An animatedly-written teen novel by the daughter of a Dutch family sent to Theresienstadt, a holding camp in Czechoslovakia where many important and talented Jews were sent prior to being transported to Auschwitz. Since it is based on the author’s mother’s experiences and the author’s research, it rings true.
The story invented by the author is touching and brings an immediacy of experience— portraying the layout of the camp, the crowding, hunger, disease, and sudden “transports,” but also the friendships and productivity of the many talented Jewish inhabitants, including “Anneke’s” father, a famous cartoonist.
There is also a section on the infamous charade of the camouflaged camp and the ensuing film staged to fool the Red Cross employees who have come to inspect the camp.
The final section describes the fleeing by truck of the German guards, including Rahm, the camp Commandant, plus the ironic post-war “grilling” of her father by the Russians who suspect him of colluding with the Nazis because the family lived together in one room, and all of them survived. There is some appropriate sexuality in it, very gracefully described. References and Author’s Note appended. (Ages 12 and up).
