Book Recommendation

Hello,

I am now reading two books the first is called Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking. As an introvert I find it wonderfully affirming. The writer, Susan Cain is also an introvert. I am certainly not alone and I have value. Good to know!

The other book is by Anne C. Voorhoeve. The title almost tells what it is about, My Family for the War. It concerns an eleven year old Jewish girl who was part of the kindertransport that allowed Jewish children between the ages of 4 and 16 to go stay with sponsoring families in England just before WWII started. I am only about 100 pages in, but I want to keep going.

It reminds me of an incident when we lived in PA while Leroy was on internship in 1974-75. I worked at a retail store’s snack bar. One of the security guys used to spend a lot of time chatting (flirting?) with me. He had an accent so I wondered where he was from. Upon learning that he had come from Italy (Or that is what I remember, but it seems it should have been another country.), I asked about when he had come to the USA. He told me, “I was twelve.”

“Did your whole family come?” I wondered.

“No, just me,” he replied.

“How did you come?” I asked incredulously, hardly able to believe this fact.

“I just got on a train and then a ship,” he added.

I must have had a questioning look because he then went on, “Hitler did not like little Jewish boys.”

After that what could I say? I had at that time never heard of the kindertransports. He did not use that word, but I suspect that is what it was. I was overwhelmed by the idea of leaving my parents at that tender age and traveling into the unknown. There was certainly a strong sense of danger pushing these parents to let children go or perhaps to make them go.

Paula