The Literary Representation of World War II Childhood

“Dr Honan is a very fine writer, and an equally wonderful artist, the portraits on the cover of the book all having been drawn by her based on fragments of photographs that survived the camps, even when, in most cases their child subjects had sadly perished. […] Through her drawings, she exposes a little of the humanity of some of the children discussed in the book, each of the drawings an exposition of pain, suffering and loss that might otherwise have been concealed behind their smiles. Dr Honan’s book has been crafted with an obvious determination to imbue Nazism’s young victims back to life. Beyond that, her work is a gentle reminder to the world today about the dangers of anti-Semitism, of hatred, of bigotry towards all minority groups and the effects of such violence on the victims, the deportees, the injured, the dying, dead, and those left behind. She has also crafted a work of empathetic beauty, and of hope, a glorious literary and artistic testimonial to the dead and those left to grieve.”