Abstract

Reviewed by: My Family for the War Elizabeth Bush Voorhoeve, Anne C. My Family for the War; tr. from the German by Tammi Reichel. Dial, 2012. 400p. ISBN 978-0-8037-3360-2 $17.99 R Gr. 6-10. Franziska Mangold's family may have been Protestant for the past two generations, but their Jewish heritage has made them targets for rising Nazi persecution. They use their savings to secure permits and passage to Singapore, but before they can depart, Mr. Mangold is arrested and his wife, reluctant to leave her husband, loses their one best chance to emigrate. The best she can do is apply for Ziska to leave on a kindertransport and hope that once her daughter is settled in England she will be in a position to help her parents secure work visas and join her. Ziska's English family, the Shepards, are orthodox Jews who are surprised to learn that the child they've taken into their home knows nothing of her religious roots. Ridden with guilt over her own good luck in leaving Berlin (her best friend Bekka misses the last transport out) and anxiety for her parents, Ziska—now named Frances by her new "brother" Gary—isn't the easiest little ten-year-old to warm up to. Just as the Shepards' kindness and the comforting cycle of schooling and Jewish ritual begin to soothe her, Frances is wrenched anew by forced evacuation to the countryside during the Blitz. Mrs. Shepard obtains permission from Mrs. Mangold to bring Frances back to London, where she remains throughout the war and becomes as beloved to her temporary family as she is to biological parents. By war's end, the possible joy of reunion is dampened by the many tragedies that have beset the Mangold family and their friends, and Frances must decide whether she will make a permanent home in England or on the continent. Voorhoeve masterfully captures the careful planning, split-second decisions, and pure dumb luck that spell the difference between life and death for those in Hitler's crosshairs, and the intertwined stories of the Shepards and Franziska's friends displaced by the war convey the fact that nobody survives such international cataclysm completely unscathed. A brief historical note is appended. Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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