10% off all books and free delivery over £40
Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.

After the War From Auschwitz to Ambleside

"A touching and lucidly-told true story of Jewish children sent to safety in Lake Windermere in 1945"

View All Editions (1)

£7.99 £7.19

In Stock. Same day dispatch on orders before 3pm.

Add To Wishlist
Write A Review Read An Extract

LoveReading4Kids Says

LoveReading4Kids Says

Longlisted for the UKLA Book Award 2022 ages 11-14

Tom Palmer’s riveting After the War was sparked by the true story of Jewish Polish, Czech and German children who were sent to safety in the Lake District after surviving the horrors of Nazism. Addressing big questions - how does hope, humanity and friendship survive unimaginable horrors? How do we begin again? – in a highly-readable style (as is typical of Palmer and publisher Barrington Stoke), this is a thought-provoking, edifying read.

 

Trevor Avery of the Lake District Holocaust Project sets the context in the book’s foreword: “A group of young people arrived in the Lake District in the summer of 1945 and stayed for a few months, the last of them leaving in early 1946. Although they only spent a short time in the area, it was a profoundly important experience for them, and they made a big impression on those who met them at the time.”

 

A sense of this being a “profoundly important experience” is clear from the outset, as revealed when young Yossi first glimpses England, his imagined paradise: “This was the place where they had been told they would be safe. A place where there would be no German soldiers and no concentration camps.” But despite the peace, despite “the lush green hills under a bright blue sky” and the “huge clusters of trees, swallows flitting above them”, Yossi feels unsettled. The brick buildings remind him of concentration camps, and he’s haunted by terrible memories, disturbed by nightmares, and longs for news from his family - will his father ever be found and come for him?

 

Details of everyday life are strikingly evoked, and springboard deeper insights into the children’s experiences – a bike ride reminds Yossi of when he had to surrender his bike to the Nazis, immediately after he and his dad witnessed a horrific attack. An opportunity to attend a Rosh Hashanah celebration triggers his recollection of the terrifying time the SS destroyed his synagogue. A storm over Lake Windermere reminds him of bomb explosions. This device works perfectly, and Yossi’s enduring trauma is palpable. Then, at his lowest, a memory of his father’s words pulls him from the depths of despair: “if we let ourselves go, the Germans will think that they were right: that we are not human.” An exceptional telling of exceptional true events.

Joanne Owen

Find This Book In

Suitable For:
Other Genres:

About

Press Reviews

Author

Collections Featuring This Book

Book Awards Featuring This Book

You Might Also Like...

9+ readers

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

Judith Kerr

Paperback

In Stock

£7.19 £7.99

9+ readers

Man Man and the Tree of Memories

Yaba Badoe

Paperback

In Stock

£10.80 £12.00

9+ readers

While the Storm Rages

Phil Earle

Paperback

In Stock

£7.19 £7.99

9+ readers

The Lion Above the Door

Onjali Q. Raúf

Paperback

In Stock

£7.19 £7.99

9+ readers

War is Over

David Almond

Hardback

In Stock

£9.89 £10.99

9+ readers

Bronze and Sunflower

Cao Wenxuan

Paperback

In Stock

£8.09 £8.99