Such Good Girls: The Journey of the Holocaust's Hidden Child Survivors

So much has been written about the Holocaust, but this book has a lot to teach about children forced to hide during World War II in order to stay alive. The book gives us a glimpse of what it was like for these very young people to be ripped from their own families away from parents (perhaps forever), to be given a new name and a new identity, and perhaps shuttled from one family to another without warning. The book gives a sense what it was like to live across the street from or even work for those who were determined to kill them, to be instructed in a completely different religion (or in some cases, religions, varying with each hiding family) to be taught to revile one's one people and religious views, and then to eventually return to Jewish culture, facing its terrible losses in a state of shock, terror, and deeply engrained prejudice.

In Part One, the author follows the lives of three young girls who endured extreme hardships and grew up to be strong, successful and productive adults, devoting their lives to helping others. In Parts Two and Three, Rosen discusses the phenomenon of hidden children, the terrible trauma they suffered, and ways that they adjusted to new circumstances after the war. He follows the gradual revelation of the horrific events of World War II through early television newsreels and film, and the first awareness of the plight of hidden children, who were initially not considered to be Holocaust survivors because they had not been in the Nazi death camps. He acquaints us with the FIrst International Gathering of Children Hidden During World War II in 1991, and subsequent gatherings. Most riveting of all is the chapter on religious identity ("Am I a Christian or a Jew") which discusses different ways that survivors (including several Catholic priests) reconciled their acquired beliefs with the the Judaism of their background.

All in all this is a fascinating book. I found the early chapters a bit dry, but as the book went on, I was more and more drawn in. I found that the book offers another layer of perspective on religious and cultural identity, growth despite terrible suffering, and so many unfortunate events of today, especially those that affect children.