May was, as predicted, A Month. But in many good ways.1 The heinous allergies (mostly) vanished. I waded back into manuscript revision for my workshop.
Most importantly, the next Schmidt generation began with the arrival of my niece last weekend. I haven’t asked my sister for permission to post a baby photo here, so I won’t, but Niece looks like her mom, pictured with me, in 1998.
There’s nothing like a circle-of-life moment to make you think about where you started. Which, naturally, got me thinking about reading, and about the books I plan to give Niece one day—and some of the first WWII books I read. All are set in Europe;2 each is about the Holocaust, and I’m wondering whether they still hold up.
Number the Stars
Summary: Annemarie’s ten in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen; her best friend, Ellen, is Jewish. When the Nazis planned to deport Denmark’s Jews in 1943, the non-Jewish Danish people rescue nearly the entire Jewish population; the novel shows this heroic moment when Annemarie finds herself called on to help.
Verdict: I can see why this won a Newbery Award. Lowry is SO good at bringing you into Annemarie’s world—her exasperation at her little sister, the small details of wartime shortages—even as she ramps up the suspense about what will happen to Ellen and what Annemarie will do for her friend.
And yet. Maybe it’s age. Maybe it’s because I just finished Dara Horn’s People Love Dead Jews, particularly the essay on Varian Fry, a must-read for any Holocaust fiction reader.3 Maybe it’s because anti-Semitism is as present in American politics as ever.
But rereading Number the Stars, I kept thinking I wanted more of Ellen’s perspective. We only know her as Annemarie’s friend, and Jewish, and for purposes of the story, we don’t need to know much more, because. Number the Stars is Annemarie’s story. And it’s a powerful story—but other stories to read alongside it are needed as much as ever.
Touch Wood4
Summary: In this autobiographical novel, Renee Roth-Hano’s family flees Alsace for Paris in 1940, where they’re trapped when France falls. In 1942, Renee and her sisters, Denise and Lily, hide in a convent in Normandy for the rest of the war.
Verdict: I was surprised at how hard it was to find this one in print, but it was worth it. The writing isn’t always perfect. But the details of her and her family’s history and experiences are what I felt missing from Number the Stars—their experiences of being Jewish, of anti-Semitism in France, and the author’s own spiritual struggles between Judaism while living in a convent, and her bond with her sisters.
The Devil in Vienna
Summary: Technically not a WWII novel, because it starts and ends in 1938, but it’s amazing and I don’t care. Also an autobiographical novel, by Doris Orgel, a Holocaust survivor. Inge, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl in Vienna, has a childhood best friend, Lieselotte, whose Nazi father has made her join the Hitler Youth, which comes to a head when Hitler annexes Austria.
Verdict: This one got me in the most feelings on reread. You get Lieselotte’s perspective and angst about her father’s dragging the family into fascism. But more importantly, you get Inge’s—her relationship with her family, the conflict her friendship with Lieselotte causes, and her own tenuous relationship with Judaism even in the face of rising anti-Semitism. Lieselotte does play a role in helping Inge’s family as escape from Austria, which is great—but ultimately, it’s Inge’s and her own family’s perspective and experiences that drive the novel.
Number the Stars still gets my love as a solid early-age read. It’s a well-told story grounded in an actual piece of WWII history, with a compelling female protagonist who finds her courage in resisting fascism and genocide. But I’d hope to be able to give my niece and the other youths in my life more to read with it as they start to learn about the Holocaust.
These would be, I hope, only the beginning of a WWII reading journey. There are The Devil’s Arithmetic, Hiroshima, Journey to Topaz, just to name a few. But Touch Wood and The Devil in Vienna would be my picks to start alongside Number the Stars—keeping in mind that the protagonists and some of the themes are more mature—as novels that take a deeper dive into anti-Semitism and how Jewish families fought to survive.
What WWII children’s/YA books do you remember and/or recommend?
And in any ways it may have been less than great--to the friends and fam who subscribe and have been here for me, thank you. If this particular newsletter could be about those things, I'd have more than a footnote on this. But for now I can only say, truly, thank you.
I know the last few months have been Europe-heavy—I’m in process of reading some great WWII novels set outside Europe, posts on those to come very soon.
I’m dying to know if Horn’s read The Flight Portfolio or watched the Netflix adaptation, both of which were released since her essay on Fry was originally published, and what her thoughts were on either/both.
The title comes from something her parents say throughout the novel, e.g., that things won’t get worse, “touch wood,” which now just reads to me as “knock on wood.” But even if the latter was the more accurate translation, could see it being not the best title for a novel.
You mention 'Hiroshima' at the end. That's one that really affected me at the time and has stayed with me to this day.