Trains: A Memoir of a Hidden Childhood During and After World War 2

Rating:
Summary: Excellent memoir of a "visible" hidden child.
Review: Miriam Winter tells us a gripping, sometimes harrowing, often horrifying memoir of her aborted childhood. Her orthodox Jewish father teaches her how to cross herself, how to say a Christian prayer and gives her a new name: Marisha. Her life from then on is terrifying and lonely. We learn how she survives, but not why she clings to the lies she has had to tell to do so. Only when she reaches adulthood and meets her future husband is she persuaded to confront her past. It is impossible not to be amazed as well as to be mesmerized by Ms. Winter's life.

Rating:
Summary: One Human Face
Review: What courage it took for Miriam Winter to live through her childhood, much less write about it. Through her eyes, I learned how one brave, resilient Jewish child learned to deny who she was simply to survive. Her attempts to fit in are heart-rending. The voice in these pages is very strong. I wish only to know more -- more about why she remained "hidden" even to herself after the war, more about her life in Poland as a young woman. Even a map of the places she lived. I also wish for more pictures, particularly of her family and life before the war. And the fact that those don't exist, for her family and countless others, chills my soul.