Eva Marie L. (babyjulie) -
Helpful Score: 1
Stacey Cretzmeyer did a fantastic job here. The story of how Cretzmeyer came to start working on this progect with Ruth Kapp is very interesting. I'm not sure if anyone else has talked about it in a review but I won't - I think it hits harder when read like I read it. It made me see even more how easily lost these stories can be. It almost had to be fate that brought these two together and the product is absolutely beautiful.
Anyone who reads a lot of Holocaust-lit knows that you don't stop being amazed and horrified... no matter how many times you read the "same" story. My reading on the subject has usually been dwindled down to actualy camp life, with maybe a little before and after sprinkled in. Only recently have I found myself really getting interested in the before and after, and in other aspects like the hidden children, the orphanges, etc.
This is great for anyone wanting to learn about the life not only a hidden child lived during that time, but a hidden family. I had tears in my eyes when the night before Ruth's departure from her hidden apartment to the orphange was described. People, including myself, use the term 'can hardly believe' a lot. I know I do. But it means a whole different thing when you actually sit down and try to imagine. I tried to imagine not being able to leave a room for food for my baby. I tried to imagine losing my husband because he couldn't risk staying in the town anymore. Then I tried to imagine the emotions that would be involved if I learned the only safe place for my daughter would be a religious orphange, many miles too far away for me to visit. Ruth's Mother kept this plan to herself and laid down that night in bed next to her daughter. And she cried. If that's not heartbreaking I don't know what is. And I'm talking about it now like the past event that it is, but this was lived. This family knew this. They felt these feelings. How horrible this world was and, in many ways, still is.
I would have liked to have known more about the Valat family in the end. Ruth went back to visit France, I think in the 60's is I'm not mistaken, and that was the only family not mentioned. Did they survive the war? The way that Ruth met Madame Valat was so interesting to me. Fate again, no doubt.
I felt like I knew her relatoves, Uncle Heinrich in particular. I liked that the few photos were scattered throughout the book and not shoved into the middle. While that works with some books it would have taken away from this one.
This has many great parts, the war as it affected those living in France, hidden children and familes, the Resistance, but very little about any actual camps.
It's definitely not something to be missed. So glad I happened to find in Borders.
Anyone who reads a lot of Holocaust-lit knows that you don't stop being amazed and horrified... no matter how many times you read the "same" story. My reading on the subject has usually been dwindled down to actualy camp life, with maybe a little before and after sprinkled in. Only recently have I found myself really getting interested in the before and after, and in other aspects like the hidden children, the orphanges, etc.
This is great for anyone wanting to learn about the life not only a hidden child lived during that time, but a hidden family. I had tears in my eyes when the night before Ruth's departure from her hidden apartment to the orphange was described. People, including myself, use the term 'can hardly believe' a lot. I know I do. But it means a whole different thing when you actually sit down and try to imagine. I tried to imagine not being able to leave a room for food for my baby. I tried to imagine losing my husband because he couldn't risk staying in the town anymore. Then I tried to imagine the emotions that would be involved if I learned the only safe place for my daughter would be a religious orphange, many miles too far away for me to visit. Ruth's Mother kept this plan to herself and laid down that night in bed next to her daughter. And she cried. If that's not heartbreaking I don't know what is. And I'm talking about it now like the past event that it is, but this was lived. This family knew this. They felt these feelings. How horrible this world was and, in many ways, still is.
I would have liked to have known more about the Valat family in the end. Ruth went back to visit France, I think in the 60's is I'm not mistaken, and that was the only family not mentioned. Did they survive the war? The way that Ruth met Madame Valat was so interesting to me. Fate again, no doubt.
I felt like I knew her relatoves, Uncle Heinrich in particular. I liked that the few photos were scattered throughout the book and not shoved into the middle. While that works with some books it would have taken away from this one.
This has many great parts, the war as it affected those living in France, hidden children and familes, the Resistance, but very little about any actual camps.
It's definitely not something to be missed. So glad I happened to find in Borders.
