The Upstairs Room

In my quest to have more Holocaust survivor accounts in the library, I found The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss. Johanna and her sister Sini live in rural Holland and after the German invasion, their father finds a place for them to hide. They first stay with a couple, the Hannicks, who have been known to house Jews. After a few months, it is determined that they are no longer safe there, and Mr. Hannick finds them a new place. They go to a farmhouse where they live with a Johan and Dientje and Johan's mother Opoe. Johan is very nervous about taking the girls, and Mr Hannick promises to return for them in two weeks. The two weeks stretch into two years and seven months, when the war is finally over. The girls reunite with their sister Rachel and eventually their father, as well.

This book is not extremely well-written, but it is an interesting account of how they lived mainly confined to one room. The story of these girls is not as dramatic as some Holocaust survivor stories, but just as important, nonetheless. It shows the goodness of the Dutch people who risked their lives to house Jews. A number of the Dutch in the vicinity of Johanna's home were hiding illegal Jews. It also takes the reader back to a time when regular, ordinary people were in constant fear for their lives and had to watch every movement they made, no matter how small. Opening curtains, moving a chair, asking for a book to read--all could create suspicion. It is hard for us modern-day readers to relate to how these people, both the hiders and those hidden, had to live.

This is a good book for students and a way to show them how some Jews were hidden during the Holocaust.