About book The Night Of The Burning: Devorah's Story (2006)
This story is based on the life of the author's grandmother, who, with her little sister Nechama, were the sole survivors of a viscious pogrom in the Polish town around WWI. Their parents die before the pogrom of illness and extreme poverty and the girls are left with their beloved aunt, who has been widowed by the forced conscription of her husband into the Tzar's army. The aunt loves the girls very much and defends them against the pogrom, but is stabbed to death in the processes. A righteous gentile saves the girls and sends them to Warsaw, where they are chosen by Ochberg, a Jewish man who has been funded by Jews in South Africa to save Jewish orphans. Ochberg has the dreadful duty to pick 200 orphans of the hundreds of thousands in Europe to bring to South Africa to save. He chooses the main charactcer, Devorah and Nechama, and they go to a happy, safe existence in the South African Jewish orphanage. I absolutely loved this book. read it together with my 10 year old daughter. It raised some questions about the treatment of Jews, but this was a really good way to discuss a difficult episode of history!
I thought it was a good YA book for a 5th or 6th grader. The main character Devorah somehow retains a shred of sweetness and innocence despite the horrors she lives through. Her fierce love and protection of her younger sister helps her survive even as she morns the loss of her parents. I learned so much from historical fiction from the many books I read as a child. This book covers historical events in Poland and South Africa that students may never learn about in a school textbook. There aren't too many orphanages in the US now but they played an important role in history in many parts of the world. The book shows the positive side of a home for orphans through the eyes of a child. We also see how difficult it is for Devorah to leave behind her sadness and adjust to living in a foster home especially since it means letting her sister find her own happiness with a different foster family. When bad things happen to kids there is always hope that they will overcome the challenges and feel loved again. That is one of the main themes of this book.
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