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/

Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis

Sisters Octavia and Tali are sure that their summer vacation is absolutely ruined when they are told that they will be accompanying their grandmother on a road trip to a family reunion. But 'Ms. Marey Lee Boylen,' or Mare as she prefers to be called, is not your average granny: "She wears flippy auburn wigs, stiletto shoes and padded push-up bras." (pg 1) She also drives a sporty red car, wears long fake nails and smokes cigarettes. So it only stands to reason that Mare has a story that is not average either.

Octavia, 15, and Tali, 17, begin the trip bored and unhappy, bickering with each other and complaining about everything. Before they even leave the driveway, Mare must make a deal with Tali to stop her grumbling about her grandmother's smoking:

"Mare tugs an earphone out of Tali's ear. 'Don't put that thing on when I'm talking to you. You've had something to say from the beginning - first it's my driving, now it's my cigarettes. Tali, I'll tell you what -you keep those earphones out of your ears and I will keep my cigarettes in my purse.'" (pg 9)

The deal is struck and, throughout the trip, both are stubborn enough not to cave in.

The chapters in Mare's War alternate between Now, told by Octavia, and Then, told by Mare, with the past and present narrations separated by a postcard home from one of the girls about the trip. As they drive along, Mare begins to tell the unhappy girls about growing up black in Bay Slough, Alabama on a farm purchased by her now deceased father, about her mother and younger sister, Josephine (Feen) and about their fear of their mother's lecherous boyfriend, Toby. Mare had always been told to look after her sister, but after a problem with Toby, Josephine is sent to live with an aunt in Philadelphia. "Hasn't Mama been telling me all my life to watch after Feen? What am I supposed to do now?" (pg 45) The only thing left for the 'almost seventeen year old' Mare in Bay Slough is a job cleaning house for a white woman. But it is 1944 and the country is at war. Mare decides to run away and enlist in the WACS, or Women's Army Corps, lying about her age to get in because you must be 21 to join up.

As Mare and the girls drive along, Mare begins to talk about life in the WACS. There she meets a variety of young women and forms friendships that last a lifetime. After Mare is corrected in front of everyone by her Captain for saying "I ain't got boots yet," another new WAC, Peaches Carter, offers to make a deal with her:

"I'm offering a deal, Boylen, you show me how you crease your uniform so I don't get marked down like I always do, and I'll tell you when you get words wrong and help you say thing right. Deal?" (pg 73)

Of course, it's a deal and Mare and Peaches become fast friends.

After basic training, the women ship out for England. They are part of the 6888th Central Postal Battalion, a group of African-American women whose job it is to sort through warehouses full of letters and packages so they can be delivered to soldiers at the front. The 6888th is the only African-American female unit to serve overseas - first in Birmingham, England and then in Rouen, France and lastly, in Paris when the war is over, staying at the Hotel Bohy-Lafyette where they live lavishly compared to the Spartan lifestyle of the Army.

Despite being in the WACS and far away from her sister, Mare never forgets that she has promised Feen she would always take care of her and she continues to save for a place they can live in after the war. Throughout her service, Mare also writes home to her mother in Alabama on a regular basis, sending her money each payday to help out. Ironically, the woman who worked so hard to make sure soldiers received their mail from home, helping to keep up their morale, only received one letter from her mother the whole time she was in the army - a marriage announcement.

Mare's War is a journey of growth, revelation and understanding on many levels. By the end of the novel, all three women are not in the same place they started from and even the family reunion turns out to be something unexpected. And I loved this novel. I thought the characterizations of Mare, Tali and Octavia were absolutely spot on. One of the true marks of good historical fiction, for me, is the way the author uses her real material, and Davis did a great job of seamlessly weaving in some of the actual experiences of the 6888th with Mare's personal history. She also brought to light another part of African-American Women's history too long ignored. I couldn't recommend this book more highly.

Congratulations to Tanita S. Davis. Mare's War received the following honors:
Coretta Scott King Author Honor 2010
ALA Best Books for Young Adults Winner 2010
Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies Winner 2010
Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices Winner 2010
Notable Children's Trade Books in the Language Arts Winner 2010

The 6888th Central Battalion was finally honored for their service during World War II in March 2009. There is an interesting article about this at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/25/AR2009022403571.html

For some interesting information about the road trip taken by Mare and her granddaughters, see
http://www.tanitasdavis.com/mare_roads.shtml

It also includes information about where to learn more about the WACS in general and the 6888th in particular.

The National Archives also has information about Aftican-Americans in World War II at http://www.archives.gov/research/aftican-americans/ww2-pictures

Below are some of the photos of the women in the 6888th Battalion you can find there:

"Somewhere in England, Maj. Charity E. Adams and Capt. Abbie N. Campbell,...inspect the first contingent of Negro members of the Womens's Army Corps assigned to overseas service." 6888th Central Postal Directory Bn. February 15, 1945. Holt 111-SC-20079.

Members of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion take part in a parade ceremony in honor of Joan d'Arc at the marketplace where she was burned at the state. May 27, 1945 Pfc. Stedman. 111-SC-42644.

Alex

Anne Frank: her Life in Words and Pictures by Menno Metselaar and Ruud van der Rol, translated by Arnold J. Pomerans.

Like most people, I read Anne Frank: the Diary of a Young Girl when I was about 11 years old. Over the years, I have read various other works about Anne and her family, about life in the annex hiding from the Nazis and later in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. But I knew very little about her life before Anne went into hiding. This is one of the reasons why I found Anne Frank Her Life in Words and Pictures so interesting.

This is a small book - its size is and shape imitates the size and shape of Anne’s diary. It is divided into six sections chronicling Anne’s life, and each section includes abundant photos. It begins with 1925-1933 A German Girl, covering the marriage of Otto Frank and Edith Holländer in 1925, the birth of sister Margot in 1926, the birth of Anne in 1929, as well as Hitler’s activities and ultimate seizure of power in 1933. The year 1933 Leaving Germany, stands alone. With Hitler now in power, anti-Semitism and discrimination against Jews is sanctioned and the Franks decide to leave Germany for Amsterdam. The third section, 1934-1939 At Home in the Netherlands, show Anne and Margot happily at play and at school, while back in Germany Hitler prepares for war. By 1940-1942 War and Occupation, life has changed dramatically in the Netherlands, which is invaded by Hitler on 10 May 1940. The Nazis make life for Jews there very difficult; nevertheless Anne and Margot continue to attend school and see friends, as the photos show. The last section personally about Anne and her family is 1942-1944 In Hiding. When Margo receives a notice that she must report to a work camp in Germany, the family decide to go into hiding. Otto and Edith Frank knew that it was just a question of time before they would be forced to do this and had prepared the attic above the offices where Otto Frank has his business. In 1944, a still unknown person reported the hiding place and all eight occupants were arrested. After the arrest, the contents of the annex were sent to Germany. The photos here take the reader through the now empty rooms to show where and how all the occupants had lived in such a small space. It also includes excerpts from the diary that Anne received for her 13th birthday while in hiding and pictures of some of pages showing Anne’s entries. Betrayal, arrest and the fate of the family is covered in 1944-1945 The End. In August, the family is temporarily sent to Westerbrook camp, then in September to Auschwitz, where the women are separated from Otto Frank. In October, Anne and Margot are sent to Bergen-Belsen, but Edith Frank remains in Auschwitz and starves to death. This section is about life after arrest and includes pictures of transport trains, the selection process upon arrival at a camp of who lives and who dies, of people being marched to the gas chambers, and life in and around the barracks including eyewitness accounts by people who survived. It is, quite naturally, the most difficult section to see. The rest of the book, 1945 and After - The Legacy, deals with Otto Frank’s search for his children after the war, then learning of their deaths and receiving the diary from Miep Gies and its subsequent publication.

The Holocaust is a difficult subject and it is hard to know how much information is appropriate for children. Surely they should learn about it and Anne Frank is the iconic representative of the 1.5 million Jewish children who died in the Holocaust. But Anne was much more than an icon, which is why this book is so phenomenal. So many of the family’s personal photos somehow survived the Holocaust and we see Anne as an individual, a girl who wanted people to remember her name – as a writer.

Anne Frank Her Life in Words and Pictures is an excellent book in its own right, or in conjunction with The Diary of a Young Girl. The layout makes the time period very understandable and the text is geared appropriately towards readers between 9 and 15. One disturbing feature of the book, which I do not believe was intentional, is that it shows how many close calls there were where the fate of Anne and her sister may have been different. Saddest of these is at the end. Anne and Margot died of typhus in March 1945; Bergen-Belsen was liberated 15 April 1945. Their father had been freed from Auschwitz in January 1945, six weeks before the girls died, but he didn’t know where they were.

For information about the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam see: http://www.annefrank.org/en/
A virtual tour of the annex is also available online at
http://www.annefrank.org/en/Anne-Franks-History/
In 2003, I went down to United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to see an exhibit there about Anne Frank the Writer. It was one of the most moving exhibits I have ever seen. There is an online exhibition of this at
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/af/htmlsite/

YouTube offers a variety of images about Anne, at

http://www.youtube.com/annefrank

The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, which originally published Anne Frank: her Life in Words and Pictures, has created a graphic biography that will be available in the US on 14 September 2010.



Non-Fiction Monday is hosted is hosted this week by Three Turtles and Their Pet Librarian

The Journey That Saved Curious George. The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey by Louise Borden, illustrated by Allan Drummond

This is the first time that I am participating in Non-Fiction Monday and I am very excited. I have chosen to write about The Journey that Saved Curious George by Louise Borden, though I have to be honest and say that I have never been a big fan of Curious George, but I have a foster child who was (she is now 22 and a recent college grad - hurray.) We recently went to the Jewish Museum in New York City to see the exhibition they have about the Reys' escape from Nazi occupied Europe. It was an excellent exhibit, but unfortunately, it ends on August 1st. If you have time this week and happen to be in NYC, it is definitely worth seeing. If you can't make it to the museum, be sure to look at their website at http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/curiousgeorge

Naturally, after seeing this exhibit, I went to the library and borrowed the companion book. The Journey that Saved Curious George begins with a short biography of Hans Augusto Reyersbach, who later became known as H A Rey and his future wife Margarete (Margret) Waldstein. They were both born and raised Jewish in Hamburg, Germany though they didn't know each other then. They met and married in Brazil and eventually moved to Paris. The majority of the book is then devoted to their flight through France on bicycles built by Rey, always just ahead of the Nazis. Their lives are paralleled with the evolution of the Curious George character. The story is told in simple prose by Borden that never condescends to the reader, although it is written more for 9-12 year old than for younger kids who might still be reading the Curious George books. The ink and watercolor illustrations by Allan Drummond are just wonderful and supplemented throughout with photos and documents belonging to the Reys'. Many of the photos were taken by Margret Rey.

This is one of my favorite illustrations from the book, detailing people fleeing from Paris. While Drummond's illustration looks rather whimsical, it still manages the catch the sense of tension and fear people must have felt. The Reys' loved Paris and it must have been a very difficult decision to flee, leaving behind most of their personal belongings, their friends and way of life for the unknown. But many people, like the Reys', were forced into making that choice to save their lives.

The Journey that Saved Curious George reminded me of an old novel I was given and had read a while back called The Schoolgirl Fugitives by Agnes M. Miall. Published in 1942, it is about two English schoolgirls who must flee their boarding school in Paris as the Nazis approach. Their flight through the French countryside is very similar to the one made by the Reys'.

A book guide for The Journey that Saved Curious George is available from the publisher Houghton Mifflin at http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/cgsite/journey_lp.shtml It is recommended for educators and librarians, though I think it could be valuable to anyone interested in H.A. and Margret Rey and their escape from France and the Nazis.


Alex

Non-Fiction Monday is hosted this week by http://www.shelf-employed.blogspot.com/

In Spite of All Terror by Hester Burton

In her New York Times review of the novel Time of Trial, Mary Stoltz wrote:
“When Hester Burton…writes a historical novel, it is not a modern romance with appliqués of research but a sound portrait of the period, presented with unobtrusive scholarship.” (NYT Book Review, May 10, 1964) This description could just as easily be applied to Burton’s 1968 World War II novel In Spite of All Terror, an ALA Notable Children’s Book. The title is taken from a speech given by Winston Churchill on 13 May 1940 in the House of Commons:

“Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”
Burton’s novel begins in 1939, a year before this speech. Liz Hawtin, 15, has been living with her Aunt Ag, Uncle Herb and their children in a poor section of London since her father died in an accident when she was 12. Her mother died when Liz was 3. Liz knows that Aunt Ag resents having to care for her, even though her father’s insurance money pays for her private school (which he insisted she go to) and helps support the family. But now the money is running out and it is possible that Liz may not be able return to school for her last year.

Then the Germans invade Czechoslovakia in March 1939 and Britain announces plans for evacuating all school children to the country in case of war at government expense. In September 1939, Britain and France declare war against Germany and evacuations begin. Liz is sent to Chiddingford, in Oxfordshire and billeted with the Brereton family, consisting of Professor and Mrs. Brereton, sons Miles, Ben and Simon and their grandparents, General and Lady Brereton. She is happy to get away from her aunt until she discovers that Mrs. Brereton wants a boy evacuee as a companion for Miles. Although Liz once again feels like an unwanted intruder in someone else’s home, she does form a strong bond with Ben, Simon and their grandparents.

Liz has many good things in her life, which she doesn’t seem to appreciate and is an annoyingly self-absorbed girl. “What an unpleasant sort of girl I must have been?” she would think [later in life] in anguish. “How arrogant and bitter and full of self pity I was!” (page 15) But this coming of age story is about Liz’s personal victory over her own self-centeredness in spite of all the wartime terrors she faces. The turning point comes when the General and Ben sneak off to answer the call for all small boats to help with the Dunkirk evacuation. Liz realizes what they have done, running away to help them. But they refuse to take her and, after sailing down the Thames, she is dropped off at Ramsgate and told to go home. Volunteering to write out telegrams for the exhausted, wounded returning soldiers instead, Liz begins to appreciate the danger that all the men and women of Britain willingly face everyday in order to bring about victory. It is this realization that motivates Liz’s behavior for much of the rest of the story

This novel held my attention throughout and I, like the NY Times reviewer, found it to be an excellent portrait of the period without it ever feeling like it was a school history lesson. Burton’s detailed descriptions of events during the early days of the war are graphic and chilling, but provide a vivid picture of life in Britain. They are aided by the excellent black and white illustrations by Victor G. Ambrus throughout the novel. One interesting point was that Liz’s father was a communist. Burton describes how, when he wasn’t working in a print shop, he would stand on a wooden box and urge his fellow workers to join the Communist Party, but she never does anything more with it and his views seem to have no influence on Liz’s life whatsoever.

For additional information about Hester Burton and her other novels, see
http://hesterburton.blogspot.com/
The speech referred to above is Churchill’s famous “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” address and may be read and/or listened to at
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/churchill.htm
For some interesting pictures of the evacuation that are described in the novel when Ben and his grandfather are picking up soldiers see
Rickard, J (19 February 2008), Bray Dunes, East of Dunkirk, 1940, http://www.historyofwar.org/Pictures/pictures_dunkirk_bray_dunes2
Rickard, J (23 February 2008), The Dunkirk 'Ferry Service', http://www.historyofwar.org/Pictures/pictures_dunkirk_ferry_service.html
Rickard, J (19 February 2008), Troops wait at Dunkirk, http://www.historyofwar.org/Pictures/pictures_dunkirk_beach2.html