Chil­dren’s

Whis­pers from the Camps

Kathy Kac­er and Sharon E. McKay
  • Review
By – September 9, 2011

In that moment, I real­ize the impor­tance of hope, for with­out hope, there is no life” (John Fre­und, 1945). This is the under­ly­ing theme of Whis­pers from the Camps. Kac­er and McK­ay have inter­viewed and col­lect­ed the sto­ries of child sur­vivors from the Holo­caust and col­lect­ed them in a short read­er. This book gives a per­son­al face to the Holo­caust. Through a col­lec­tion of sur­vivor accounts, read­ers are allowed a glimpse into the life in the ghet­to, on trans­ports, arriv­ing at the camps, sur­viv­ing, and being lib­er­at­ed. Each account is pre­ced­ed by a pho­to­graph of the sur­vivor as a child. One tells his sto­ry in poem form, and anoth­er tells his through a short script, although most accounts are short sto­ries. Fol­low­ing each account is an update on the sur­vivor, allow­ing for a per­son­al con­nec­tion to those who lived through the atroc­i­ties. The sur­vivors tell of loss, hard­ships, and hope. There is no graph­ic detail; there are sim­ply per­son­al accounts of how these peo­ple, as chil­dren, sur­vived the most hor­ri­ble atroc­i­ties. For ages 11 and up.

Edi­tor’s note: This book is part of a his­tor­i­cal non-fic­tion series, includ­ing Whis­pers from the Ghet­to.

Dro­ra Arussy, Ed.D., is an edu­ca­tion­al con­sul­tant who spe­cial­izes in inte­grat­ing Jew­ish and sec­u­lar stud­ies, the arts into edu­ca­tion, and cre­ative teach­ing for excel­lence in Jew­ish edu­ca­tion. She is the moth­er to four school-age chil­dren and has taught from pre-school through adult. Dro­ra is an adjunct pro­fes­sor of Hebrew lan­guage at Drew University.

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