Signs of Survival is the compelling and heartbreaking memoir of two sisters with enough determination to survive the Nazi invasion of Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. Renee, age 10, was the ears for her family. With parents and a younger sister, Hetta, who were all deaf, it was up to Renee to listen out for the ominous sound of soldiers’ boots on the road outside.
Told through dual-narrative, Renee and Hetta each recount their experiences of living in Bratislava when the Nazis arrived and having to sew yellow stars on their coats, leaving their parents to be evacuated to a farm in the foothills of the Tatra Mountains, returning to Bratislava to learn their parents had been taken away, and finally turning themselves in to the police and being sent to Bergen-Belson. Each step of their journey showed them the horrors of the Holocaust while pushing them to grow in resilience and strength.
Renee has an incredible amount of responsibility for such a young girl. From age 10, she has to not only look after her younger sister but also be her only method of communication. Hetta relies on Renee for information about what the guards demand, to help her form relationships with other prisoners and find ways to survive. There is such isolation in the language barriers as they move countries but even more so with the lack of sign language speakers available.
As the girls fight to survive, they are overwhelmed by the hatred and violence they witness. It is the opposite of the compassion and respect they have been taught by their parents. When freedom finally comes to the camp and the girls are rescued, they don’t know what lies ahead. They find healing with the Red Cross in Sweden and then journey to New York to live with family members who have made a new life there.
The terrors of the concentration camps are mentioned but not described in a lot of detail making this an appropriate read for most readers age 9+. The content should be approached sensitively as there is mention of beatings, death, murder and the medical experiments of the prison doctors.
The details of this revealing book are based on video testimony by Renee and Hetta as a part of a project at Yale University run by Renee’s husband. The power of spoken stories rather than written memoir is fascinating and brings these horrific stories to life in a powerful way.
Thank you to Scholastic for a copy of this story of strength that would be a great addition to any Key Stage 2 Second World War book collection.
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