Overview

They defied death by being such good girls—keeping secrets, staying out of sight, and suffering in frightened silence. Sophie—pictured on the cover—survived the Holocaust without even knowing she was Jewish, while her terrified, widowed mother worked for the Nazis in Poland under the guise of a Christian bookkeeper. Flora, orphaned by Final Solution, was shuttled through southern France, from convents to the homes of one Christian family after another, unsure of who she really was. Carla and her family took shelter in the apartment of a Dutch barber, while, one floor below, the man who protected them would cut German soldiers' hair. Sophie Turner-Zaretsky, Flora Hogman, and Carla Lessing (and her husband, Ed) survived not only the Holocaust—among the mere 10 percent of European Jewish children who did—but their own survival. Each of them ended up in New York, where they slowly emerged from the traumas of their childhoods, devoted their careers to helping others, and played important roles in the groundbreaking 1991 event that, for the first time, brought together the hidden child survivors scattered around the world. A chance meeting with Sophie sent author R. D. Rosen, a privileged Jewish American child of the suburbs, on a journey to grasp the scope of Nazi extermination of Europe's Jews and to honor hidden children, the very last generation of survivors to have witnessed the Holocaust firsthand.

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9780062297105

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Reviews

R.D. Rosen has written about Jewish girls hidden in plain sight during the holocaust with such compassion and precision that his beautifully crafted words give a new voice to an unspeakable time. Such Good Girls is a story you will not forget. --Betsy Carter, author of The Puzzle King

"""Rosen...tells the story of these women and the varied community of survivors with sensitivity and genuine affection."" -- Library Journal R.D. Rosen has performed an essential service to both memory and understanding. The three women at the heart of Such Good Girls have lived remarkable lives, and Rosen has limned them with both empathy and grace. -- Daniel Orkent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition ""In the always harrowing and inspiring literature of Survival, R.D. Rosen's Such Good Girls makes a poignant and well-told contribution...The 'good girls' of this riveting tale pulled off the improbable, which he conveys with talent, warmth, and great humanity."" -- Thane Rosenbaum, author of The Golems of Gotham and Second Hand Smoke ""The first book that delves into the lesser-known aspect of children in hiding and the aftermath of the war years. Richly anecdotal, it reveals what it was like to become someone else-for a while-and then back again to whom one was meant to be."" -- Myriam Abramowicz, co-director of As If It Were Yesterday ""R.D. Rosen has written about Jewish girls hidden in plain sight during the holocaust with such compassion and precision that his beautifully crafted words give a new voice to an unspeakable time. Such Good Girls is a story you will not forget."" -- Betsy Carter, author of The Puzzle King ""R.D. Rosen proves a deft chronicler of the uncertainty, upheaval and turmoil experienced by his subjects...Most powerful of all, he makes us see how the Holocaust's hidden children succeeded against the odds not just once, by surviving, but twice, through the resonant new lives they subsequently forged."" -- Wall Street Journal ""I was completely hooked. A superb book. Rosen writes beautifully. I wish it could be read by everyone."" -- Jeffrey Masson, author of When Elephants Weep ""There is a mystery at the heart of this First Steps--why we walk on two legs? The reader is hugely rewarded for the time spent with Jerry DeSilva in untangling the answers to that big and challenging question."" -- Inside Higher Ed"

Author Information

R. D. Rosen's writing career spans mystery novels, narrative nonfiction, humor books, and television. Strike Three You're Dead , the first in Rosen's series featuring major league baseball player Harvey Blissberg, won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America in 1985. Blissberg's adventures continued in four sequels, including Fadeaway (1986) and Saturday Night Dead (1988), which drew on Rosen's stint as a writer for Saturday Night Live . Rosen's three nonfiction books include Psychobabble (1979), inspired by the term he coined, and A Buffalo in the House: The True Story of a Man, an Animal, and the American West (2007). Over the past decade, he co-created and co-wrote a bestselling series of humor books: Bad Cat , Bad Dog , Bad Baby , and Bad President .

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