You Know Who Else Read Books on Nazi Girls?

February 6, 2009 2:33 PM

Does anyone recognize this book about a girl living in Nazi Germany?

A friend of mine is looking for a book that she read when she was younger, and I was hoping that the hivemind could identify it. Her description is below:

There was this book I read a zillion times in grade school, and I'd like to see it again but can't remember the title. Basically, it was action Anne Frank; it was about a girl who spent WWII being shuttled around various Hitler youth programs while her father was in a concentration camp (this is itself one of those stories - dad was an electrical engineer, spent most of the war hearing he'd probably be killed as soon as he fixed the next power outage, and survived).

I haven't had much luck with Google, but I figure that if anyone can locate this title, it's AskMe. Release the hounds!

posted by Parasite Unseen to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Was this a children's (or young adult) book? Was it fiction or nonfiction? Also, was the girl Jewish (should wouldn't have been if she was in the Hitler Youth, but if her father was sent to the camps...)? I or one of my colleagues should be able to find it, if nobody else on AskMe knows of it.
posted by arco at 2:38 PM on February 6, 2009

It's been 30+ years since I read it, so I can't remember much about the plot, but could it have been Marta and the Nazis?

If not, maybe some of the other titles on this list might ring a bell.

(on preview: arco, there's a recently published exhibition catalogue headed your way!)
posted by scody at 2:44 PM on February 6, 2009

Seems very unlikely, since it was about a boy, but you should confirm that it's not Europa Europa, which is a similar-sounding autobiography about a Jewish boy who hid in the Hitler Youth camps.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 2:45 PM on February 6, 2009

This is a long shot, since the girl didn't join the Nazis, but what about Number the Stars?
posted by odayoday at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2009

I forgot to mention our annotated list of children's books related to the Holocaust. One of the descriptions may trigger a memory. But I suspect that the book you're seeking is intended for an older audience and might not appear on that list.

scody: Score! Thanks! And thanks for mentioning Marta and the Nazis. Turns out we don't have that in our collection, but I'll try to get it now.
posted by arco at 2:56 PM on February 6, 2009

Best answer: It sounds to me like Mischling, Second Degree by Ilse Koehn. She had a Jewish father and an Aryan mother, and to protect her, her parents didn't tell her she was Jewish. She spent the war participating the various Hitler Youth activities, while her father was in a camp. They were reunited after the war.
posted by girlgenius at 4:04 PM on February 6, 2009

I came here to suggest Mischling. What a powerful book.
posted by lunasol at 8:21 AM on February 7, 2009