From Booklist
In January 1939, when Bleier was 14, her parents sent her from Darmstadt, Germany, to Brussels to live with her father's cousin. Later, she was sent to a Jewish children's home there. When the Germans bombed the city, Bleier and other children were taken to a French village, where they lived in filthy conditions in an abandoned goat barn. In 1941, the Swiss Red Cross moved her and other Jewish children to an old castle in the south of France. In January 1943, she attempted to escape to Switzerland but was caught. Her second attempt, in October 1943, was successful. Gumpert is Bleier's nephew, and this book is based on a 66-page manuscript that he found after her death in Chicago in 1983. Gumpert also found some of her personal letters, and he was able to interview many of her friends and relatives, who gave him a number of black-and-white photos (32 of them appear in^B the book). The result is a compelling account of one woman's personal Holocaust struggle. George Cohen
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Book Description
In early 1939, after Kristallnacht, young Inge Joseph’s family in Germany is broken apart, and her desperate mother sends her alone to Brussels to live with wealthy relatives. But she soon finds herself one of a hundred Jewish children fleeing for their lives following Hitler’s invasions of Belgium and France. For a time, in 1941 and 1942, it seems as if Inge and the others have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, as they find shelter through the Swiss Red Cross in an idyllic fifteenth-century French château. Inge even finds love there. But the rumors and horrors of the Holocaust are never far away, and eventually French gendarmes surprise the children, taking them from their protectors to a nearby transit camp. In their desperate attempts to escape, Inge and her boyfriend face unexpected life-and-death decisions — wrenching decisions that will haunt Inge for the rest of her life. This powerful, never-before-told memoir is based on Inge’s own sixty-six-page manuscript, found after her death; David Gumpert has also drawn from Inge’s personal letters, from the recollections of friends, relatives, and people who were with her in Europe, and from his own close relationship with his aunt. One of the most dramatic stories of Christian rescue of Jewish children during the Holocaust, Inge is at the same time a totally frank account of the life and feelings of a teenage girl struggling to survive the Holocaust on her own — and of how the effects of that experience reverberated through her life and on into the lives of her descendants. No matter how or why one reads it, Inge is a story of survival not soon to be forgotten.
About the Author
Inge Joseph Bleier survived World War II and emigrated to the United States, where she married, raised a family, and worked as a registered nurse who headed the obstetrics and gynecology department at Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She died in 1983. David E. Gumpert is a nephew of Inge Joseph Bleier. A writer and a professional journalist, he has worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and as an editor for Inc. magazine and The Harvard Business Review.
Inge: A Girl's Journey Through Nazi Europe FROM THE PUBLISHER
In Early 1939, after Kristallnacht, young Inge Joseph's family in Germany is broken apart, and her desperate mother sends her alone to Brussels to live with wealthy relatives. But she soon finds herself one of a hundred Jewish children fleeing for their lives following Hitler's invasions of Belgium and France. For a time, in 1941 and 1942, it seems as if Inge and the others have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, as they find shelter through the Swiss Red Cross in an idyllic fifteenth-century French chateau. Inge even finds love there. But the rumors and horrors of the Holocaust are never far away, and eventually French gendarmes surprise the children, taking them from their protectors to a nearby transit camp. In their desperate attempts to escape, Inge and her boyfriend face unexpected life-and-death decisions -- wrenching decisions that will haunt Inge for the rest of her life.
This powerful, never-before-told memoir is based on Inge's own sixty-six-page manuscript, found after her death; David Gumpert has also drawn from Inge's personal letters, from the recollections of friends, relatives, and people who were with her in Europe, and from his own close relationship with his aunt. One of the most dramatic stories of Christian rescue of Jewish children during the Holocaust, Inge is at the same time a totally frank account of the life and feelings of a teenage girl struggling to survive the Holocaust on her own -- and of how the effects of that experience reverberated through her life and on into the lives of her descendants. No matter how or why one reads it, Inge is a story of survival not soon to be forgotten.
FROM THE CRITICS
VOYA - Mary Ann Darby
This Holocaust memoir is written from the perspective of Inge Joseph, whose teen years were consumed by hiding from the Nazis. Inge wrote a sixty-six-page diary about her experiences, but after she took her life at the age of fifty-seven because of her deteriorating health and haunting memories, her nephew David began to research Inge's life and completed the memoir in his aunt's voice. As the Nazi threat was growing in Germany, Inge was sent by her family to a wealthy relative's home in Belgium. When the Nazis advanced, Inge was deposited into a home with other Jewish children. From there her story is one of hiding, primarily in an old chateau in Southern France, with dozens of children who were assisted by a stubborn Swiss Red Cross nurse, Rosli. Inge's experiences included one brief stay at a concentration camp from which Rosli extricated the children, one failed escape attempt into Switzerland, assumption of a false identity, and finally her successful escape to Switzerland. Inge's story moves at a deliberate pace. The foreknowledge that her depression moved her to suicide looms over the account. An illuminating note by Inge's nephew emphasizes that she never shared her whole story with anyone, even as she sank into illness and drug dependency to mask her pain and unhappiness. Not until David obtained her diary and did years of research did her whole story emerge. Teens who are interested in Holocaust stories will find this memoir an interesting and sad reading experience. VOYA CODES: 3Q 4P J S (Readable without serious defects; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2004, Eerdmans, 313p.; Photos. Maps., $24. Ages 12to 18.
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