Author: Clara Kramer
Genre: Biography, Standalone
Published: 2009
Personal Rating: 4.5/5 (excellent)
Yearly Count: 104
Please Note: While being thankful for the opportunity to receive and read this ARC, I feel the need to post the blurb from its cover. However, in my opinion there is usually too much disclosed. Read at your own discretion.
From the ARC cover:
Clara Kramer was a typical Polish Jewish teenager from a small town at the outbreak of the Second World War. When the Germans invaded, Clara's family was taken in by the Becks, a Volksdeutsch (ethnically German) family from their town. Mr. Beck was known to be an alcoholic, a womanizer, and a vocal anti-Semite. His wife had worked as Clara's family's housekeeper. But on hearing that Jewish families were being led into the woods and shot, Beck sheltered the Kramers and two other Jewish families.
Eighteen people in all lived in a bunker dug out of Beck's basement. Fifteen-year-old Clara kept a diary during the twenty terrifying months she spent in hiding, writing down details of their unpredictable life, from the hous's catching fire to Beck's affair with Clara's cousin, from the nightly SS drinking sessions in the room above to the small pleasure of a shared Christmas carp.
Against all odds, Clara lived to tell her story, and her diary is now part of the permanent collection of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
As always, when I read a book from a foreign country that contains unfamiliar names and places, I am temporarily thrown off, and it takes some time to get adjusted. Unfortunately with Clara's War, I experienced the same uneasiness. Thankfully it didn't last long, and I was drawn in.
Every Holocaust survivor story, even though they have their similarities, are totally unique. Clara's story shows the depth in which one will reach to remain alive and even amongst the horrors of war, the depth of humanity. The deplorable conditions, lack of food, and the entrapment of the bunker didn't kill the spirit of Clara and the group. However, their survival could not have been accomplished without the help of the German family. It was remarkable to see (and vicariously feel) the love and compassion of this family when it would have been easier and to their benefit to not harbor Jews (understatement, of course).
I was bothered by a variety of errors in this ARC. Hopefully, it has been tweaked and polished up for the final publication. I would hate for the strength of this book to be diminished due to editing errors. I'm curious as to whether there are pictures in the published version. I need to check that out!
Thank you Kyle, from Harper Collins Publishers, for sending me this ARC.
I have this book but have not yet read it. I enjoy reading about this time period, even as terrible as it was. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteIt takes me a little while to get used to different names, too. This book sounds really interesting.
ReplyDeleteI loved this one as well. Certainly a very unique story and one of the most compelling Holocaust reads for me in a while. Pictures would be good though!
ReplyDeleteI love books like this. Hopefully, they will fix those errors. I know how annoying that is.
ReplyDeleteMissy ~ I hope you find it as compelling as I did.
ReplyDeleteBermudaonion ~ That's good to know that I'm not the only one. :) And, yes, it was interesting.
Nicola ~ It ranks high on my list, too.
Bookfool ~ I usually can dismiss them, but for some reason they were flashing red lights to me in this book. ??? I loved it anyway. :)
Did you change your header again? I don't remember that flower being there. I'm so out of the blogging world lately. :P Anyway, looks absolutely lovely.
ReplyDeleteNot what I came here to say, though. It's hard for me to read a blurb about a Holocaust story and not say "that sounds like an amazing story." But it does. I can't remember--have you read The Hiding Place? I'd recommend that one as well.
And bummer about the typos and lack of pictures. I've had a few books where pictures/maps were included in the published copy that I didn't get in my ARC.
Trish ~ I hate to tell you this Trish, but the flower was there from the get-go. :) Thank you for the compliment.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I read the entire book from cover to cover (The Hiding Place), but I know the story very well - my teaching partner and I had our students perform it as a play.
I haven't looked for the final copy yet to see if there are any pictures - I forgot. I really want to do that. Thanks for the reminder.
The book club I belong to and I are meeting with the author tomorrow. Anyone have any questions?
ReplyDeleteLet me know at warrenp46@yahoo.com