Something Remains - Softcover

Barth-Grozinger, Inge

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786838817 ISBN 13: 9780786838813

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2008

Synopsis

Erich Levi doesn’t understand why his father is so gloomy when the Nazis are elected to power. He’s too concerned with keeping his grades up, finding time to hang out by the river with his friends, and studying for his bar mitzvah, to worry about politics.

But slowly, gradually, things begin to change for Erich.  Some of the teachers begin to grade him unfairly – because he’s Jewish.  The Hitler Youth boys in his class bully him, and he's excluded from sporting events and celebrations. His whole world seems to be crumbling: at school, and at home, where money is tight because no one wants to do business with a Jewish family. 

Not everyone is so cruel, though, and many of the Levis’ friends and neighbors remain fiercely loyal at great risk to themselves. With good people still around, Erich can’t believe the situation will last, and stubbornly holds onto his dreams – even as his homeland becomes a dangerous and alien place.

Inge Barth-Grözinger has brilliantly recreated the life of a Jewish family in a small German town during the Nazi era. Something Remains provides, with terrible, everyday detail, an answer to the impossible question: how could the Holocaust have happened?

About this title

About the Author

Inge Barth-Grzinger is agymnasium(high school) teacher in Ellwangen, Germany.Something Remainsgrew out of an eighteen-month research project she conducted with her students, tracing the Jewish community of their town and school. It was the story of one student in particular, Erich Levi,that inspired Ms. Grozinger to write this novel.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8–Erich Levi lives in a small German town at the early stages of the Nazi regime. A well-respected business family, the Levis have always had friends and good relations in their community. Soon after the government's takeover, they begin to experience subtle and then obvious forms of harassment and prejudice both in school and in their everyday dealings with neighbors. Life becomes increasingly more dangerous for Erich, his brother Max, and their cousin Erwin. While life is indeed difficult, the day-by-day portrayal of each additional hardship during the years 1933-1938 becomes a bit tedious. Forced but fortunate to escape to America, the Levis' wartime experience, while cruel and unjust, provides a view into the early days of a Jewish family's struggle to maintain their patriotism and loyalty despite the obvious pressures of religious discrimination and unjustified brutality. This fictionalized window into what are becoming myriad choices in Holocaust literature for young people is an additional purchase.–Rita Soltan, Youth Services Consultant, West Bloomfield, MI
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Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786838817
• ISBN 13: 9780786838813
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400