Margot/Jillian Cantor/338 pgs.

Imagine Anne Frank's sister, Margot, survived the Holocaust, moved to the United States, and assumed a new identity. That is the premise for Jillian Cantor's Margot. Margot Frank, now known as Margie Franklin, has been living in Philadelphia, working as a secretary for the law firm of Rosenstein, Greenberg and Moscowitz. Her boss is Joshua Rosenstein, the son of Ezra Rosenstein. The year is 1959, and movie, The Diary of Anne Frank, has just been released. No one knows that Margie Franklin is Jewish, let alone the sister of Anne Frank. The book is told through Margie's voice, and depicts her struggles with survivor's guilt, shame, all the while trying to make a new life in a new country. On the one hand, Margie wants to forget her past, but on the other hand, she realizes that her past helped shape her present. It's a very engrossing book, but the ending was just a little too "pat" for me.

Anne Frank remembered / Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold 264 p.

Thanks to Alison Leslie Gold who convinced Miep Gies to remember her days outside of the secret annex in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family and friends hid. Miep recounts those harsh, horrid, horrific days with simplicity, honesty and such clarity the one is there as she spends hours supporting the Franks.  This is a great book for those who wish to know more about Anne from one who was her protector as well as her special friend.

Zookeeper's Wife / Diane Ackerman 376 p.

Naturalist Diane Ackerman begins with a lovely description of the pre-war Warsaw Zoo. Jan and Antonina Zabinski were Polish Christian zookeepers horrified by the Nazi who work to extinguish the lives of all in power, teachers, priests, along with the Jews. Throughout the war, Antonina records in her diary the destruction of Warsaw and their zoo. Of the aftermath of the Gestapo New Year’s Hunt, sponsored by Lutz Heck, the zoo director of the Berlin Zoo, of zoo animals (penned or caged), she wrote:

“In the cold blue evening light sunset was playing funeral bells
for our just buried animals.”

Director Heck “borrowed” his favorites for a project where he would breed back lost and extinct animals.

The Polish citizens were to be decimated along with the Jews. With the converting of the zoo to a pig farm the Zabinski found an official sanctioned purpose as the Nazis loved pork. There, they preserved some of the remaining animals, saved Jews, and continued resistance work. Jan, personally, brought out Jews from the ghetto using loosely guarded gate. For the safety of the cell, resistors were known by a code name—Jan’s was Francis from Francis of Assisi. Hidden people had animal names and pet animals, humans. The villa cryptic name was “The House Under a Crazy Star”.

Where to hide the Guests, Jan and Antonina hide the Jews in their villa—in plain sight. They orchestrated visits from family and friends to conceal the Jews-- Jews who were awaiting forged papers and a place outside the ghetto. Others were hidden in the empty zoo cages. Jan did even more; he buried an ammo depot near a German warehouse. He was an officer in the Polish resistance. Through his connections as the zoo director and naturalist he sought to save what he could. When Dr. Szymon Tenebaum was moved into the Warsaw Ghetto, Jan stored his mammoth beetle collection (half-million plus specimens--a collection still in existence today). Even their son was involved. He carried food to the Guests in the animal cages. Being a naturalist, Ackerman marvelously describes specimens from his collection.

Over the years of German occupation, the Zabinskis, saved over 300 people. With Germans and Poles almost continuously around their home, they never stopped. Ackerman weaves in local happenings, natural history, and animal behavior as well as Naturalist Diane Ackerman begins with a lovely description of the pre-war Warsaw Zoo. Jan and Antonina Zabinski were Polish Christian zookeepers horrified by the Nazi who work to extinguish the lives of all in power, teachers, priests, along with the Jews. Throughout the war, Antonina records in her diary the destruction of Warsaw and their zoo. Of the aftermath of the Gestapo New Year’s Hunt, sponsored by Lutz Heck, the zoo director of the Berlin Zoo, of zoo animals (penned or caged), she wrote:

“In the cold blue evening light sunset was playing funeral bells for our just buried animals.”

Heck director “borrowed” his favorites for a project where he would breed back lost and extinct animals.

The Polish citizens were to be decimated along with the Jews. With the converting of the zoo to a pig farm the Zabinski found an official sanctioned purpose as the Nazis loved pork. Thus, they preserved some of the remaining animals, saved over three hundred Jews, and continued resistance work. For the safety of the cell, resistors were known by a code name—Jan’s was Francis from Francis of Assisi. Hidden people had animal names and pet animals, humans. The villa cryptic name was “The House Under a Crazy Star”.

Where to hide the Guests, Jan and Antonina hide the Jews in their villa—in plain sight. They orchestrated visits from family and friends to conceal the Jews-- Jews who were awaiting forged papers and a place outside the ghetto. Others were hidden in the empty zoo cages. Jan did even more; he buried an ammo depot near a German warehouse. He was an officer in the Polish resistance. Through his connections as the zoo director and naturalist he sought to save what he could. When Dr. Szymon Tenebaum was moved into the Warsaw Ghetto, Jan stored his mammoth beetle collection (half-million plus specimens). Being a naturalist, Ackerman marvelously describes specimens from his collection.

Over the years of German occupation, the Zabinskis, saved over 300 people. With Germans and Poles almost continuously around their home, they never stopped. Ackerman weaves in local happenings, natural history, and animal behavior as she presents a couple who heroism has fallen through the cracks. One must marvel at what they accomplished. Antonina's journaling showed how they faced death without becoming bitter. After the war, Guests called the microcosm of safety the Zabinskis created an Ark. One is in awe of two people who "were just doing their duty".

First person narrative, richly detailed, biography, autobiography, journalistic, intricately plotted, sobering, and strong sense of place.

Continents book--Europe
Award winner

Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust / Ruth Thomson 64 p.

The Jewish people tell their story of life in a transit Nazi ghetto established in Terezin, Czechoslovakia, a small fortress town built by the Austrian emperor Joseph II and named for his mother, Maria Theresa.  Terezin, renamed Theresienstadt, became the Nazi’s ‘model’ camp when the Danish king requested a Red Cross visit to view living conditions when Danish Jews were transported there since rumors were circulating about the killing of Jews.  Of course the visitors were carefully guided through after an intense beautification process.  Later, this was filmed by the inmates using inmate actors to further perpetuate how good the Nazis treated the Jews.  Ruth Thomson has the inmates speaking for themselves through their secret diaries, artwork, and excerpts from memoirs and recordings made after the war.   Period photographs, reproductions of menu cards, concert tickets, and posters appear with color photographs of the town as it is today are included.

2012 Notable Children's Books

A Train in Winter / Caroline Moorehead 374 p.

Women, who were teachers, students, chemists, singers, all kinds of women from 15 to 60 years old, put their life on the line and did what they could to resist Nazi Germany when France was occupied. Most paid for their courage with their lives. Caroline Moorehead gives the account of 230 women captured by the Gestapo and imprisoned first in a fort outside Paris, then on the only train sent with women out France to German concentration camps. This is their story, the women of Le Convoi des 3100. These women formed strong bonds of friendship. They worked hard to keep each other alive in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and in Ravensbruck. They had each other's back. They clung to each other to survive the savage treatment, shoddy living conditions, little food, abominable working conditions, rampant disease. That 42 survived is a testimony to their strong characters, their friendship and their continuous acts of courage in face of unbelievable acts of debauchery, cruelty, brutality. Moorehead continues their story as the few returned home.
Not an easy read. What makes this memorable is the care these women took of each other. How they hid the sickly members of their group, shared their meager rations equally, and how they kept their spirits up during their 3 years in prison.

Find in the library catalog

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay - 294 Pages

Book Discussion title at Kathryn Linnemann

This is another book that I consider 'book club gold'. There was so much to discuss in this book - many of us had not heard of the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup in France during World War II. Without giving too much away, the book switches back in forth in time from Nazi-occupied France to 2002 (60th anniversary of this incident). Old family secrets and modern domestic issues blend together in a suspenseful, well-told story. If you enjoy World War II fiction, historical fiction, or just an all-around great book, you'll love Sarah's Key.

Our discussion covered everything from the Holocaust to reincarnation. Now how's that for variety?

Happy Reading!

A motion picture based on Sarah's Key was released in 2010, see Internet Movie Database at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1668200/

Discussion questions available from Reading Group Guides at: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_S/sarahs_key1.asp#discuss

Melanie - KL Book Club