Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #160922 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

Endearing story of a Jewish family during the Holocaust for young readers
This is an endearing account by Eva Schloss about her idyllic childhood in Vienna in a tolerant and peaceful pre-Nazi Austria, with her parents and brother Heinz, before the family was forced, as Jews, by the invading Nazis in 1938 (When Eva was 9, to flee to Belgium and then the Netherlands.
It then tells of the family's hiding and arrest by the Nazis, before describing Eva's survival in the death camps.
Her brother Heinz and father did not survive.
The author tells the story with love and hope throughout. Eva was guided by the memorable words of her father:
"Children, I promise you this; everything you do leaves something behind; nothing gets lost. All the good you do have accomplished will continue in the lives of the people you have touched. I twill make a difference to someone, somewhere, sometime, and your achievements will be carried on.
Everything is connected, like a chain that cannot be broken".
After the war, Eva's mother married Anne Frank's father Otto, making Eva Anne Frank's posthumous step sister.
Anne Frank had been Eva's friend in the Netherlands before the war.
For younger readers aged 10 and up.

Sad and inspiring
A simplified version of "Eva's Story: A Survivor's Tale by the Step-Sister of Anne Frank" about the horrors of the holocaust. A remarkable testimony, recounted in a gentle way, free of any vengeance feelings. I would suggest this book for readers age 12+

This Book is Beautiful!
Read this book and you will be brought into a warm and loving family who faced such horrible odds, and yet managed to stick together and love one another dearly. This is a beautifully written story of one brother's promise to his loving sister. The story is told though his sister's eyes. Such terrible times when this took place and yet something as beautiful as this could come from it. A blooming rose in the death of winter. I am so glad Eva told this story through Barbara's writing. Together they share "The Promise" in what can only be characterized as true family love. This is a must read!