I Live in a Chickenhouse - Softcover

Max Amichai Heppner

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1420818813 ISBN 13: 9781420818819

Publisher: Authorhouse, 2005

Synopsis

From the time when I was 8 to 11 years old, I hid from the Nazis in a chickenhouse with my parents and their friends, Heinz and Elli Graumann. Since the personal experiences I recall are those of a preteen, I hope to connect well with children about that age. I tell about my rescue from the Holocaust based on drawings I made as a child, helped by two talented amateur artists: my father and his friend Heinz. I use both my art and theirs to help explain what life was like for us at that time.

Each chapter of the book has one or more illustrations to help me put into words what I was thinking about at the time. I describe how we ran away from our old apartment in Amsterdam because we had to hide from the Nazis, who wanted us Jews dead, or at least out of Europe. We first moved from place to place and town to town because no one wanted us to hide with them for more than a few days. We were fortunate that ultimately we were sheltered by Harry Janssen and his family, who gave us the chickenhouse to live in. A visual presentation of this tale of survival, suitable for all ages, is available in his video: "Rediscovering My Childhood-Memories of a Child Survivor." It runs for one hour. Order copies by e-mailing  Maxamichai@comcast.net.

About this title

From the Author:

The Holocaust engulfed the first 11 years of my life, and I felt the impact as a huge, ill defined, fearful fog.   At the time, during the years 1933 to 1944, the adults around me did little to clear up the fog, so I retreated into my own world.  I drew pictures and made up stories. 

After my mother and I were liberated from Nazi oppression in 1946, we moved to the United States.  During the next decades, I tried to figure out internally what had really happened during the Holocaust while the outer details of my life started taking shape.  I completed junior high and high school in Cleveland, Ohio.  I then went on to get a Bachelor's degree in economics from the Ohio State University and a Master's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin.  After that, my working life was spent mainly as a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in and around Washington, DC.

From the Inside Flap:

Writing about the Holocaust is never easy.  It gets harder when you write for children.  I don't want to tell a tale with so much horror and fear that it may scare away young readers.

To downplay the fearfulness of the tale, I simply relate what I remember thinking at the time, based on drawings and pictures I kept from that time.  The stories cover the years between 1942 and 1946, when I was between 8 and 13 years old.  Since the thoughts I recall are those of a preteen, I hope to connect especially well with children near that age range.

I hope that sharing my story will help convince readers that the horrors of war are particularly destructive to the lives of children.  As adults, we must put forth every effort to substitute love and human kindness for war and strife, regardless how justified we feel in wanting to put down people who do not share our views of life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Authorhouse
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1420818813
• ISBN 13: 9781420818819
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 132