Interrupted Lives: Nine Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust, by Amanda Friedeman, Kelley Szany

 Available March 4, 2025

This may seem an odd Christmas read but the more I watch the news, the more important it seemed to be to read it now. These are stories of real people, children at the time, who faced the horrors of discrimination. Some were sheltered by sympathetic non-Jewish families, other faced the horrors of the concentration camps. What they have in common is that they survived, scarred and changed forever. Even those who were ultimately reunited with families. The modern images of children in cages calls back this horrific era, one we'd like to believe can never happen again. Often, we're not so sure about that. 

In any case, while I won't detail the nine lives shared here, I'll note that each shares a lesson in life the survivor learned. Each story touched me in different ways, whether imagining the fear of thinking your family has abandoned you to, yes, the horrors of life in a concentration camp. Each story shares a photo of the subject in their more youthful days as well as biographical information that includes where they ultimately began their lives over. There are relatively current photos, too, as well as brief snippet of what they would capsulize as what they learned from their experience that helped them survive and adapt to their "interrupted lives". One woman's story hit home as it stressed her efforts to encourage people to use their power, their vote.

Bottom line, this is an important book, albeit on aimed at young readers. It makes one wonder how we would have survived. IF we would have survived. While undeniably a tough, sad read, it is the reality of our past with hopes it isn't our future. It was inspiring to see how these people have gone on to live and contribute to the world in ways both big and small. My thanks to them for probably reluctantly agreeing to share their stories. Also, thanks #LernerPublishingGroup for making this available for an early read. As a former history teacher who has read many, many books on this era, this one, in its simplicity, managed to touch me. I highly recommend it to not only my teacher friends but those who hope for a better world. Knowing where we were helps us find our way toward a better future.