sees the girls surrounded by an angry crowd, but the parish priest, Vater Johann, is also there and indicates that they should all to follow him into the church. Once inside with the door barred, they all know they are safe only for a moment. Vater Johann leads them to a hidden trapdoor, tells them to go down and follow the path which leads to the mountain-side. After wandering through the tunnel for hours, they finally come to what Joey recognizes as the cave that Robin had discovered. All are much relieved, but to everyone’s amazement, and as if to underscore the danger of the fearful situation they have all been in, Miss Wilson’s rich chestnut hair has turned snow white. It is decided that it is too dangerous for this group to stay at the Sonnalpe and that they, along with Jack Maynard and Gottried Mensch as guide, must flee Austria as soon as possible and the adventures continue from here.

The Chalet School in Exile is a novel full of adventure and surprises and accurately conveys the cruelty of Nazism and the Gestapo and the fear they could instill in people who opposed them. But it also sent a message of courage and solidarity in troubled times, in the form of strong friendships among the girls, pride in being Chalet School girls and the Peace League Pledge in defiance of Nazism.  After writing thirteen novels with such a beautiful, tranquil setting as the Austrian alps, it must have been terribly difficult for Brent-Dyer to have her idyllic if imaginary school setting ruined by the Nazis, but she went on to invent other settings almost as lovely.

Although it is part of a series, The Chalet School in Exile can be read as a standalone novel and is probably one of the best in the series, though I liked the next one, The Chalet School Goes to It just as much. The series was popular among adolescent girls when it was written and today still has a very large fan base of readers of all ages. The novel was first published in 1940, and there are lots reprints, some terribly abridged. Girls Gone By Publishers reissued the original text in 2003 and again in 2009 for the 70th Anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.

This book was purchased for my personal library.

The Cigarette Sellers of Three Crosses Square by Joseph Ziemian, translated by Janina David

This is a true story about a group of Jewish orphans who survived outside the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto by selling cigarettes to Germans on the Aryan side of the city. Of these children, Ziemian writes on page 25

This group of Jewish children, wandering around under the very noses of a thousand policemen, gendarmes, Gestapo men and ordinary spies, constituted an unexplained and inexplicable phenomenon, no less mysterious for being real.

After the ghetto was established in 1940, some of the older kids would sneak out by various means to obtain additional food for their hungry families to supplement the meager rations given they were. These children would beg on the Aryan side and sometimes be given food by kind women, or they would sell family possessions to get money to buy bread. It was a hard and risky life for such young people.

Ziemian was part of the underground Jewish Resistance Movement in Warsaw and possessed a false ID card that gave him freedom of movement. He tells the story of Bull, whose real name Ignacy, the leader of the cigarette sellers. Bull’s life was relatively good in the ghetto until the Germans began their roundup of Jews for the first deportation to Treblinka in the summer of 1942. Right off, his father was killed by a German gendarme for possessing a packet of saccharine. Bull was seized from the street and put on a deportation train, but managed to escape from the moving train. When he returned home, he realized that his entire family was gone. He left the ghetto, hiding among a contingent of Jewish workers, but was forced to return at nightfall. He was again seized and put on another deportation train. Again he escaped. The contingent of workers welcomed him back and gave him a false work permit. He began selling possessions from the ghetto for people in exchange for food to bring back to them. One day, Bull noticed a group of four Jewish children. They found themselves under the care of Bull and the workers, until one day the workers were rounded up and deported. Bull again managed to escape, again found work as an apprentice cobbler and continued to smuggle food into the ghetto, only this time the loaves of bread also camouflaged guns. On the first night of Passover in 1943, the Germans attempted to carry out another mass deportation. This time they were met with armed resistance (the Warsaw Uprising). Again Bull found himself captured for deportation and for a fourth time he managed to escape, but suffered a serious leg injury. When his leg was healed enough to walk and he was back on the streets of Warsaw again, he met his first four cigarette sellers, who wanted him to stay with them:

“Yes, yes. I’ll work with you,” promised Bull. His arrival at the Three Crosses Square was the start of a new life for the children. Bull had authority. In their eyes he was grownup and experienced, and he became their leader. (pg 76)

Altogether, there were about 20 cigarette sellers, about five of them girls. After Ziemian befriended them, they also received false ID papers. They were continuously helped out by kind Polish women, but were dogged by “schmalzers” (blackmailers who would denounce Jews to the German authorities unless their demands were met.) Life continued to be hard, a matter of day to day survival, sleeping and eating wherever and whatever they could. Ziemian wrote about their ability to survive

After their escape from the ghetto they led an adventurous and independent existence on the Aryan side of Warsaw. Sentenced to death, hounded and harried at every step, they found a way of surviving in the jungle of the occupation. They knew how to defend themselves and how to fight for their existence; they knew – unlike so many adults – how to help each other. (pg 10-11)

There is much more to the story of The Cigarette Sellers of Three Crosses Square, including that of little Bolus, age 7 and the youngest member of the group. It is a book written for young adult readers, but because of some of the graphic content, I would recommend it to more mature YA readers. It is also a translation from the Polish and sometimes it reads a bit awkwardly, but that doesn’t really interfere with the overall story.

Ziemian never uses anyone’s last name, which I assumed was for privacy reasons, since all the survivors were still living at the time he wrote the book. Three of the cigarette sellers did not live to see the end of the war, and he does tell the reader their full names as an act of remembrance. Most of those who did survive moved to Israel after the war, but a few went to Canada. All were successful in their adult endeavors. But the point of this book is not what became of the children later in life, but it is about their survival under extraordinary circumstances and that is what makes it worth reading. It is also very interesting that, aside from this book, there is very little information about the cigarette sellers and their amazing story.
Below are some of the photographs Joseph Ziemian had a photographer in the Three Crosses Square take of the cigarette sellers



Non-Fiction Monday is hosted this week by http://www.momsinspirelearning.com/