Books

Perfect for history and World War II enthusiasts and thick with tension and intrigue, this true story by National Jewish Book Award-winning author Susan Wider presents a young couple's quest to save as many Jewish children as possible from the deadly grips of the Nazis in France. Sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats!

"We were not heroes."

French-Jewish doctor Odette "Sylvie" Rosenstock and her friend, Syrian-Jewish actor and philosopher Moussa "Monsieur Marcel" Abadi, were forced to flee Paris after the Nazis defeated France during World War II and began their violent, hateful campaign to destroy the Jewish people. However, when Odette and Moussa discovered that the Nazis were brutalizing Jewish children, they found that they just couldn't sit idly by.

Using false identities, the young couple created The Marcel Network, and with the help of many people from all walks of life--priests, nuns, Protestant families, and others--they created a secret web of refuge, places where they could hide Jewish children in plain sight.

Their efforts saved over 500 children.

Packed with photographs, archival records, and the testimonies of the rescuers and children who were saved, this is the thrilling and timely true story of heroic courage, sacrifice, and love, in the face of ultimate evil.

Winner of the 2022 National Jewish Book Award for Young Adult Literature, It’s My Whole
Life, Charlotte Salomon: An Artist in Hiding During World War II is the first biography for
young readers about Holocaust artist and modernist Charlotte Salomon (1917 Berlin-Auschwitz
1943). Salomon is remembered for her painted memoir, Life? or Theater?, which consists of a
33,000-word text and 769 individual gouache paintings created between 1940 and 1942 while
she was in hiding from the Nazis in the south of France. Life? or Theater? is the largest single
work of art created by a Jew during the Holocaust and has been described as a painted parallel to
Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl as well as a groundbreaking graphic novel precursor.
Salomon’s words and paintings are an ode to how art can capture both life’s everyday beauty and
its monumental horrors.

It’s My Whole Life covers Charlotte’s life from her childhood and art school days in
Berlin to her time as a refugee in Nazi-occupied France to her deportation to Auschwitz. The
author has combined research from recognized international Salomon scholars with original
research presented for the first time. Illustrated throughout with full-color images of Salomon’s
paintings, along with historical photographs—including several that were previously
unknown—the book is a portrait of a young artist working to make a name for herself while
enduring racism, psychological abuse, refugee status, a history of family suicides, and the
inescapable Nazi threat.