This heart-stopping story of a young girl hiding from the Nazis is based on Clara Kramer’s diary of her years surviving in an underground bunker with seventeen other people.
Clara Kramer was a typical Polish-Jewish teenager from a small town at the outbreak of the Second World War. When the Germans invaded, Clara’s family was taken in by the Becks, a Volksdeutsche (ethnically German) family from … German) family from their town. Mrs. Beck worked as Clara’s family’s housekeeper. Mr. Beck was known to be an alcoholic, a womanizer, and a vocal anti-Semite. But on hearing that Jewish families were being led into the woods and shot, Beck sheltered the Kramers and two other Jewish families.
Eighteen people in all lived in a bunker dug out of the Becks’ basement. Fifteen-year-old Clara kept a diary during the twenty terrifying months she spent in hiding, writing down details of their unpredictable life—from the house’s catching fire to Mr. Beck’s affair with Clara’s neighbor; from the nightly SS drinking sessions in the room above to the small pleasure of a shared Christmas carp.
Against all odds, Clara lived to tell her story, and her diary is now part of the permanent col-lection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
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What an eye opener to the atrocities of Hitler’s regime. It is hard to read because of the tragic events, but well worth it.
What a sad situation these people were forced into. Very interesting read. Could this happen again? Maybe?
This is a true and inspirational story of survival. It’s hard to imagine what people did to survive. I’m glad she continues to tell her story. May we never forget!
Excellent book.
If you are a fan of hearing about the real life hero’s from WWII, this book is for you.
I love to read anything about the Holocaust. This is a true story that will bring you to tears.
HIGHLY recommend this book!
I loved this book! A wonderful story about the journey of a wonderful family who helped others survive. It was poignant and filled with the realities of a senseless assault on the Jews during World War II. I visited the concentration camps in Poland and saw the faces of hundreds of prisoners who weren’t as lucky.
I have read many books written by survivors of the Holocoust, but I found “Clara’s War” to be an inspiration to all. What her family and friends has to endure for almost 2 years was beyond belief. I felt that I was there sharing her experience. At the end of the book, I felt such joy in knowing she survived and lived a life teaching others about what happened. Even after all these years I am ashamed that the human race could do something so heinous to another person.
Although this book was hard to read because of the terrible circumstances of their living conditions, it is important that we know what happened during the Hitler reign of terror across Europe. The survival of this family was nothing short of a miracle.
When reading the description, I thought this would be a very interesting book. The story itself was interesting & informative. The author’s writing much less so. She would take 5 paragraphs to describe something that could be told in a few sentences. She was very repetitive & a dramatic type of person (hand wringing & dramatics over the simplest things). I just did not like her personality or writing style at all.
We can not let the truth die
This is a compelling story of tragedy, terror, and unbelievable courage of both Gentiles and Jews. This is a day to day recounting of life in a crawlspace for 18 months. The fear of death was present every moment for the large group of Jews living in the cramped space, and the book recounts the daily battles with heat , cold, hunger, fleas—and the ever present threat of discovery that would lead to the murder of both the group and their benefactors . And yet there is never a sense of self pity in the recounting. It is very disturbing to be reminded that the Nazis seemed eager to murder any Jew they encountered, whether a baby or an elderly person—just for sport, just because they could. And yet there were Gentiles who risked the lives of their families to save Jewish strangers from certain death. Excellent book!
A true story of a 15 year old girl in Nazi-occupied Poland. Better than A Diary of Ann Frank. A wonderful book!
Amazing and a true story.
Another Holocaust survivor tells her tale. Eighteen Jews who lived for months in a bunker in horrible conditions, and lived to tell the tale. Man’s inhumanity to mankind, and yet the bravery of the volksdeutche Polish family who saved them all.
Very good read. Heartbreaking at times. Knowing this was a true story made it difficult but it’s a story that needed to be told.
Great story that details the horror of war and illustrates the resistancy of human spirit and faith. Every you ng adult should read
This book is another haunting tale of the effects of Nazi Germany during WW2 against the Jewish in Poland. It is a story of survival and the good works of flawed but righteous people who risked their own lives to save others.
Very well written. .very realistic.