Summary
It is wartime in Europe and the diamond
children were to be sent to the forest to be killed. But the
soldiers did not want to do it, so they left the children to die in
the cold. Luba, laying on her cot in the Nazi prison barracks, could
not sleep. She kept hearing the cries of children. When she finally
got up to follow the sounds, she found 54 children in the forest
behind the prison camp. She brought them to her barracks. At first
the other women did not want to help Luba. They were afraid to be
killed for harboring the children. But Luba persevered and the
children were allowed to stay. Luba worked hard to find extra food
for the children. Luba had lost her son when a Nazi soldier took him
away from her. Even though she still missed him, she knew that God
spared her from the death camp so she could save these children.
Throughout the remaining days of their stay in the camp, Luba begged
people for bits of food, and other things the children needed to stay
alive. After they were freed from Bergen-Belsen, the children and
Luba were separated. Luba eventually made it to the United States.
When the children grew old enough, they began their search for each
other and for Luba.
Impressions
Although this book has a language level
suitable for children as young as eight, even adults would gain
valuable insight into what a Nazi prison camp was like, and how one
particular group of children were able to survive. The book is both
serious and sad, until the end when the group of prisoners in
Bergen-Belsen were finally freed. The author uses conversation to
help the reader visualize the effort Luba had to make daily in order
to gather enough food for more that 50 children. She begs the
butcher, for example, by reminding him what it was like to be a
grandfather. To add depth to the story, the author uses flashback
to happier times for Luba. A sprinkle of happiness did shine
through, when the author describes how the children gave up half of
their daily bread slices in order to trade for a gift for Luba's
birthday.
Use in the library
This is a book that can be used to
begin discussion of Nazi Germany and the concentration camps that
were built in Europe. This book can be used to teach students to use
the author's notes to gain additional information, students can use
the author's bibliography to find the differences between primary and
secondary resources, and students can use the bibliography to access
the web pages that would be good for additional research. The
librarian can take students on a tour to the holocaust museum through
the internet. This can be found at http://www.ushmm.org/
Reviews
From Booklist
"Just when it seems a nonfiction
Holocaust book can’t tell us anything new, along comes a story like
this one, an inspiring, upbeat, true rescue account that is essential
to the history. In the last few months of the war, Luba Tryszynska, a
young Polish Jewish woman, saved more than 50 Dutch Jewish children
who had been abandoned in a snowy field behind her barracks in
Bergen-Belsen. She sheltered the children, scavenged and stole for
them, and cajoled food scraps, medicine, and wood to keep the
children alive. McCann’s third person account is based on
interviews with Luba, who now lives in the U.S., and Marshall’s
handsome accompanying art, in oil paint and collage, is radiant.
There are also occasional photos, including one of the survivors 50
years later when their brave rescuer was honored. There are no guards
or emaciated corpses here, and children will need the useful
introduction and afterword to fill in the facts about the millions
who did not survive —among them, Dutch teen Anne Frank, who died of
typhus right at Bergen-Belsen." Reviewed by Hazel Rochman
From School Library Journal
" Tryszynska-Frederick discovered
a number of abandoned children among her fellow prisoners in
Bergen-Belsen. Through her own creativity and strength of will, she
managed to keep them fed and sage until the liberation of the camp.
Although this is certainly a story that is both important and
inspirational, the presentation is lacking. The writing is choppy
and lacks transitions at times, and it is often unclear how Luba
managed to do what she did. The horror of the camp is significantly
downplayed in the text, and the oil-and-collage illustrations, while
quite well done, do not reflect the reality of the conditions the
people were facing. The children often look entirely too clean, well
dressed, and healthy. The audience for the book is unclear. While
the writing is simple and accessible for primary-grade children, the
subject matter and the front and back matter, which gives readers a
context for the story, seem intended for older students. While the
basic facts are accurate, the heavy use of dialogue blurs the line
between fact and fiction, making the book a problematic piece for
most collections. Religious libraries might want to add it because
of the important story it tells, but most others can pass."
Reviewed by Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT.
Resources
Rochman, H. (2003, November, 1).
[Review of the book Luba: the Angel of Bergen-Belsen by
M. McCann and L Tryszynska ].
Booklist, 100(5), 494-495. Retrieved from
http://www.booklistonline.com/
Lilien-Harper, A. (2003, December).
[Review of the book Luba: the Angel of Bergen-Belsen by
M. McCann and L Tryszynska ]. School
Library Journal, 49(12), 136. Retrieved from
Retrieved from http://www.slj.com/
McCann,
M. R. & Tryszynska-Frederick, L. (2003). Luba:
the angel of Bergen-Belsen. New
York, NY: Random House, Inc.
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