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Carregando... Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Belgian Nuns and their Daring Rescue of Young Jews from the Nazis (2008)de Suzanne Vromen
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Registre-se no LibraryThing tpara descobrir se gostará deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. This is a gripping account of Jewish children in Belgium who were given up by their parents to be hidden among Christians, chiefly in Catholic convents. Vromen, herself a Holocaust survivor, has interviewed surviving children, and some of their now elderly protectors. For a long time, she tells us, these children were considered lucky to have survived in relatively sheltered circumstances, and their stories were dismissed as unimportant. For the most part, the Catholic Church hierarchy, and one supposes, other church hierarchies, cooperated with the Nazi occupiers, but individual Mother Superiors and other mid-level clergy agreed to conceal Jewish children among the students of schools and in orphanages. The identity of the children was apparently kept as secret as possible from the other nuns, and partly for the latter's own protection. Otherwise, they relied on vows of obedience. The varying reactions of the children to the nuns will surprise no-one who has attended, or heard about, Catholic schools. Or any other school, for that matter. The great controversy regarded the issue of baptism and conversion. The children had to behave like the other children for their own protection, but the issue of whether or not they should be baptized in order that they might take communion was variously handled. Some children sought baptism on their own. After the war, controversy arose over orphans--should they remain with families that had taken them in? Should they have any say in whether they were to remain Catholic or be returned to Jewish relatives or the greater Jewish community? The book includes an index and list of references. The notes are done in the frustrating style of having them listed under the number of the chapter, without the title, although only the title is given on the relevant pages. Explanatory notes are included along with the bibliographical information. Vromen also briefly considers gender issues, and the lasting effects of their experiences on the children and their rescuers. Given her own status as Holocaust survivor, Vromen, as she freely admits, cannot view many of these issue objectively, but she attempts to understand and present opposing views. I found this a very moving and inspiring book. sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
In the terrifying summer of 1942 in Belgium, when the Nazis began the brutal roundup of Jewish families, parents searched desperately for safe haven for their children. As Suzanne Vromen reveals in Hidden Children of the Holocaust, these children found sanctuary with other families and schools--but especially in Roman Catholic convents and orphanages. Vromen has interviewed not only those who were hidden as children, but also the Christian women who rescued them, and the nuns who gave the children shelter, all of whose voices are heard in this powerfully moving book. Indeed, here are numerous first-hand memoirs of life in a wartime convent--the secrecy, the humor, the admiration, the anger, the deprivation, the cruelty, and the kindness--all with the backdrop of the terror of the Nazi occupation. We read the stories of the women of the Resistance who risked their lives in placing Jewish children in the care of the Church, and of the Mothers Superior and nuns who sheltered these children and hid their identity from the authorities. Perhaps most riveting are the stories told by the children themselves--abruptly separated from distraught parents and given new names, the children were brought to the convents with a sense of urgency, sometimes under the cover of darkness. They were plunged into a new life, different from anything they had ever known, and expected to adapt seamlessly. Vromen shows that some adapted so well that they converted to Catholicism, at times to fit in amid the daily prayers and rituals, but often because the Church appealed to them. Vromen also examines their lives after the war, how they faced the devastating loss of parents to the Holocaust, struggled to regain their identities and sought to memorialize those who saved them. This remarkable book offers an inspiring chronicle of the brave individuals who risked everything to protect innocent young strangers, as well as a riveting account of the "hidden children" who lived to tell their stories. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — Carregando... GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)940.53History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- World War IIClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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