Survivors: True Stories of Children of the Holocaust, Allan Zullo

The first story is aobut an 8 year old girl named Lunica Gamzer whose town is being invaded by the Nazis. She lives with her mother and father. One night across the street Lunica's neighbors are being rancsacked by the Nazis, and she is starting to realize that her home isn't as safe as it was. The next day the Nazis come to her house and they are taking valuables and anything they can use to help out the soldiers fighting. On the stove is thier lunch, a pot of potato soup. The Nazi guy walks over to the stove, picks up the pot, and dumps the soup down the drain. Then takes the pot. A coupe of days later an Aktizia takes place, which is a rounding up of Jews taken away that were either immediately shot or taken to a concentration camp. This time they're rounding up Jewish kids. Lunica and her friend hide in the bathroom with a dresser coveirng the door so the Nazi soldier won't see them. I think the Nazi soldier knew the kids were there but he just acted like they weren't because he didn't want to take those kids away form their parents. Lunica's father realizes staying at home, Lunica will not be safe, so he finds a place where she will be safe. He hides her in his coat and takes her to if office where Mrs. Szczygiel will take her in as her own with the rest of her family. The Szcyzygiel family do not like Lunica because they're afraid she will be a threat to them and get them all killed. So Mrs. S. says she found Lunica a home, but really Lunica was hidden in a dresser in the attic, but one Mrs. S. daughters found her and Mrs. S. just took Lunica back to her parents where they were hidden. Lunica and her family were reunited. In the end Lunica lives and so does the rest of her family. They finally moved to the U.S. to New York. Where she changed her name to Ruth. She met and married a Holocaust survivor. On the cover Ruth is the girl.

The next story is about Herbert who is a 12 year old boy. He was leaving Germany on a the S.S. St. Louis to Cuba and then eventually the U.S with his family. Before they left their store was ransacked on the Night of Broken Glass. That's when they decided they better leave, to live. As soon as the St. Louis had reached Cuba the government wouldn't take them. They're were millions of stories of why they wouldn't take them. Finally four countries would take at least 200 passengers from the St. Louis. The Karliners were sent to France. France was soon invaded by the Nazis. The Karliners split up to stay safe. The boys went to the Chaumont Children's Home in Creuse. Herbert broke out and just left to find his family. It was killing him to not talk to his family. He finally got back to his family, and left after a short visit. On his way to Children's Home, he was captured while sleeping in a Hotel. He was returned back to the Home, and any boy turning 16 were to be sent to work camps. Herbert was lucky because the next week he was going to turn 16. He escaped in a French tunnel where he was given a new identity as Paul Brun with another Jewish boy. Some other stuff happened but in the end he and his brother arrived in the U.S. He became a baker. He served two years in the U.S. Army. He finally moved to Miami Beach his "paradise". (Of the 937 passengers of the St. Louis about half died in concentration camps.) 

This book has 9 stories of children survivors of the Holocaust ranging from 4 to 18 years of age. I loved every story, but some of my favorites are If They Find Us, They'll Kill Us: Sarah Engelberge's Story, How Can the Stars Seem so Happy in This Horrible Place?: George and Ursula Levy's Story, and No Wonder They Call This A Death March: Jack Gruener's Story. 

Sarah's story is a lot like Anne Frank where she and others go into hiding in an attic or shelter. They must be completely quiet for a long time till no one is around, but in this case it's a friend, Stanislov, of Sarah's Mother, Tsivia, whom which Tsivia's parents had taken when Stanislov was young and his parents died. They're was Sarah, her sisters, her Mother and Father, and five other relatives hid out in Stanislov's attic of his house, but before they got to hide out in the attic they were hiding out in haystacks out in fields and at night they would sleep in them. The farmers they met were nice enough to let them have some food and sometimes would allow them to sleep out in their barn. Also the nice farmers would let the family know when the Nazis were close or were searching an area to say away from there. When living in the attic life was hard. They couldn't walk around or make a lot of noise and the children couldn't even play. To communicate they often used sign language. They all mainly slept and took naps because they were afraid to be heard and captured. Stanislov would bring them a pot of boiled beans and potatoes at night and dump their "toilets" which were just these little buckets they could do their business in. The conditions just started to get really bad for them living in the attic and they all just slowly just started to die. Sarah's father whom she counted on to be her rock, actually told her he thought he wasn't going to be able to make it and left it to her to take care of her Mother and sister when he died. Sarah isn't even that old and to take on that responsibility would really be huge. They were cooped up in that attic for 2 years and they were informed that they are free it's safe. Since they were confined for so long in the attic they didn't really respond. It took a while for them to realize that they were finally safe and could go home. When Sarah finally came home she was expecting to go home and everything would be the same. She waited at home for her Jewish friends and relatives to come home but they never did. She and her family had no knowledge of Nazi death camps or the the millions of Jews who had been murdered. She realized she had no one to tell of her survival. Sarah and her family finally moved to the U.S. There she changed her name to Sally, in honor of her favorite aunt, and chose not to talk about her horrid past to anyone she met. she became a high school teacher and married Ken Frishberg and raised two children. Her children finally asked her about her history and she decided to tell them the whole truth of her past. In 1986 she and her familly returned to Poland to show her family her past. Her niece-Debbie Goodstein award winning documentary of Voices from the Attic, told her Aunt Sarah's story in that book. That's pretty much all about Sarah.

George (8) and Ursula (4) Levy are brother and sister. Their Mother sent them away from home to live in Holland to live with a man who helped milllions of other Jewish children escape this time of hardshipe from the Nazis. The man to help them is Joseph van Mackelenbergh took them to St. Jacobous Children's Home in Eresel. They at first had a hard time there, but it started to get better. Ursula had cried herself to sleep at night during the first few weeks. After a couple of hours later Germany invaded Holland. soon after that the Levy children were ordered to be sent to Camp Vaught. There they first learned of the Nazi brutality, ecspecially officer Etlinger. He would just randomly hit people over the head with a club. He would use any exuse to hurt people. On Ursula's 8th Birthday they were orered into the Etlinger's office. There they were greeted by Joseph who was trying to help get them out of the camp by lying that they were part American. People in the camps who were part American were treated better. It worked too. They were transfered to nicer baracks. There they were assigned Florence to act as the Levy's guardian. Soon though they were tranfered to another camp, Westerbork. They stayed there in an orphanage run by religious Jewish prisoners who conducted school. After four months there they were herded onto a train to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. There they were in the Star Camp where those prisoners either had connections with the U.S. or its allies and might one day be exchanged for imprisoned German citizens, but they had to wear the yellow Star of David on their chest on their own clothes instead of the striped prisoner uniforms. There were no cleaning faciltiy for their clothes so they were very dirty. They lived in teh men's barracks, where they shared a same bunk. They were always hungry and always cold. they recieved a cup of chicory coffee for breakfast, a bowl of watery rutabaga soup for lunch, and bread in the evening. It was just enough to keep them alive but to slowly die. George stole from the kitchen to get food but was got. The guard let him go because he was just a little boy, and told him to come back the same time tomorrow night and he would bring him some food. At night they would pick lice off eachother, and take turn rubbing eachothers back. They started to get people out of camps to be transfered to Theresiendstadt where they were going to be gassed. Many died of starvation and illnesses on the carts. Every stop bodies were taken off the train that were either dead or were going to be shot because they were almost dead, and then replaced with other prisioners. Finally at one stop they were stopped for good. There was news that they were liberated. They then walked to Trobitz to get food. The Soviets were there to help in any way. They deloused people, and Ursula howled and cried the whole time they shaved her head to get rid fo the lice. They soon contracted typhus. It starts out with a dark red rash, followed by a hight fever, stupor, and restlessness. George got it first and recovered. Ursula was hit hard and almost died. In June 1945
they took a train to Holland where they were reunited with Joseph van Mackelenbergh. He took them to a hospital to be treated for malnutrition. They soon boarded a plane to Chicago to live with their Aunt Irmagard and Uncle Dr. Joseph. George became the owner of a pharmacy. In Glen Ellyn, Illinois married and raised five children. Ursula became a nurse and got married. This is probaly my most favorite story because those two stayed together the whole time and George looked after Ursula and never let anything happen to her. He protected her and stayed by her side the whole time even though he could have left her, and went by himself to escape. But he didn't. He stayed there just like I would have done with Mechelia if we had gone through that. It's my favorite story.

Jack 17 years old among hundreds of others was sent on a march to be transfered. They were given one loaf of bread that was to last the two week journey. Before he was captured he and his family hid out in a little room. They cleaned it, put a few possions and furniture in it and put a good lock on it so no one could get in. One day there was a trick to get them all to come out, but Jack was smart enough to keep his familly in. Good thing they listed to Jack because they would have been killed or sent to a concentration camp. One day he decided to get out to visit a friend and on when he got home his family was captured when they went to get food. One by one the rest of his relatives who were in hiding with him was captured till he was the last one left. A year later he was nabbed and was forced to work in a labor camp. Then he was sent on his death march to another camp. When he had finally reached the camp the officer was not happy about the condition that they were in and were to be fed and taken care of. He was then shipped to Bergen-Belsen after he was better. On the way there they were packed tightly to where no one could lie down. He heard that workers were needed at a small camp and were tested of the strongest. He was told to stirp off his clothes. He was afraid of what he saw. He was afraid they were going to kill him and they told him to run. That was is test. He passed. After his arrival at the small camps he was awoken by blasts. They were told that they were free. There were no more guards or Nazis. He had survived! He moved to Munich and met Lunica Ganzer, and stayed in touch with her after he emigrated to New York in 1948. A year later Lunica and Jack began dating. They were married in 1953. (Lunica is the girl whose story was told earlier.) Together they built a successful interior design firm and raised two sons.