My Family for the War

by Anne C. Voorhoeve

Paperback, 2015

Status

Available

Genres

Young Adult

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Children's Circulating

Publication

Speak (2015), Edition: Reprint, 416 pages

Description

Before the start of World War II, ten-year-old Ziska Mangold, who has Jewish ancestors but has been raised as a Protestant, is taken out of Nazi Germany on one of the Kindertransport trains, to live in London with a Jewish family, where she learns about Judaism and endures the hardships of war while attempting to keep in touch with her parents, who are trying to survive in Holland.

User reviews

LibraryThing member AMQS

This is a sprawling book told from the perspective of Ziska, a young girl whose family is persecuted in Nazi Germany for their Jewish ancestors, though the family converted to Christianity a few generations back. As their friends make plans to emigrate, they stay, reasoning it will get better,

until it's too late. When Ziska's father is detained, and their world closes in on them, Ziska's mother grasps at the one option available: the kindertransport that smuggled Jewish children out of Germany and to host families in England. Ziska is taken in by the Shepard family, observant Jews who are a bit disconcerted to find themselves fostering a Christian. Son Gary is delighted to have a sister, and warmly helps her assimilate. Ziska learns English, attends school (from which she sneaks away every day, knocking on doors to try to secure a position for her parents), and gradually embraces her Jewish heritage. The book takes place over the course of the war -- Ziska, now called Frances, is wrenched away from the Shepards to the safety of the countryside and another host family; her parents are deported to Holland, where their declining health and precarious circumstances strain and finally end their correspondence; Gary enlists to the dismay of his parents; the Shepards reclaim Frances and attempt to survive the blitz together in London. The war transforms everyone and everything, and at its conclusion Ziska/Frances must come to terms with her losses, and determine to whom she really belongs, and who she really is. This is far from a perfect read, with Frances's immature voice sometimes grating, and enough writing and/or translation issues to be a distraction (the book was published in Germany in 2007). Nevertheless, I was riveted and deeply moved.

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LibraryThing member jwarbler

Very well-written, but once Ziska/Frances ends up in England, I feel like the narrative can't choose whether she's more worried about her Jewishness or her attempts to have both her bio family and her adopted family take importance in her life. I still love this book as a whole, though, and I was

in denial about a certain painful plot point until the very last page.

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LibraryThing member Sullywriter

An excellent historical novel about the kindertransport. Translated from the German edition.

LibraryThing member Floratina

READ IN DUTCH

I actually took this book with me to give it to my mother, as she really likes to read children's books about the Second World War. She said I should read the book as well. And I'm really glad because I enjoyed reading it a lot and think I've learned quite a lot by reading it.

I had

heard before of the trains that saved Jewish children to England. But to be honest, I never had given it that much thought. Mostly about how extremely hard it must have been. Some things seemed really harsh to me though, like how she wouldn't be allowed to return to England if she had once left it.

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