Hidden Like Anne Frank

I got Hidden Like Anne Frank: 14 True Stories of Survival by Marcel Prins and Peter Henk Steenhuis from the library after seeing it on the YA nonfiction shelf. It tells the story of fourteen Jewish children and teenagers who had to go into hiding in the Netherlands during the Holocaust.

This was a really meaningful book. Each child's account is written in first person, and the accounts aren't too lengthy--just enough to describe briefly what life was like before the war, elaborate on their time in hiding, and briefly describe life after liberation. The accounts were truly heart-wrenching. It's so hard to imagine these children being separated from their parents and everyone's desperation to just survive. I also was deeply saddened by the residual effects so many of these men and women had in their post-war lives. This was just a hard read. But it did really make the Holocaust feel really real--I got a sense of the emotions these children experienced. And just a recognition that sometimes terrible things happen, and there's no way to wrap it up in a pretty box and make it ok. I also came to really admire the immense courage of those who hid these children. I don't think I've ever thought this hard about what it would have taken to be someone who hid Jewish children. These people risked their lives (and their family's lives--even their own children's lives) to protect children they didn't even know. It's really a beautiful and incredible thing, and I hope I would have that kind of courage.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)