This is
the remarkable true story of a young Jewish girl and her brother
growing up during the Second World War, caught in a world turned
upside down by the Nazis. Written specially for children, Eva
describes her happy early childhood in Vienna with her kind and
loving parents and her older brother Heinz, whom she adored. But
when the Nazis marched into Austria everything changed.
Eva's
family fled to Belgium, then to Amsterdam where, with the help of
the Dutch Resistance, they spent the next two years in hiding - Eva
and her mother in one house, and her father and brother in another.
Finally, though, they were all betrayed and deported to Auschwitz
concentration camp in Poland.
Despite
the horrors of the camp, Eva's positive attitude and stubborn
personality (which had often got her into trouble) saw her through
one of the most tragic events in history and she and her mother
eventually returned to Amsterdam. Sadly her father and brother
perished just weeks before the liberation. Eva and her mother went
back to the house where Heinz and his father had hidden, for Eva had
remembered that Heinz had told her he had hidden his paintings
beneath the floorboards there.
Sure enough, there were over thirty beautiful paintings. Heinz
hadn't wasted any of his talents during his captivity. For Eva, here
was a tangible, everlasting memory of her brother and a reminder of
her father's promise that all the good things you accomplish will
make a difference to someone, and your achievements will be carried
on. Heinz's paintings have been on display in exhibitions in the USA
and are now a part of a permanent exhibition in Amsterdam's war
museum.
Told simply and clearly for younger readers, "The Promise" is an
unforgettable story, written by Eva Schloss, the step-daughter of
Otto Frank and Barbara Powers, Eva's very close friend, a resident
of DeWitt Michigan.
|
|
