The Brushmaker's Daughter

The Brushmaker's Daughter
Author: Kathy Kacer
Publisher: Second Story Press
Total Pages: 91
Release: 2020-09-22
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 177260139X

It is 1939 in Berlin, Germany, and twelve-year-old Lillian and her Papa are on the run from Nazi soldiers. Because they are Jewish, they are in danger of being arrested and put in prison. Lillian's father is blind and it seems no one is willing to help them, until they meet Otto Weidt. Mr. Weidt runs a factory that makes brushes for the Nazi army, and his secret is that he employs blind Jewish workers. Lillian soon learns that Otto Weidt is determined to keep her, Papa, and all the Jewish workers safe. But will he be able to? Inspired by a true story.

Shanghai Escape

Shanghai Escape
Author: Kathy Kacer
Publisher: Second Story Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2013-10-14
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 192758311X

Shanghai, China is a strange place for a young Jewish girl from ViennaÉ But that is where Lily Toufar finds herself in 1938. She and her family have left their home to find safety far away from Europe, where Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party are making life unbearable for Jews. TheyÕve had to travel fast Ð Lily even had to leave behind most of her toys and books Ð but here she feels free from danger. Despite their hopes, it quickly turns out that all is not safe in Shanghai. Now that the area is controlled by Japan, whose leaders support Hitler, the local government orders Jewish refugees, including Lily and her family, to move into a ghetto in an area of the city called Hongkew. Once again Lily wonders what will happen next. Life changes for Lily and her family when they are forced to the over-crowded ghetto. There is little food to eat, and many people become sick. Lily remains hopeful, but when rumors begin to circulate that Jews may be in as much danger here as they were in Europe, she wonders if she will ever feel truly safe and at home again. Based on a true story.

Hidden on the High Wire

Hidden on the High Wire
Author: Kathy Kacer
Publisher: Second Story Press
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2022-09-27
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1772602523

Irene grew up traveling around Germany with her family’s circus, surrounded by her loved ones and thrilling the crowds with her performance on the high wire...until one day, the audience boos. The Lorch family is Jewish, and the increasing power of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis has put them all in grave danger. When the circus is forced to shut down and Irene’s father is taken away, Irene and her mother must go into hiding with another circus. Every day is a frightening new kind of balancing act, caught between the desire to perform and the need to hide—even in plain sight.

Hiding Edith

Hiding Edith
Author: Kathy Kacer
Publisher: Second Story Press
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1926739310

The remarkable true story of a young girl named Edith and the French village of Moissac that helped her and many other children during the Holocaust. The town's mayor and citizens concealed the presence of hundreds of Jewish children who lived in a safe house, risking their own safety by hiding the children from the Nazis in plain site, saving them from being captured and detained and most certainly saving their lives.

Night Spies

Night Spies
Author: Kathy Kacer
Publisher: Second Story Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2003-05-07
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1926739450

Based on real events and real characters! It is the middle of World War II, and Gabi and her mother have been lucky so far, eluding the grasp of Nazi soldiers who are sending Jewish people away to unknown fates. But she, her mother and her young cousin, Max, realize that they will never be safe in their town. With the help of a trusted friend, a kind-hearted priest and a poor yet brave farming family, they go into hiding in a tiny mountain village. It takes great willpower and patience to endure months of fear in their cramped hiding space at the back of a barn. But one night, Gabi and Max can't stand the confinement any longer, and they sneak out for the first of many secret nighttime walks. Deep in the forest, the children make a discovery that turns out to be very useful to the anti-Nazi partisan soldiers camped out nearby. Through their new roles as scouts for the partisans, Gabi and Max find strength and courage, and a renewed sense of hope in dark times.

Clara's War

Clara's War
Author: Clara Kramer
Publisher: Emblem Editions
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2010-04-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1551993686

“You lose your loved ones, and still you want to live.” On 21 July 1942, the Nazis reached the small Polish town of Zolkiew. Life for fifteen-year-old Clara Kramer would never be the same. While those around her were either slaughtered or transported, three families found perilous refuge in a hand-dug cellar. Hers was one of them. Living above and protecting them were the Becks. Mrs. Beck had been the families’ maid. Mr. Beck was alcoholic and a self-professed anti-Semite, yet he risked his life to keep his charges safe. But survival under his protection proved to be anything but predictable. Whether it was his nightly drinking sessions with officers of the SS in the room just above or his torrid affair with one of the hiding women, it seemed that Clara and the others often had as much to fear from Beck as they did from the war. Clara’s mother told her to keep a diary while they lived in the bunker in order to fill her time and “so the world would know what happened to us.” Over sixty years later, Clara Kramer has finally turned those diaries into a compelling and heartbreaking memoir — a story of love and memory and survival.

The Underground Reporters

The Underground Reporters
Author: Kathy Kacer
Publisher: Evans Brothers
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2007
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780237531591

In Budejovice, a quiet village in the Czech Republic, during the Second World War, a plot of land by the river was allocated to the Jewish youth of the village. There, some brave young people decided to create a newspaper. This book chronicles the lives of the young people who were the newspaper's creators and contributors.

Diary of Laura's Twin

Diary of Laura's Twin
Author: Kathy Kacer
Publisher: Second Story Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1926739167

Laura has just three weeks to go before her Jewish becoming of age ceremony, called a Bat Mitzvah, when she is assigned a special project. She is to read the diary of Sara Gittler, a young girl her own age who was imprisoned by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. Sara never had the chance to celebrate her coming of age, so Laura is to learn about Sara's life and then share her Bat Mitzvah with her "twin" by speaking of her at the ceremony. Reluctant to undertake the project at first, Laura quickly becomes caught up by Sara's struggle to survive. Sara's diary unfolds with the details of her daily life in the Ghetto, a world full of fear, confusion, tragedy and above all, courage. From Sara's brave story in the past, Laura learns how to find the courage to confront the possibility of a friend's current involvement in the desecration of a Jewish cemetery.

The Boy on the Wooden Box

The Boy on the Wooden Box
Author: Leon Leyson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 139
Release: 2013-08-29
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1471119939

Leon Leyson (born Leib Lezjon) was only ten years old when the Nazis invaded Poland and his family was forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto. With incredible luck, perseverance and grit, Leyson was able to survive the sadism of the Nazis, including that of the demonic Amon Goeth, commandant of Plaszow, the concentration camp outside Krakow. Ultimately, it was the generosity and cunning of one man, a man named Oskar Schindler, who saved Leon Leyson's life, and the lives of his mother, his father, and two of his four siblings, by adding their names to his list of workers in his factory - a list that became world renowned: Schindler's List. This, the only memoir published by a former Schindler's List child, perfectly captures the innocence of a small boy who goes through the unthinkable. Most notable is the lack of rancour, the lack of venom, and the abundance of dignity in Mr Leyson's telling. The Boy on the Wooden Boxis a legacy of hope, a memoir unlike anything you've ever read.

The Brave Princess and Me

The Brave Princess and Me
Author: Kathy Kacer
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9781772601022

In 1943 Greece, young Tilde Cohen and her mother are Jewish and on the run from the Nazis. When they arrive unannounced on Princess Alice's doorstep, begging her to shelter them, the Princess's kindness is put to the test. Based on the true story.