Gertruda's Oath

August 1, 2009
Much of this Holocaust survivor story reads like a thriller, the suspense almost unbearable as the small Jewish boy, George, and his Catholic nanny, Gertruda, leave his parents huge Warsaw mansion to go into hiding, barely escaping the Nazis, and, finally, after the war, making it to Palestine. But even more than the exciting action, the reader is held by the personal drama: the loving bond between child and adoptive mother and the paralyzing fear they feel. Also gripping is the parallel story of SS officer Rink, whose Jewish wife is shot dead by the Nazis. He smuggles his little daughter to a Palestine kibbutz just in time and tries secretly to use his job to rescue Jews. Originally published in Israel and translated from the Hebrew, this is memoir uses the techniques of historical fiction, but the author points out that although he has invented dialogue and detail, the characters and events are true. Occasional black-and-white period photos of Gertruda and George and of Rinks family break the readers heart. The story is never sentimentalized, and the reality of the the genocide is always there.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)