- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: McClelland & Stewart (April 7 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 077109583X
- ISBN-13: 978-0771095832
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 14.6 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #330,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"This vividly detailed and taut narrative is a fitting tribute to the bravery of victims and righteous gentiles alike."
— Publishers Weekly
"[A] superlative memoir of survival. . . . Few wartime memoirs convey with such harrowing immediacy the evil of the Nazi genocide."
— The Daily Telegraph
"A harrowing account. . . . full of heart-wrenching details. . . . And yet, somehow, miraculously, mercifully, humanity finds its way into this story."
— Montreal Gazette
"Both a gripping thriller and a heartbreaking drama of human kindness, this is sure to become a classic of Holocaust history."
— Booklist (starred review)
— Publishers Weekly
"[A] superlative memoir of survival. . . . Few wartime memoirs convey with such harrowing immediacy the evil of the Nazi genocide."
— The Daily Telegraph
"A harrowing account. . . . full of heart-wrenching details. . . . And yet, somehow, miraculously, mercifully, humanity finds its way into this story."
— Montreal Gazette
"Both a gripping thriller and a heartbreaking drama of human kindness, this is sure to become a classic of Holocaust history."
— Booklist (starred review)
Product Description
“You lose your loved ones, and still you want to live.”
On 21 July 1942, the Nazis reached the small Polish town of Zolkiew. Life for fifteen-year-old Clara Kramer would never be the same. While those around her were either slaughtered or transported, three families found perilous refuge in a hand-dug cellar. Hers was one of them.
Living above and protecting them were the Becks. Mrs. Beck had been the families’ maid. Mr. Beck was alcoholic and a self-professed anti-Semite, yet he risked his life to keep his charges safe. But survival under his protection proved to be anything but predictable. Whether it was his nightly drinking sessions with officers of the SS in the room just above or his torrid affair with one of the hiding women, it seemed that Clara and the others often had as much to fear from Beck as they did from the war.
Clara’s mother told her to keep a diary while they lived in the bunker in order to fill her time and “so the world would know what happened to us.” Over sixty years later, Clara Kramer has finally turned those diaries into a compelling and heartbreaking memoir — a story of love and memory and survival.
On 21 July 1942, the Nazis reached the small Polish town of Zolkiew. Life for fifteen-year-old Clara Kramer would never be the same. While those around her were either slaughtered or transported, three families found perilous refuge in a hand-dug cellar. Hers was one of them.
Living above and protecting them were the Becks. Mrs. Beck had been the families’ maid. Mr. Beck was alcoholic and a self-professed anti-Semite, yet he risked his life to keep his charges safe. But survival under his protection proved to be anything but predictable. Whether it was his nightly drinking sessions with officers of the SS in the room just above or his torrid affair with one of the hiding women, it seemed that Clara and the others often had as much to fear from Beck as they did from the war.
Clara’s mother told her to keep a diary while they lived in the bunker in order to fill her time and “so the world would know what happened to us.” Over sixty years later, Clara Kramer has finally turned those diaries into a compelling and heartbreaking memoir — a story of love and memory and survival.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heart-Wrenching,
By
This review is from: Clara's War: A Young Girl's True Story of Miraculous Survival under the Nazis (Hardcover)
Reason for Reading: I am always driven to read first hand Holocaust accounts, especially from children's points of view.Comments: Young teenager Clara Kramer is living in a small Polish town when WWII starts. The book is her story retold from her memories and from the aid of her diaries kept while hidden during the last 2 years of the war. Starting off in 1939, we get a quick feel for pre-war life, then immediately a Russian protection takeover then quick withdrawal. The Germans soon infiltrate the town and a Jewish Ghetto is set up and the 5,000 Jews in the town are rounded up, sent to the Ghetto, packed onto cattle trains, while others desperately seek hiding places. Clara's family along with a group of family and friends ask their Polish maid to persuade her husband to hide them. This isn't so hard since he is having a secret affair with her best friend (who happens to be Jewish and part of the group to be hidden). They ask him to requisition one of the families houses, which the Germans gladly give him, as he has some standing in the community, and then the children in the group (because of their size) start to dig a dugout underneath the house. Eventually everyone helps out and the dugout becomes big enough (just) for the 18 people to squeeze into. Mr. Beck, the man who is hiding them is actually quite well known for his antisemitism and he regularly has Nazi visitors to his house. Later on the Nazi's impose themselves on his hospitality and at any time there could be 6 or 7 Nazi soldiers or even SS officials sleeping above the hidden Jews. Beck is not who he first appears to be though and as the life of these people unfold both those downstairs and upstairs we learn how humanity can triumph over even the most degradable conditions. At times a heart-wrenching tale, at others an uplifting tale of survival against all odds. No matter how many books one reads of the Jewish Holocaust, it is always unbelievable that humans could have treated other humans this way. A story of triumph, love and respect that is well worth the read. Also rather a unique tale in that 18 people were hidden by one small family literally right under the feet of the Nazis themselves. I only wonder as to why no photographs are included, not even an author's photo of Clara. At first I thought none may have survived but in the final chapter Clara tells us what happened to all persons involved up to the present and she says the photos are all that remain from that time period. It would have been nice to have had faces to go with the names or even at the least a photo of Clara herself at any age. If you are reading Jewish Holocaust memoirs this is one not to be missed. Read it.
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