‘I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t unhappy. I was there at that time and that was all. I didn’t involve myself in philosophical reflections, but my mind was like a camera, imprinting forever the idyllic beauty of the European summer of 1939”
The idyll does not last long. Within days a young Jewish girl and her family are engulfed by the Second World War in Warsaw, Poland. Outside the concentration camps and mostly outside the ghetto, the adolescent heroine and her family experience the war as civilians with a secret.
Living in a country house, they survive on false papers and ‘good looks’, while hiding four of their close relatives in the cellar. One day, they have to cope with waves of German soldiers bursting through their houses. Another day, they wake to find the front line in their front garden.
The author recreates this inhuman world through eyes of her adolescent self. Originally published in 1980 to rave reviews, and here re-issued with an introduction by Professor Richard Freadman, this superb testament to heroism and concern is now available to a new generation of readers.
