World Holocaust Remembrance

Romanian Says "Never Forget the Anne Franks of WWII"

When Sergiu Troaca from Romania was a high school foreign exchange student to America in 2008, the history buff was placed with the Bowen family in Illinois. Host Mom Deb Bowen had created a book series asking students to write and illustrate children's books about those who survived WWII. Deb was a member of the Holocaust Board of Education and Sergiu met her friend and colleague Ida Kramer, a local Holocaust historian. He loved to discuss the war with her.

That spring, the speaker at the Holocaust Remembrance was Eva Schloss from London. She's a Jewish survivor whose mother married Otto Frank after the war. Both Anne's and Eva's parents brought their families to Amsterdam hoping to escape the horrors of the Nazis. The children in both families played together before they were forced into hiding.

Sergiu was very interested in the Anne Frank story and Eva's story is much like hers. After being discovered in their hiding places, Eva's father and brother perished in the camps like Anne, her mother and sister. So, Sergiu titled his book about their tragic stories Hide & Seek with Evil. It's now available on Amazon.

The young author wrote Eva's story in a unique way, paralleling with Anne's. Another exchange student who loved art volunteered to bring the story alive.Tu did a fabulous job illustrating this book for young readers.

Eva was in Wisconsin speaking at the beginning of 2017 and gifted Sergiu's book to teachers there. She is an author herself, several times over. I highly recommend her book The Promise.

I love keeping my promise made many years ago to my friend, a Jewish survivor named Esther Katz. I'm preserving the stories of Holocaust survivors for young readers. These unique books are written by children for children. Students around the world are invited to find and write an important story. This window of opportunity is quickly closing. Writer's Guidelines are found at www.abookbyme.com.