Then

Felix's story: Hope and courage in dark times

I had a plan for me and Zelda. We were supposed to pretend we were someone else. We were supposed to find new parents. And live forever in safety. Then came the Nazis. I'm Felix and this is my story. Felix is Jewish. And it is dangerous to be a Jew when World War II is raging around. Felix was lucky for a while, hiding in a Catholic orphanage, then in the basement. But the hiding place has been discovered and Felix finds himself on a train bound for a concentration camp. And yet he regains hope: he and six-year-old Zelda manage to escape from the train. But they are far from safe. How do they survive without help? And who can they trust when there are so many people everywhere hungry for a reward for a captured Jew? But fortune smiles on them again in the form of the kindly landowner Genia. She leaves them in her house, bleaches their hair and gives them German names. But Felix suspects it's only a matter of time before someone discovers his true identity. And that will be the end - for him, for Zelda, and for Genia.
The author was inspired to write the story by the fate of Janusz Korczak, a Polish Jewish doctor and author of children's books. For many years he helped run an orphanage for two hundred Jewish children in Warsaw. When the German authorities ordered the transport of the children to the Treblinka extermination camp in early August 1942, Korczak decided to go with them, even though he had been offered to be removed from the transport. In Treblinka they were all murdered in the gas chambers.
A gripping book about immeasurable courage and hope, about friendship and humanity in the midst of a cruel time, inspired by a true story.