The Cyprus Detain­ment Camp was estab­lished after World War II to con­fine Jew­ish refugees. In her nov­el The Teacher of Lost Orphans, M. Z. Daskal vivid­ly por­trays the camp as a place filled with loss, deprav­i­ty and, sur­pris­ing­ly, hope. Inter­twin­ing haunt­ing rever­ber­a­tions of the Holo­caust and the injus­tice of detain­ment, Daskal exhibits a deep under­stand­ing of the desire for a home­land and the con­se­quences for Euro­pean Jews kept from Israel.

Lena is on a ship to Israel, but her dreams of reach­ing a home­land are dashed as the ship dis­em­barks in Cyprus. Forced into detain­ment camps, every per­son aboard the ship is forced to wait months in unre­lent­ing weath­er with few basic neces­si­ties. With lit­tle else to do, Lena finds pur­pose teach­ing in the makeshift school. 

Trac­ing the lives of detainees of all ages, Daskal intro­duces char­ac­ters that each do every­thing in their pow­er to escape the camps and reach Israel. Mid­dle school stu­dents are look­outs for stealthy escapes, a young woman begins teach­ing with­out any pri­or expe­ri­ence, hand­some young men bring bits of laugh­ter, and British sol­diers offer unex­pect­ed sup­port. The nov­el high­lights the indi­vid­ual ways that each per­son sum­mons courage in dif­fi­cult times, putting the cause of their peo­ple above their own needs. 

Daskal offers as much insight into the char­ac­ters as she does into the time peri­od. Fear­less­ly con­fronting the apa­thy of the world to the con­tin­ued mis­treat­ment of Jews, Daskal high­lights the protests of the pris­on­ers attempt­ing to attract glob­al atten­tion. The media is begin­ning to dis­cuss the poten­tial for a Jew­ish state and all most of the pris­on­ers can do is pray for a safe arrival. She sub­tly details the ini­tial effects of the Holo­caust, espe­cial­ly on the young orphans, with­out over­pow­er­ing the con­flict at hand. Amidst the fear and exhaus­tion, The Cen­tral Com­mit­tee is formed and an escape plan is hatched, led by the con­fi­dent Yoshi. 

Yoshi qui­et­ly courts Lena. Pulled into his orbit of calm con­fi­dence and deep thought, Lena agrees to mar­ry him amidst the dirt and despair of the camps. She finds her­self com­pet­ing with the needs of The Cen­tral Com­mit­tee for her new husband’s atten­tion. Feel­ing guilty and rest­less, she won­ders how her emo­tion­al needs can be met in a place devoid of comfort.

Daskal’s under­stand­ing of ten­sion and inter­nal ques­tions dri­ve for­ward a nar­ra­tive that grap­ples with the pain of the past and hope for the future. There are pow­er­ful com­pet­ing romances and shy, bud­ding friend­ships. There are deep his­tor­i­cal vibra­tions and unex­pect­ed allies. Woven through it all is the human­ness of the peo­ple unjust­ly detained.