In a thoroughly researched project far more ambitious and expansive than her acclaimed picture-book nonfiction, Rappaport (Lady Liberty: A Biography) has assembled more than 20 stories of Jewish resistance to the Holocaust, some never before told. From all corners of Nazi-occupied Europe, these harrowing accounts are heart-wrenching and hopeful as they pay tribute to the brave thousands who defied their oppressors in ways large and small. In one, 12-year-old Mordechai Shlayan sneaks explosives in his violin case and blows up a hotel where German officers are dining. In another, 22-year-old Marianne Cohn is caught smuggling children into Switzerland; she turns down an offer to escape to remain with some of the imprisoned children and is executed soon after. Introductions preceding each of the book’s five sections provide historical context; numerous photographs are sometimes graphic and often painfully poignant. Also included are maps, a pronunciation guide, bibliography, source notes, and index. These true stories, while at times hard to stomach, honor the incredible human spirit in the face of unimaginable suffering and torment. Ages 10–up. Agent: Faith Hamlin, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Sept.)
Rappaport has written the kind of narrative that can change readers’ perceptions; her commitment to recovering stories of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust is not only powerful but also historically significant. By gathering and carefully organizing accounts from throughout the Nazi era, she is able to relate the entire tragedy and at the same time to challenge us to see it anew…Rappaport’s devotion to uncovering these instances, whether issuing from academic papers, museums, interviews or memoirs, and her care with narrative structure, locating the rare archival images and using them generously throughout, is truly magnificent. On each page you sense that it meant everything to her to track down the truth and get it exactly right.
Gr 6 Up—In this landmark title, Rappaport documents Jewish resistance to the Nazi regime, presenting the stories of brave and committed people who disrupted the course of the mayhem and murder in 11 countries across Europe. Many of them were instrumental in getting Jewish children out of occupied Europe and to safety in Great Britain, Switzerland, and the United States. Others escaped from concentration camps, led insurrections in ghettos, attempted to orchestrate escapes from trains bearing Jews to death camps, or lived in outlaw camps deep in the forests. Many of them sacrificed their lives to save others, and many others bore both physical and psychic scars for the rest of their lives. The text is divided into six sections, discussing the realization on the part of the Jewish population of Germany that their situation was dire; saving Jewish children in occupied Europe; resistance in the ghettos; freedom fighters in the labor, concentration, transit, and death camps; and partisan warfare. The profiles give the backgrounds of the individuals involved in saving others, the situations in which they worked, and the outcome. Black-and-white and sepia photos extend the text and put faces to the deeds. Finishing with a detailed chronology, source notes, and an extensive bibliography, this well-written and affecting volume is an excellent example of a history title with wide appeal. It belongs in every middle and high school library.—Ann Welton, Grant Elementary School, Tacoma, WA
Emily Beresford and Jeff Crawford narrate alternating chapters of Rappaport’s chronicle of uprisings and resistance among the Jewish population in Nazi-occupied nations during the Holocaust. Many of the stories end well: Children are successfully smuggled from occupied France to neutral Switzerland, and in Poland a group of brothers creates a thriving village of survivors in the wilderness. Other accounts end with suffering and death, but Rappaport focuses on the individuals, their courage, and their desire to live. Beresford and Crawford don’t embellish these stories in their deliveries, and they don’t need to. Listeners will be riveted by the human capacity for bravery and sacrifice amid the most horrifying of circumstances. A.F. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
NOVEMBER 2012 - AudioFile
In a book that is the very model of excellence in nonfiction, Rappaport dispels the old canard that the Jews entered the houses of death as lambs led to the slaughter. Although "[t]he scope and extent of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust cannot possibly be contained in one book," Rappaport offers an astonishing and inspiring survey. By shining a spotlight on individuals and their involvement in given situations--Kristallnacht , deportations, guerrilla resistance, among others--throughout Europe, she creates intimate personal snapshots of the years of the Nazi occupation. She tells of people who committed acts of destruction as well as those whose resistance was in the simple act of celebrating and maintaining their faith in impossible conditions. Well-known events--the escape from Sobibor, the battle for Warsaw--share space with less-familiar ones. Short biographies introduce readers to those involved, some of whom the author has interviewed. Archival images of people and places help readers envision the people and places that are mentioned: partisan forest hideaways, concentration camps, the ovens, barracks, groups of people on their way to death, diagrams of camps and more. Thorough, deeply researched and stylistically clear, this is a necessary, exemplary book. (pronunciation guide, chronology, notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10 & up)
