The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia

by Esther Hautzig

It is June 1941. The Rudomin family has been arrested by the Russians. They are "capitalists and enemies of the people." Forced from their home and friends in Vilna, Poland, they are herded into crowded cattle cars. Their destination: the endless steppe of Siberia.

For five years, Esther and her family live in exile, weeding potato fields and working in the mines, struggling for enough food and clothing to stay alive. Only the strength of family sustains them and gives them hope for the future.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Russia, Historical, World War II, War

243 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Esther Rudomin was born in Wilno, Poland (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania). Her childhood was interrupted by the beginning of WWII and the conquest in 1941 of eastern Poland by Soviet troops.

Her family was uprooted and deported to Rubtsovsk, Siberia, where Esther spent the next five years in harsh exile. Her award winning novel The Endless Steppe is an autobiographical account of those years in Siberia.

After the war, she and her family moved back to Poland when she was 15. Hautzig reportedly wrote The Endless Steppe at the prompting of presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, to whom she had written after reading his articles about his visit to Rubtsovsk.

Hautzig helped to discover and eventually publish the master's thesis in mathematics written by her uncle, Ela-Chaim Cunzer, at the University of Wilno in 1937.

Rudomin met Walter Hautzig, a concert pianist, while en route to America on a student visa in 1947. They married in 1950, and had two children, Deborah, a children's author, and David. She died on November 1, 2009, aged 79.

Reviews

[Dem]

The Endless Steppe is an extraordinary and haunting story which reads like fiction but is based on first-hand family accounts and memories from the author. The story is heartbreaking and inspiring and while its shelved as a young adult novel certainly is an education and eye opener for any reader who wants an insight to the suffering and hardships of families transported to Siberia during the War.

Esther Rudomin was ten years old when, in 1941, she and her family were arrested by the Russians and transported to Siberia. This is the true story of the next five years spent in exile, of how the Rudomins kept their courage high, though they went barefoot and hungry.

Having read and loved Between Shades of Gray I wasn't sure I wanted to read another book covering a similar story and yet this book keeping coming up in my recommendations feed and I am glad I didn't ignore it. Well written, descriptive and moving this book while short in pages it certainly captures the infamous climate and harshness of the Siberian steep in vivid details as well as telling a the authors story of surviving World War 11 in the labor camps of Siberia.
As Ester tells the story of her and her family's journey and life in the camps she does it in a very candid way never shielding the reader from the horrors they endure and yet I would have no hesitation in recommending this for teenagers or young adults as it is one of those books that is important in remembering the suffering endured by so many of those transported to Siberia.

A great Non-fiction read and a book I would recommend for adults and young adults alike.

[Chrissie]

4 stars
An excellent introduction to children about World War II. It is written from the perspective of a Jewish 10-year old from Vilna. Vilnius, as it is called today, is now the capital of Lithuania. In 1941 it was part of Poland. The book is an autobiographical account of the author's childhood in Siberia.

I was impressed by the amount of history incorporated into this slim book: deportation of the Jews to Siberia, three years spent in a small village on the Russian steppes, the events of the war in Russia and finally "Polish" repatriation. It is all written tastefully for the ears of young readers. It is exciting: It is about getting friends, winning a school contest and a Siberian snowstorm. If focuses upon those themes that are of interest to young children: familial bonds and how they change as we grow older and become more independent, school and getting friends, clothes and hairstyles and how to "fit in", learning a foreign language, discovering literature and intellectual awareness, becoming one of a group, seeking acceptance and quite simply growing up...and that first boyfriend too. The book states what happens in the war but its main perspective is a child's life during that war. The events are related honestly; you don't always get the boyfriend you heart is set on or win the contest, do you?

The book radiates optimism and human resilience, but never is the truth shied from. Two examples: after the war, when the Jews returned, again in cattle cars, they are denounced. Even after the war, the Jews are not welcome! The second example is a woman in the Siberian camp who never had to work; it remained a mystery as to how she got food. An adult may guess why, but that is not discussed. Nothing is misrepresented, but neither are the details sordidly portrayed. The facts are stated and the story continues.

The language used by the author is simple, but actually beautiful in all its simplicity. Try this sentence: "Grandmother and I had this in common, we were 'very' people - either very sad or very gay, with nothing in between." (page 71) The story is exciting and there is humor.

I think it is wrong to state that this book is for adults. It isn't; its prime audience is children of about ten years of age. It is written for them and it is written beautifully. It is not overloaded with historical facts and dates or gruesome details. Why shouldn't a book be written just for this age group?! It is lovely and educational at the same time.

[Hilary]

Esther is an 11 year old Jewish girl sent to Siberia in a cattle train with some of her family as they are accused of being capitalists. We enjoyed the descriptions of life in Siberia, the harsh, inhumane existence but also the beauty found in the wilderness, the hope, the acts of kindness and just how much small things can mean when you have nothing. It was told from Esther's point of view, it told of her need to fit in and how anything seemed more bearable with love and friends. Particularly moving as based on a true story. One of our favourite books we have read in the last year. Lots of interesting historical detail. We enjoyed looking for images of pimy boots, sapogy and fufaika.

[Loredana (Bookinista08)]

Ascultată pe Voxa, cu mare plăcere și cu inima cât un purice. Dacă până acum am întâlnit numai povești ale supraviețuitorilor din lagărele naziste, de data asta am luat contact cu o poveste diferită, a unei familii de evrei polonezi deportați în Siberia, la muncă silnică.
Esther, mama, tatăl și bunica ei sunt trimiși cu vagoanele de vite într-un ținut sterp, complet străin, unde viața lor va fi diametral opusă față de cea de până atunci. De la oameni înstăriți și respectați în comunitatea lor din Polonia, ei ajung să se târguiască pentru o bucată de pâine veche astfel încât să nu moară de foame. Iernile siberiene sunt cumplite, așa-zisele recolte de cartofi întârzie să apară, iar hainele și încălțămintea lor devin tot mai ponosite până când nu mai pot fi purtate deloc.
Însă Esther moștenește un spirit întreprinzător și optimist de la tatăl ei, care o salvează din cele mai negre situații. La capătul unei perioade de aproape 4 ani petrecuți în exil, familia lui Esther se regăsește înapoi în Polonia, dar într-o lume nouă după război.
Mi-a plăcut tare mult acest memoir, în primul rând datorită inocenței perspectivei și apoi a optimismului care răzbate în fața vitregiilor groaznice ale deportării.

[Hava]

LOVED it. This was better than "Diary of Anne Frank," in my not-so-humble opinion. I had never even heard of this book until my sister handed it to me and told me to read it. It sat on my shelf for months and I kept ignoring it - it just seemed like it would be depressing, and I wasn't in the mood.

BUT! This book was wonderful. Moving, beautiful, funny, believable, heartbreaking...all rolled up into one. I read some of the other reviews of the book and was surprised to see that some said that it took them a while to get into the book, or that it was slow going. It almost made me wonder if I was reading a different book than them. I was hooked from the beginning. I could see everything in my mind, and imagine it all happening. My eyes moistened with tears as I read about her losing some money entrusted in her by her mother, and smiled for joy when she completed a knitting job and was given food to eat in return. I didn't find it depressing because Esther is an eternal optimist, and that outlook was reflected in her writing.

Two giant thumbs up! I'm only sorry I somehow bypassed this book as a child.

[Leslie]

Somehow I ended up with a copy of The Endless Steppe as a child and I must have read it several times because it got stuck in my subconscious. For years I would think about it, and images would coming flooding back to me, about the day the soldiers appeared to take the family to Siberia, and the cold, desolation of the frozen tundra. Most of all, I would think about the grandmother who pushed back her cuticles every night in the labor camp, to keep her hands beautiful. A few months ago, I spotted a well-worn copy of the book at my local library book sale and snatched it up. Re-reading it was like catching up with a beloved old friend. I wish every young reader would be exposed to this book. Please spread the word, especially young girls who love to read. This is a little known classic, one of my all-time favorites.

[Lyn Elliott]

I expected more of Endless Steppe than I got from it, found it simplistic and unreflective, when the story itself demands more.

[Nor]

Despre cum războaiele schimbă vieți. Suferințe,pierderi,zbuciumul pentru traiul de a doua zi,mizerie,demnitate,solidaritate. Toate prin ochii unei fetițe evreice din Polonia invadata de ruși și deportată cu familia ei " capitalistă " in Siberia.

[Alex Baugh]

One beautiful June morning in 1941, Esther Rudomin, 10, finds her happy, care free life in Vilna, Poland changed forever. Early in the morning, her family - father, mother, grandmother and Esther, are arrested by the Soviet Army. They are charged with being capitalists and sent on a six week long train ride in cattle car ride Siberia.

Arriving at a gypsum mine in Siberia, they are assigned their jobs - father to drive a horse and cart, mother to work at dynamiting the mine, Esther and her grandmother to work in the fields. The work is back-breaking, the food almost non-existent (mostly watery soup) and the summer heat unbearable in a place as endlessly flat as the Siberian Steppes.

Luckily, by the beginning of fall, the Soviet Union, the exiled Polish government and Britain were allies against the Nazis and amnesty was granted to the Polish deportees. No longer prisoners, they were allowed to leave the mine and live in the small nearby village.

But life in the village isn’t easy either. The family moves into the hut of people without much more than they have, and must share a small space with not room to move around it. But it is better than the mine and Esther is able to attend the village school. After a series of moves from hut to hut, the Rudomins are eventually able to get their own hut.

But life is still a struggle of obtaining food, having a means of heating the hut during the long, bitter cold winter and the gradual wearing out of the clothing they had brought with them and not money to buy more. And since so many people are bound together by the cold, the desolateness of the steppe and the struggle to survive, they are often helped by others, just as they help others when they can. When Esther’s father is forced to serve at the Russian front, the Rudomin women are devastated, but by now quite capable, they managed to find ways of surviving. And most importantly, they continue to have each other to lean on.

This is a wonderful, very appealing autobiography of Esther’s life from age 10 to 15. Hautzig has captured her childhood voice beautifully as she recalls her life - the reader meets a very indulged child and watches her become an accomplished, clever survivor. Yet, Hautzig has also shown herself not always in the best light - there is the bratty Esther, the whinny Esther and the willful Esther - giving a sense that she was indeed a real person, not an unrealistic paragon of courage.

My only problem with The Endless Steppe is that there is no explanation about why the Rudomin’s were arrested by the Soviets for being capitalists, but not the rest of the family, and why they weren’t rounded up by the Nazis because they were Jews.

Short History Lesson:
The answer is simple but maybe not well known. In 1939, the Nazis and Soviets signed a 10 year non-aggression pact called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The pact has a clause that divided Poland - the western part to Germany and the eastern part to the Soviets. In the summer of 1940, the Soviets began to secure eastern Poland. But, Hitler being Hitler, he decided to pull a fast one on the Soviets and disregard to pact and invade Russia. The Rudomins were arrested in that short space of time when eastern Poland was under Soviet control, for being capitalists because they owned a jewelry business.

This book is recommended for readers age 12 and up
This book was purchased for my personal library

[DrBreeseReads]

The Endless Steppe

By Esther Hautzig, written in 1968.

Audiobook, Spotify 10/10 read by Alyssa Bresnahan

This is the true story of the Rudomin family who are deported by the Russian army in June 1941 from Vilna in Poland (now the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius) to Siberia, on the charge of being capitalists. It is narrated by the only daughter, Esther, who is 10 at the time and has no comprehension as to why this is happening.

The memoir charts her beginnings as the only child of reasonably well-off middle-class Jewish family, sharing an enormous house divided into apartments with her extended family. Her difficulties at the time include the fact that she doesn’t have silk underwear, whereas the other girls in her dance class do.

At the time of their arrest, the family are separated so that only Esther’s paternal grandmother, her parents and Esther herself take the 6 week train journey (over 5000 km) in a cattle truck to the Siberian Steppes. Her grandfather is sent elsewhere (and she never sees him again); as we learn in the devastating final chapter, with the exception of two cousins their entire extended family die in the concentration camps.

The Rudomins are taken to just outside a gypsum mining town, Rubtsovsk, where they are allocated tasks: Esther is planting or picking potatoes. After a while, they are permitted to leave the camp and move into Rubtsovsk, where survival is more on their own terms even if it is sometimes very close to a lack of survival.

Esther learns about hunger, cold, dirt, manual labour, fear over the next few years, while the family slowly adapts to this change in their circumstances, with no news of any of their other relatives. The family learns to manage the cold (as low as minus 27 degrees) in winter, so cold that the exposure of eyelashes led to them being frozen. The level of detail is such that the whole way through I was able to visualise the rooms or huts that they lived in; the landscape where they tried to grow potatoes; the roads so covered in snow or mud that walking in most seasons to school took over an hour. Esther’s highlight is indeed going to school, where she learns Russian and takes refuge in nineteenth century classics, Russian, French and British. She makes friends and slowly becomes accepted into the fold. Indeed one of the central themes of the novel, inevitably given Esther’s age, is identity: fitting in within a new culture in which her sense of herself acquired as a child has entirely shifted. A key moment is in Chapter Ten when she is desperately wishing to make a change that her mother does not approve of:
‘But you are you and they are they.’
‘I don’t want to be me. I want to be them.’

The idea of shedding an old ‘me’ in order to fit in is a trope in many of the best novels about growing up. I am currently reading The Member of the Wedding in which this sense of dislocation from the self is key. In the latter novel, the backdrop is a hot summer in the southern states during the war; in this novel the backdrop is the unrelenting flatness of the Steppes of Siberia.

It is a good companion memoir to The Diary of Anne Frank; the thoughts of two girls growing up against such a horrific backdrop. Hautzig’s story is of course told with hindsight, and it is no spoiler to reveal that she survives this story. Although there is huge sadness and grief and suffering throughout the memoir (how does anyone ever recover from such an experience and the knowledge of what so many other close family members have been through?), the ending is positive; and could be perhaps read as a story of survival in conjunction to the devastating ending of Anne Frank’s Diary.

Interestingly I do now remember reading it when I was younger and I remember the descriptions of the landscape, but it made less of an impression on me at the time than other novels or memoirs set at the same moment in history.

[SilviaG]

#LeoAutorasOct Este libro nos sumerge en las experiencias de la autora durante la segunda guerra mundial. Una historia muy dura de una familia judía polaca deportada a Siberia por los rusos. De como la vida te puede cambiar en un instante, y de cómo la naturaleza humana es capaz de sobrevivir y adaptarse a las circunstancias. Me ha cautivado la historia y su sencilla forma de explicarla en primera persona.

[Morgan]

Read this book if you want to be blown away by beautiful, powerful writing. Esther was ten years old when her family was exiled to Siberia because of an accusation of being capitalists in Stalin's Soviet Union. Told through a childs perspective, The Endless Steppe gives an unique view on how life was like for Russians during the WW2 Era.

[Dalia]

E povestea copilăriei lui Esther Rudomin a cărei familie e deportata în Siberia la începutul celui de-al doilea război mondial. Cei 5 ani petrecuți in stepa siberiana sunt marcați de lipsuri și încercări de tot felul dar condițiile groaznice de trai nu fac decât să o ambitioneze pe Esther să facă tot ce poate pentru a-și ajuta familia. M-a impresionat dăruirea cu care a tricotat diverse lucruri pentru niște lapte și cartofi și m-a durut nepăsarea și lipsa de empatie a clientelor ei.
E aproape cinic faptul că un eveniment atât de dureros ca deportarea a ajuns să însemne de fapt salvarea lor. Alți membri ai familiei lor nu au fost la fel de "norocoși " sfârșind în lagărele de exterminare.
Mi-a plăcut cartea. Oferă un exemplu de determinare și dorința de a supraviețui în ciuda tuturor greutăților.

[Vilmute Kocak]

Pačios autorės aprašyta vaikystė ir jos išgyventa istorija Sibire tremties laikotarpiu.Dešimties metų mergaitė ir jos visa šeima iš Vilniaus buvo ištremti į Sibirą.Gera knyga,patiko

[katie]

why did it take me over a month to read this 😭

[Kowsar Bagheri]

«استپ بی‌انتها» یه رمان نوجوانه اما درعین‌حال یه اتوبیوگرافی از نویسنده‌ست و کاملاً دربرگیرنده‌ی تجربه‌ی زیسته‌ی استر هوتزیگه. همین مسئله اهمیتش رو برام چندین‌برابر کرد.
استر از یه خانواده‌ی مرفه و یهودی لهستان بود (مشخصاً ویلنا، تأکید می‌کنم چون در ادامه مهمه و ویلنا از یه جایی جزو اتحاد جماهیر شوروی می‌شه). در سال ۱۹۴۱، وقتی استر فقط ده‌سال داشت، کمونیست‌ها دستگیرشون می‌کنن و به اردوگاه کار اجباری سیبری تبعیدشون می‌کنن. این کتاب روایت پنج‌سال از استر در استپه. از ده‌سالگی تا پانزده‌سالگی. بخشی‌ش در اردوگاه کار اجباری با کار طاقت‌فرسای بی‌مزد می‌گذره و بخشی‌ش در کلبه‌های محقر استپ در اوج فقر و سختی و بیماری.
توصیفات استر به‌خودی‌خود بی‌نهایت تکان‌دهنده و دردناکن ولی وقتی فکر می‌کنی همه‌ی اینا واقعی بودن و تو تاریخ انقدر نزدیک میلیون‌ها آدم سر یه‌سری ایدئولوژی‌بازی متحمل این‌همه رنج شدن، واقعاً از کل بشریت وحشت می‌کنی.
خانواده‌ی استر هم تحت ستم کمونیست‌ها بودن و هم نازی‌ها. اولی‌ها به‌بهانه‌ی «کاپیتالیست‌بودن» و دومی‌ها به بهانه‌ی «یهودی‌بودن». این مقایسه‌ی ضمنی بین دو ایدئولوژی و قدرت به‌ظاهر متضاد ولی در عمل بسیار مشابه، واقعاً عجیبه. از همه دردناک‌تر اینکه این بیچاره‌ها ترجیح می‌دادن به جرم «کاپیتالیست‌بودن» بیوفتن دست کمونیست‌ها ولی به جرم «یهودی‌بودن» دست نازی‌ها نیوفتن.
در ادامه چیزهایی می‌خوام بنویسم که رسماً بخش‌های مهمی از داستان اسپویل می‌شن. واسه همین الآن دارم اعلام می‌کنم که اگر نمی‌خواین براتون اسپویل بشه، ادامه رو رها کنین.


🚩🚩🚩 هشدار اسپویل 🚩🚩🚩


واقعاً باورم نمی‌شه این چهارنفر (استر، پدرش، مادرش و مادربزرگ پدری‌ش) چطور تونستن دووم بیارن و ادامه بدن. قدرت مقاومتشون ورای تصوره. نازی‌ها تک‌تک اعضای خانواده‌شون رو قتل‌عام کردن. از عمه و دایی و عمو گرفته تا دورترین افراد فامیل. پدربزرگش هم توی اردوگاه کار اجباری از حین کار، از شدت گرسنگی و خستگی، مُرد. اون پنج‌سال زندگی تو گرسنگی، فقر، انواع بیماری مسری، سرمای سیبری و نداشتن حتی یه سرپناه گرم و کار بی‌وقفه رو چطور تونستن از سر بگذرونن؟ واقعاً شکوهمنده.
اونجایی که ویلنا رفت جزو مرزهای شوروی و استر گفت تونستیم برگردیم به لهستان ولی به خونه نه، اشکم دراومد.
توی کتاب یه‌سری اشارات به علاقه‌ی بی‌حد یهودیان به آمریکا بود. استر و خانواده‌ش به روزولت می‌گفتن قهرمان ما. و معتقدن جون خودشون رو مدیون آمریکایی‌هان. و خب این کاملاً make sense می‌کنه.
خود استر هوتزیگ بعدها مهاجرت می‌کنه آمریکا و ازدواج می‌کنه و بچه‌هاشم اونجان اصلاً.

[Daisy]

This is such a vivid, captivating story and it's beautifully written. Engrossing.
In spite of, or maybe because of the its subject matter, certain moments and details have a lot of charm and insight. It's in the voice of a ten year-old Polish girl but it's a memoir so its real perspective must be with the benefit of hindsight and survival.

p.2 What I ate for breakfast on school mornings was one buttered roll--a soft roll, not a hard roll--and one cup of cocoa; any attempt to alter this menu I regarded as a plot to poison me.

p. 59 The laughter that followed was cracked from disuse, Siberian laughter. But it was laughter. Much that we would think funny in the days to come would scarcely have caused the shadow of a smile at home in Vilna but we needed to laugh as much as we needed bread.

p. 100 On the way, I was distracted by a pattern in the snow; it looked something like hopscotch and I hopped through it the hopscotch way.

p. 135 The lecture that followed seemed to me--and perhaps to Father too--untimely, like correcting the grammar of someone who is trying to tell you the house is on fire.

p.147 With every sound I heard in the darkness, I felt the brutal arm of the law thrashing at my fragile back. Stealing in Siberia? If Siberia was the place thieves were exiled to, was there an even worse place for Siberian thieves?

p. 148 Moreover, stealing was not really to the taste of one who still clings to pride.

p. 164 But, I thought, if you were supposed to be generous, who are you supposed to be generous to? Only to those who don't need it? It was very confusing.

p. 185 If I had any sense I would have given up then, but I come from a long line of stubborn idiots.

p. 219 On the verge of tears, I wanted to say, But haven't you found out, lady, that when everything is strange, nothing in particular is? How is it you haven't found that out, here in Siberia?

(Read right after A Mountain of Crumbs.)

[Tim Byers]

This gem sat on my book table for weeks before I finally cracked it open. It recounts a slice of history previously unknown to me--the Soviets, after they had devoured eastern Poland in the devil's pact with Hitler in 1939, decided to deport Jews to Siberia as slave labor. Young Esther tells the story, which is both survival and coming-of-age tale. Exile to the brutal wilderness of the steppe becomes salvation from an even more unthinkable fate had they been left behind (at one point, Esther describes her mother's anguish that on the day they were taken from their home: her brother shows up, the soldiers ask if he's one of them; wishing to spare him from her own fate, his mother denies he's part of the family; later, as news of the holocaust emerges, carries it as her life's largest regret).

What I loved about this story was that despite her terrible ordeal, the physical hardship unimaginable to me (no winter coat or boots, knitting with frozen hands on a sweater made of worn out material, for a rich woman who has outgrown it by the time it's finished), Esther remains a young girl trying to find her place among her friends at school. To do so, she must move away from her culture toward the generic Soviet-Siberian one.

Reads like what I'd imagine to find if Dostoyevsky had written a YA novel.

[adelina gabriela]

#92 lituania

3.5*
nu la fel de dramatică precum Anne Frank sau pijamalele în dungi, dar avem altă hartă aici
not bad at all

[Jacqueline Cubillo]

Un libro juvenil narrado por la propia autora. Sus memorias durante la segunda guerra mundial en Siberia. Un testimonio muy distinto al que generalmente conocemos en campos de concentración. En este caso la autora vivió una vida en parte idílica, por su corta edad, donde trabajaban, iban a la escuela y tenían una estadía relativamente normal fuera de su país. Muy interesante para conocer otra parte de la historia.

[M]

The Endless Steppe is an autobiographical novel, written by a Jewish woman of Polish origin, Esther Hautzig, née Rudomin.
In 1941, when she was a mere child of ten, she was deported with her parents and her grandmother to Rubtsovsk, a city in Siberia, near Altai. This region became infamous for hosting labor/concentration camps for political enemies of the Soviets. The Rudomins were accused of being Jewish and capitalists. Hautzig described perfectly the anguish and despair of being suddenly kidnapped by the NKVD in the full sun, while nobody tries to help for fear of reprisals, and the alienation caused by traveling for weeks crammed in livestock cars.
Fortunately for her and many Polish deportees, a Russian-American pact saved them years of laboring in a Siberian camp. However, they couldn't still leave Siberia and so they suffered great hardships for the following four years. Somehow, though, little Esther is capable of laughing in the face of adversity and she never loses hope. In fact, she finds resources even for throwing a real birthday party. I was thankful to find a little humor in the book - otherwise it would have been a total downer.

This is a great companion book to Anne Frank's diary. I, for one, didn't know much about the horrors perpetrated by the Soviet leaders until very recently. I think my education focused too much on presenting the Nazi as the sole evil guys, but both sides had their share in the genocide.
So I think The Endless Steppe has much to offer to the reader, both in terms of education and entertainment. I can't really understand why it isn't more popular.

[Luisa Knight]

A haunting, true story about a ten-year-old girl that is sent to Siberia with her family during World War II, forced to live there because they are Jews and "capitalists."

It's well-told and not a part of history or a geographical area of the War that you hear about often. I first read this in junior high/high school. This was my second read so I could have a cleanliness report of it.

Ages: 11+

Cleanliness: A girl recollects getting angry with her mother for not giving her silk panties like other little girls. "Dear Lord" "for God's sake" "Oh my God" Mentions vodka and a few people getting drunk. "Bl**dy" is used. Mentions smoking. The main character falls in love - just a crush really - not very descriptive at all. A boy likes the main character and tries to hold her hand and hug her but she moves away from him. Mentions fortune cards - three paragraphs worth.

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[Nafiseh Miraei]

سال 1941 روس‌ها استر ده ساله و خانواده‌‌ی یهودیش رو تبعید می‌کنند سیبری. این داستان واقعی پنج سال زندگیشون توی تبعیده. کنار روایت تاریخ در دل داستان، برامون از سختی‌ این شکل از تبعید، اردوگاه‌های کار، دوری از خونه، رفتن به مدرسه‌ی جدید و کار کردن وقت کودکی می‌گه، از این که آدم‌ تا کجا می‌تونه تنگ اومدن شرایط رو تاب بیاره و چطور تلاش می‌کنه برای بقا و ادامه دادن و امید ساختن. ویژگیش شاید روایت شدنش از زبان کودک خانواده‌ست. اگه با بچه‌های پناهنده کار می‌کنید حتماً بخونیدش. اگه در حوزه‌ی کودک کار می‌کنید، پدرید یا مادر، بهتون کمک می‌کنه ببینید بچه‌ها چطور دنبال راه حل برای مسائلشون می‌گردند و فرآیند مشارکت دادنشون برای حل یک مشکل چطوری کمکشون می‌کنه در عبور از اون.
بعد از خوندن داستان نمی‌دونستم باید از این همه قدرت تاب آوردن بشر خوشحال باشم یا ناراحت، ولی هر از گاهی وقتی توی صندلی تاکسی فرورفتم یاد استر و بافتنی بافتن میفتم و دلم نمی‌خواد بیشتر فرو برم، دلم می‌خواد بپیوندم بهش یا ازش بپرسم چطوری می‌تونی؟ به نظرم اگه خسته‌اید و درمونده هم بد نیست بخونیدش

[Ileana]

Esther Hautzig escogió relatar su experiencia como deportada en Siberia de una forma que me ha causado mucha admiración: no parece guardar rencor por todas las injusticias que les fueron inflingidas a ella y a toda su familia. Es más, su descripción de esa tierra tan inhóspita es tan encantadora que hasta me dieron ganas de conocerla.
Veo que muchos la critican precisamente por eso, por haber escrito sus memorias de forma ligera y optimista. Pienso que cada persona tiene derecho a contar (o no) su historia de la forma que ellos decidan. Si buscan detalles grotescos, no los encontrarán en este libro. Lo que yo sí encontré es la afirmación de que uno mismo es quien decide cómo sobrellevar las cosas que le suceden, por más terribles que éstas sean.

[Alwynne]

Written for young adults but well-written and absorbing, and suitable for a broader readership; this is a semi-autobiographical account of a family's life after transportation to Siberia. Excellent both as a narrative and as a glimpse into the reality of everyday life in Siberian exile.

[H]

I read this when I was young, and it has stuck with me since though I don't quite remember the plot, only the theme. I would love to reread this one day.

[Deyanne]

Read long, long ago and long forgotten. Good to be reminded of it on Goodreads. Powerful read based on a true story.

[R.L.S.D]

This classic memoir turned out to be a gold mine of new ideas and connections for my students. Things we discussed:

- How ritual and tradition tie us to the past and, in the words of one of my students, "help us when we feel scattered from ourselves"

- The criminalization of presence, and what a deportee is

- The prevalence of forced, slave labor even today (my students are taking the assessment available at slaveryfootprint.org to find out how many slaves they have working for them)

- Racial profiling and antisemitism

- The doctrinal atheism of communist regimes and what on earth the "blessed bread" is that Siberian woman transport hidden under their cloaks (Some of my students: blank stares, two of my students: communion!, last of my students: *God's body*)

- The concept of home - what is it and why do we long for it? (They are now competing in an essay contest on this subject)

[Julie Suzanne]

This sat on the shelf of my classroom library for years, untouched but on my To Read list. Recently, a friend recommended it as a great read and it fulfilled a challenge to read something I've been reading to read for years.

Hautzig's experiences as an exile in Siberia is incredibly readable and an excellent addition to any autobiography unit or Holocaust study. The only story like it I'd ever heard was Between Shades of Gray, although this story was much less harrowing and dramatic (although that was fiction). This is an often underrepresented population in the history books and literature based on this time period: Jews who were exiled before extermination began. It's a story about making the best of one's dreadful circumstances, creating something out of nothing, making a life no matter what, and adolescence.

The end of the story was much more understandable to me because I had JUST finished Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow. I guess I've been on a mini independent study lately, and immersing oneself in different narratives from a particular time is so rewarding.

I'd recommend this to readers Grades 6 and up.

[Lmichelleb]

What a beautiful picture of endurance and sheer survival! Coming from the eyes of a young girl made it bearable and beautiful somehow. Reading these kinds of books always (at least temporarily) humbles me and helps me see how very cushy my life is!

In the event of such a catastrophe in my life, I pray that I am like Esther and her family, persevering with brave optimism to the end.