Edith's Story

Author: Edith Velmans
Pages: 239
Rating: PG - Edith never goes to any of the camps and doesn't have to witness many horrors
Summary:
In 1940, while the Germans occupied Holland, fourteen-year-old Edith van Hessen was filling her diary with the intimate, carefree details of a typical teenager's life — thoughts about boys, school, her family, her friends, her future. By 1942, as Edith was contemplating her first kiss, the Germans had begun to escalate their war against the Jews. Soon this bright, fun-loving girl was grappling with one of the most unfathomable events in human history. Edith's family — assimilated Dutch Jews — were caught in the cross fire of the Holocaust, and Edith began a bitter struggle to survive.

In this extraordinary work, Edith Velmans weaves together revealing entries from her diaries with reminiscences and letters smuggled between family members during the occupation. Edith's Story stands as a profoundly important addition to the literature of the Holocaust, documenting one girl's grief, loss, courage, and ultimate triumph over devastating tyranny and despair. For as Edith is hidden in plain sight by a Christian family, we witness how a young woman must deny, bargain with, and finally face the horrors of war — and how, confronting evil as a child, Edith survives to become an extraordinary woman.

My Thoughts: Edith Van Hessen has been called "The Anne Frank who lived." I felt like this was a very fitting description for her because, like Anne Frank, Edith kept a diary for a large part of the war, and she was also extremely optimistic. There's a quote from Anne Frank's diary where she says something about how she strives to see the good in everything and everyone, and that's very much how Edith was. She did her best to keep a sunny outlook and cheerful disposition, trying to find the best in every situation, no matter how difficult her life became.

I personally loved this book because it was so different from the other Holocaust survival stories I've read. Edith and her familiy had managed to secure visas to America before the Nazis occupied Holland, but they didn't leave because they were unable to get a visa for their grandmother and they couldn't bear to leave her. Edith had two older brothers, and it was decided that the oldest would go. Edith is hidden with a friend's family, in plain sight. She is explained to the neighbors as a family friend who came to visit just for the summer, but then her parents were both in the hospital, so they couldn't bear to send her home. No one suspects a thing, and Edith survives without any difficulties. However, she goes through the guilt and the horror of surviving and living just fine when her family members are having to deal with unkown horrors. She has no idea what is happening to them, and will not find out about it until after the war is over.

I really just enjoyed this book a lot. It was amazing to see how Edith refused to succumb to hoplessness and despair even when everything around her was crumbling. She kept her head up and rarely asked "why me?" It was inspirational.