Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe by Steve Sheinkin

 Impossible Escape: a True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe

Steve Sheinkin

Roaring Brook Press. 2023

Sheinkin continues to pen dramatic nonfiction narratives of little known chapters in history. In 2013, Sheinkin won the Robert F. Sibert award and a Newbery Honor for his book, Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon. 

In Impossible Escape, Sheinkin tells the story of Rudolf (Rudi) Vrba, a Jewish teen who, after being imprisoned in Auschwitz, does the impossible and escapes.  Rudi's decision to do the impossible was to tell the world the truth of what was happening to millions of Jews during World War II. 

Rudolf (Rudi) Vrba grew up in Czechoslovakia. He was Jewish. Used to the occasional antisemitic comments, but as Hitler rose to power and his assault on Jews grew more violent, Rudi was determined to find a way to Britain so he could join up and fight against Adolf Hitler. In March, 1942, while attempting his plan, Rudi was capture and eventually was sent to Auschwitz. He was seventeen. 

After surviving in Auschwitz for almost two years, Rudi, along with another prisoner, Alfred (Fred) Wetzler, successfully escaped. Two weeks after their escape, Rudi and Fred made it to Slovakia. Once in Žilina, Rudi and Fred "gave the first detailed, eyewitness accounts of the Auschwitz death factory to reach the outside world."

The narrative shifts between Rudi’s experience in the camp and his commitment to finding a way to escape and sharing the historical backstory on events that led to World War II and the Holocaust. Alternating throughout the book is the story of Gerta Sidonovà. Also from Czechoslovakia, Gerta and Rudi knew each other briefly before Rudi's attempt at escaping to Britain. Also Jewish, but with blonde hair, Gerta's wartime experience was relatively safe until later in the war when Hitler forced other countries to transport their Jewish population to the concentration camps. The book concludes with Rudi and Gerta meeting up again after the war and started a new life. 

Included is an epilogue, source notes, a very detailed bibliography and index. It would have been interesting in an author's note to read what led Sheinkin to share Rudi's story. 

This is a difficult book to read as Sheinkin does not skimp on sharing the details of the hatred and cruelty inflicted on prisoners as seen through Rudi’s eyes. A perfect book for school and public libraries. This would work well to augment a class about World War II or to spark a conversation on why people chose hate over love. A must read for Holocaust deniers!

You can go here to watch an episode of PBS's Secrets of the Dead that covered Rudi and Fred's escape. 

The Woman Who Split the Atom Written and Illustrated by Marissa Moss

The Woman Who Split the Atom: the Life of Lise Meitner
Written and illustrated by Marissa Moss
Abrams Books for Young Readers. 2022

The Woman Who Split the Atom is the fascinating story of Lise Meitner, a Jewish female physicist working in a male dominated field, and who struggles to be recognized and honored for her ground-breaking work throughout her career. If that were not enough to make a riveting narrative, toss into the mix the rise of anti-Semitism in Hitler’s Germany. This page-turner biography propels readers into Meitner’s life making the book difficult to put down. 

Lise Meitner was born in Vienna, Austria in 1878. She was the first woman to enroll at the University of Vienna in physics and the second woman in the world to earn a PhD in physics in 1906. With little job opportunities for women, but with a passion to work in her field, Meitner moves to Berlin and becomes an unpaid lab assistant at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (KWI). A young chemist, Dr. Otto Hahn, was eager in collaborating with Meitner after reading her one published article on radioactivity. The two would work together until 1945, when Hahn wins the Noble Prize for the discovery of nuclear fission, something that Meitner herself had discovered. The two break ties when Hahn refuses to acknowledge that it was Meitner who made the discovery. 

After her discovery of nuclear fission, Moss weaves into Meitner’s story the race to build the atomic bomb. Like Einstein, Meitner, a pacifist was horrified to be associated with such a weapon of mass destruction, refused to participate. 

Meitner’s story is captivating from page one as readers are drawn into the many frustrations that prevented her from receiving the recognition she deserved. Not only was she ignored by her male colleagues, she was nominated for the Noble Prize in Chemistry and Physics fourteen times, yet, never wins. With the rise of anti-Semitism during WW2 in Germany, Meitner will barely escape Berlin. 

Graphic panels open every chapter, which will be a draw for graphic novel fans. Also included is an afterward, author’s note, timeline of Meitner’s life and achievements, glossary of select terms in physics, profiles of scientists mentioned throughout the book, source notes, bibliography, and index.

Click here to watch a short video on Meitner's life.

Evicted! : The Struggle for the Right to Vote by Alice Fay Duncan

Evicted!: The Struggle for the Right to Vote
Alice Fay Duncan; Art. by Charly Palmer
Calkins Creek. An Imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers. 2022

In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson to eliminate discrimination in America’s political elections. “The law was passed to stop such criminal acts as racial gerrymandering, poll taxes, and economic reprisals.”  In Evicted!, Duncan tells the gripping true story known as the Fayette County Tent City Movement. She follows ten individuals to retell the events leading up to the trial of sharecropper Burton Dodson in 1959, and how that pivotal moment brought the Black community in Fayette County to stand together to demand their right to vote. 

“In 1950, Fayette County’s population of 28.000 was two-thirds Black, and the Black majority was made up mostly of unlearned sharecroppers living on cotton farms owned by white landowners.” To discourage Blacks from registering to vote, the white minority used fear of lynching and terror of fire. Each two-page spread, Duncan recounts the events that had families burned out of their homes and forced to relocate to a makeshift community of tents, called, “Tent City.” “Seven hundred Black families in both Fayette and Haywood Counties were removed from their farms where they had lived and worked for two or three decades.” 

Once Blacks registered to vote, their names were placed on a list, a “blacklist”, that was shared throughout the white community in Fayette County. They were denied groceries and gasoline, white doctors denied medicine, and insurance agents cancelled policies.

This well-documented narrative nonfiction includes an epilogue, timeline, list of resources, bibliography, and brief author and artist note. Charly Palmer’s illustrations, rendered in acrylic paint, capture the emotion of this time. 

An upsetting read given the present political situation, Evicted! is an important addition to all collections, a must read for middle and high school readers. 

Click here to listen to an interview with Alice Fay Duncan.

The Brave Cyclist: the True Story of a Holocaust Hero by Amalia Hoffman

The Brave Cyclist: the True Story of a Holocaust Hero

by Amalia Hoffman; Illustrated by Chiara Fedele

Capstone Editions. 2019

Grades 4 and up

In Hoffman’s picture book biography, she tells the true story of the brave Italian cyclist, Gino Giovanni Bartali (1914-2000). A sickly child, Bartali would go on to win the Tour de France in 1938. Not a supporter of Il Duce (Benito Mussolini), Bartali was asked to use his cycling skills by transporting photographs and fake identification cards to save Jews who lived in Italy during World War II.

The powerful narrative is greatly enhanced by Italian artist, Chiara Fedele’s expressive illustrations. 

Back matter includes an author’s note, selected bibliography and source notes.

This inspiring story of courage shows that one person really can make a difference. Bartali’s legend lives on in Italy. Among other recognition, in 2009, an annual cycling journey was established in Italy, called cycle pelegrinaggio. The journey retraces part of Bartali’s smuggling route between Florence and Assisi. 

To write this review, I received a copy of the book from the publisher.

The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot To Kill Hitler by John Hendrix

The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot To Kill Hitler.

Written and Illustrated by John Hendrix

Abrams. 2018

“Faith, without action, is not faith at all. 

Love, without sacrifice, is no love at all.”

On April 9, 1945, just two weeks before allied forces liberated the camp, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor, is killed by hanging at Flossenburg Concentration Camp. Why? Bonhoeffer  had joined the resistance against Adolf Hitler. He worked as a spy and participated in multiple assassination attempts against Der Fuhrer. 

This is a powerful story of resistance. Hendrix shares the true story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and how he grew emotionally to see that the ultimate sacrifice was to risk his life in order to stand up for what he believed; to save the German people from the tyrannical maniac, Adolf Hitler. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of eight brothers and sisters, was born February 6, 1906 in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). Having grown up during World War I, (he lost an older brother in that war), at age fourteen, in 1920, Bonhoeffer declared he was a theologian.

In 1930, he travels to America. While there, Bonhoeffer sees first-hand the injustices aimed at African Americans. The unfounded hatred, racism, and segregation that was dividing the country. When he attends a sermon given by Dr. Adam Clayton Powell, Bonhoeffer's faith would be challenged. “This pastor encouraged - no, demanded - that the congregation’s faith in God be put in opposition to the world’s evils. The people of God must be the first through the breach when fighting racism and injustice.”

By 1933, as Hitler worked to bring every part of German life under his control, even the German churches.  “He convinced leaders of churches that he should be the head of state and the German church.  He created Reich Church, the official church of the Nazi Party. The great Cathedrals of Germany were adorned with the swastika, a broken cross.”  

Bonhoeffer’s theology would be transformed from thought into action, the creation of something he called, ‘Civil Courage.” 

The book’s design is done by including the handwritten text on full pages of art. The illustrations were created with hand drawn pencil and custom digital brushes. Colored digitally, the book is printed in black, Patone 3262U, and Pantone Red 032U spots color.

In this illustrated biography of a very brave individual, Hendrix includes a clear understanding of events that led to Hitler’s assent to power, how the German people were seduced by the promise of economic stability. With the growing atrocities, they were too frightened to stand up and stop the madness.

Back matter includes an author’s note, an explanation on research and authenticity, a selected bibliography, and source notes for quotes woven into the narrative. 

Click here to watch John Hendrix talk about The Faithful Spy. 

The publisher sent me a copy of this book that was used to write this review.

Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz by Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat

Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz

by Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat

Farrar Straus Girous. 2017

ISBN: 97800374305710

Grades 7 and up

Note: While Cathy is on Sabbatical, Louise is writing all the reviews. Cathy will return March, 2018.

“In 1945, in a now famous piece of archival footage from the Holocaust, four-year-old Michael Bornstein was filmed by Soviet soldiers being carried out of Auschwitz in his grandmother’s arms.” 

Bornstein explains, “For a very long time, I did not talk about what happened to me during the war.  But then, one day, he was searching online and came upon a website that claimed the Holocaust was a lie. His photo, the one that is on the cover of this book, was being used to manipulate history by claiming that the Jews had lied when they said their young were killed on arrival in Auschwitz. 

“I slammed my computer shut in disgust. I was horrified.”  But it helped Mr. Bornstein find his voice. “It made me realize that if we survivors remain silent, then the only voice left to hear will be those of liars and bigots.” 

The book is written in collaboration with his daughter, Debbie Bornstein Holinstat, a producer for NBC and MSNBC. Survivors Club tells the important story of what happened to Michael and his family before, during, and after the German invasion of Poland after 1939. The Bornstein’s used interviews with relatives, survivors who knew the family, primary sources, and Michael’s own recollections to recount one family’s inspirational story of survival. 

To hear more about the book, watch this movie.

Click here to learn more about Michael Bernstein and his book, Survivors Club.

An important addition to books on the Holocaust. Give this to students who ask for Diary of Anne Frank, Hanna’s Suitcase, and Maus I & II. 

In this growing climate of hate, Survivors Club is a story we must never forget. 

To write this review, I used an ARC and a final copy, both books supplied by the publisher.

Hidden like Anne Frank by Marcel Prins

Hidden Like Anne Frank: 14 true stories of survival
by Marcel Prins and Peter Henk Steenhuis; translated by Laura Watkinson
An Arthur A. Levine Book; Scholastic. 2014
ISBN: 9789545543620
Grades 7 thru 12
To review this book, I checked a copy out from my local public library

Anne Frank recorded in her diary the two years the Frank family spent in hiding during World War II. Though Anne’s story is the most well known, Prins, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and cameraman, and journalist Peter Henk Steenhuis, give us 14 individuals, also from the Netherlands, and share their experience going into hiding. Some children were as young as three or four; some teenagers. About 28,000 Jews were hidden in the Netherlands. “Roughly 16,000 survived and 12,000 were caught or betrayed. 

As a boy growing up in the Netherlands, Marcel Prins was curious about his mother’s experience of going into hiding during World War II. She would tell Marcel about the exciting parts, and the times when she had been scared or sad. Her story (the first in this collection) would make an impression on Marcel. He wondered what going into hiding actually involved. Where did you go? How did you know who to trust? How did you find money to pay for your hiding place? What did you do when you were frightened?

In these 14 true stories, written in first-person by the individuals, readers gain a first-hand account of what it was really like for many Jewish children who went into hiding during World War II. Some lived with people they knew; others lived with complete strangers. There were those who were treated with love and kindness; while others were beaten. Told in first person, each story is in the voice of the individual as they reach back over fifty years into their memories to share their painful experience.  

At the beginning of each entry a map shows the places in the Netherlands where that person went into hiding. Black & white photographs of the individuals and their families before they went into hiding, places where they were living while in hiding, and of scenes from that time. Back matter has photos of each survivor as an adult and glossary of words or names that may be unfamiliar to readers.

Hidden Like Anne Frank is powerful because each heartbreaking entry recounts this traumatic period from the survivor’s childhood. The website that accompanies this book includes one or more animated films that illustrate the memories of the survivors. 

The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson

The Boy on the Wooden Box: how the impossible became possible…on Schindler’s list
A Memoir by Leon Leyson with Marilyn J. Harran * Elisabeth B. Leyson
Atheneum Books for Young Children. 2013
ISBN: 9781442497818
Grades 6 and up
This reviewer borrowed a copy of the book from the public library.

Leon Leyson loved playing on the Krakow streetcars with his friends and tagging along after his older brothers. Then, suddenly, German soldiers were:
In his country.
In his city.
In his home.

Leyson was ten years old when the Nazi’s entered Poland, changing his life forever. Three of his brothers would die at the hands of the Germans, but Leyson, his sister, mother and father would be saved because of Oskar Schindler and his famous “list”. 

After surviving the war and living in a displaced persons camp in Wetzlar, Germany, in the American occupied zone the family came to California in May of 1949. Leyson was just nineteen years old. “My real life was just beginning.” 

In the epilogue Leyson explains that he never shared what he had experienced during the war with friends and colleagues until after the release of the movie Schindler’s List. This memoir is based on the talks he gave frequently for over twenty years. Told from the perspective of a child, Leyson’s story is very moving. 

Sadly, Leyson did not live to know that Atheneum would publish his book. He died from T-cell lymphoma on January 12, 2013. Please share this book with students who are studying the Holocaust. Pair the Boy on the Wooden Box with these fiction titles about the Jewish experience in Poland during WW2: Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli, and Run, Boy, Run by Uri Orliev.  

Listen to Leon Leyson tell his story in 12-parts on YouTube. 

Back matter also includes photos, an afterward, and index.