Tuesday I was wondering what I was going to blog about. I
thought about seeing if I couldn’t outline how I was going about my edit
process for Watching by Miriam Joy. Then I thought about posting up some
responses to Beautiful People. But, after I got home and had the kids in bed
there was only one thing I wanted to do...
Finish reading Anca’s Story by Saffina Desforges (Amazon US).
And now, I’m going to relay it to you as I fight back the tears.
The cover, and of course my post title gives away the fact
that this is a Holocaust story. The author’s don’t hide that fact from, nor the
fact that it’s about three children who smuggle themselves into Auschwitz, that
concentration camp that anyone who has paid attention to history class should
know the name of. And from my recollection it was touted as the worst of all of
them.
The story doesn’t start there of course, but rather in
mundane classroom of the modern age, supped up with high tech gadgets, and a
frail old lady asked to come in a relate her tale to slumped teens who probably
all think Vampires should sparkle *scoff*. That is until Anca asks them if they
have lost a parent and then tells them that she lost hers at the age of 12. Her
father was executed in front of her and her mother... well, you’ll just have to
read the book to find out.
Make sure you bring tissues. I suspect if I hadn’t taken
three separate occasions to read the whole book I’d have been bawling by the
end.
The Holocaust isn’t a pretty time in our history. But it is
something that must be remembered. I’ve been horrified and fascinated by it
since my Fourth Grade teacher read Devil’s Arithmatic by Jane Yolen. I
followed that up by reading, and then watching, The Diary of Anne Frank in
middle school. In high school two
busloads of kids, including me and my friend, the Rabbi’s daughter, were
shipped to the theater to view Schindler’s List.
Now I add Anca’s Story (Amazon UK) to my list. I am glad I
did and I hope they get a movie deal with a director who knows what they are
doing. That way those who won’t read can be exposed to the tale. A tale I feel
worth every tear I cried, and all the ones I didn’t.
:} Cathryn Leigh
