Pearls Of Childhood

Features of Pearls of Childhood

From Library Journal In 1939, Gissing's mother had the foresight to arrange for Vera and her older sister to join a transport of Jewish children fleeing German-occupied Czechoslovakia. The ten-year-old refugee passed the war years in England, literally dependent for survival on the kindness of the British families who took her in. When she returned home in 1945, she learned that only one aunt had survived the Holocaust. Despite the loss, Gissing attempted to make a new life in Czechoslovakia. Finally disillusioned by the anti-Semitism she constantly encountered, Gissing returned to England, where she still lives. Gissing kept a diary throughout the war years, so her recollections are especially vivid. Recommended for academic and public libraries