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Hiding in Plain Sight: 1
It is 1938. Berta Weissberger,twelve years old, lives in Hindenburg, Germany, with her mother and older sister. Her father has already left for America, and the family is awaiting the arrival of thei rAmerican visas. These hopes and plans are destroyed at the end of October 1938, however, when Jews are rounded up, loaded onto trucks, and driven to the Polish border. They are forced to cross a river into Poland and ordered, "Keep wlaking and do not turn back. Anyone attempting to turn back will be shot." So begins Bertel's six-year terrifying odyssey in Nazi-occupied Poland. While living a life of constant vigilance an fear. Bertel grows inot womanhood. Again and again, Providence steps in and saves her, guiding her to the righ tperson or place.
576 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
September 8, 2022
This took me awhile to wade through this book but it was worth it. Betty's story is powerful, diving into the ins and outs of surviving as a Jew during the war. I really could resonate with her story, the fact that what she did took courage and she fought chronic stomach pain and sickness because of the stress of hiding her identity. There was the pull to want to see her reunited with her dad and I was sad we didn't get to see much of that reunion after 500+ pages.
If you're a history or war buff this book is just for you. But don't be faint-hearted...it's a long, detailed read!
If you're a history or war buff this book is just for you. But don't be faint-hearted...it's a long, detailed read!
December 3, 2012
I have read lots of WWII memoirs and histories from Jewish survivors. I liked this one a lot because it was different to hear how someone survived living so out in the open with a false identity. This is one of the best books I have read this year. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, even though I knew that the author survived the war. Between the numerous close calls and constant fleeing, I couldn't put the book down. I highly recommend this book.
June 25, 2008
I liked the book a lot. I think it's probably because I am a very fast reader. Otherwise I may not have stuck it out for 550 pages of 8pt font. That said, I felt the length and intricate detail really helped convey the scale and weight of living in terrified exile for years and years. Really a paragraph is too short to talk about all the happenings in the book, and so I won't spoil it.
June 14, 2016
I loved this book. To read and see the struggles, hardships and dangers she faced pretending to be a Polish Catholic woman to avoid being taken to a camp and being murdered.
The total destruction of Warsaw and community and community of people who their only "crime" was they were Jewish. The Poles who helped and hid their Jewish neighbors. May we never forget
The total destruction of Warsaw and community and community of people who their only "crime" was they were Jewish. The Poles who helped and hid their Jewish neighbors. May we never forget
January 13, 2009
My hands-down favorite book of all times. It tooke me 2 days to read this book, I couldn't put it down. I felt like I was a part of the story. I found the book at the library and then as soon as I finished it I ordered it from B&N.
August 10, 2015
This is one of my top 5 favourite books of all time. Well written, poignant, detailed enough to transport you back to that time in history.
May 23, 2020
I read this following on another of the same title and same subject matter (by Sarah Lew Miller), a teenage girl's story of survival during the Nazi years....
Staying in virtually the same theme, we once again have a teenager's diary, in essence, of the same. So, I'll start it with the same opening as the previous review.... Understandably, given the subject matter - a teenage Jewish girl's story of her family's survival during WWII, it's kind of hard not to compare it to the more famous work of Anne Frank. But it's not the same story - different countries, different situations, different outcomes. The book is well written, and although phrased in first person, is, as above, an "as told to", by the author. The life of young Berta Weissberger, and the place and time that the book covers, are actually pretty interesting, a bit more so, or perhaps it's just the quality of the writing, than the previous book. The biggest issue in this book is that the book is almost as interminable as the six years it covers - it goes on for nearly 600 pages, detailing day to day life in, at times, excruciatingly unnecessary detail, as one day after another often looks much like the previous day. Still, I found it an engaging read and worth recommending.
Staying in virtually the same theme, we once again have a teenager's diary, in essence, of the same. So, I'll start it with the same opening as the previous review.... Understandably, given the subject matter - a teenage Jewish girl's story of her family's survival during WWII, it's kind of hard not to compare it to the more famous work of Anne Frank. But it's not the same story - different countries, different situations, different outcomes. The book is well written, and although phrased in first person, is, as above, an "as told to", by the author. The life of young Berta Weissberger, and the place and time that the book covers, are actually pretty interesting, a bit more so, or perhaps it's just the quality of the writing, than the previous book. The biggest issue in this book is that the book is almost as interminable as the six years it covers - it goes on for nearly 600 pages, detailing day to day life in, at times, excruciatingly unnecessary detail, as one day after another often looks much like the previous day. Still, I found it an engaging read and worth recommending.
June 8, 2025
Incredible story. Incredible book. Betty is one of the strongest people I know, and if I develop just a bit of her courage I should do well in life.
This was the first memoir or novel about WWII I'd ever read that focused on someone who struggled psychologically (above what would be expected for someone living through the hellscape of the Holocaust) and whose mental struggles gave them physical symptoms. It painted Betty in a realistic light, and it helped me to better understand the pain of what survivors went through. It also highlighted something that happens to so many people today - chronic pain originating from psychological distress - but that many of them don't fully understand. This memoir therefore was educational in many ways. Most importantly, though, this mental-physical link described throughout the book showed me that more than one type of person was able to survive the Holocaust with an enormous amount of luck and skill on their side. I had assumed that anyone who experienced psychological distress, especially before the war began, would not have been able to make it. It was eye-opening for me to read Betty's story, and I'm grateful for what it taught me.
This was the first memoir or novel about WWII I'd ever read that focused on someone who struggled psychologically (above what would be expected for someone living through the hellscape of the Holocaust) and whose mental struggles gave them physical symptoms. It painted Betty in a realistic light, and it helped me to better understand the pain of what survivors went through. It also highlighted something that happens to so many people today - chronic pain originating from psychological distress - but that many of them don't fully understand. This memoir therefore was educational in many ways. Most importantly, though, this mental-physical link described throughout the book showed me that more than one type of person was able to survive the Holocaust with an enormous amount of luck and skill on their side. I had assumed that anyone who experienced psychological distress, especially before the war began, would not have been able to make it. It was eye-opening for me to read Betty's story, and I'm grateful for what it taught me.
March 6, 2018
Heart wrenching account of one Jewish woman’s story of survival during German occupied Poland. Changing her identity and taking many courageous measures, she survived. She never entered a concentration camp but feared for her life daily as she lived as a Polish Christian with a fake identity.
It was a long book with many details, names, and places and it times I found it hard to keep up but I couldn’t put it down until I found out how her story ended. It held me captive till the last page.
It was a long book with many details, names, and places and it times I found it hard to keep up but I couldn’t put it down until I found out how her story ended. It held me captive till the last page.
March 29, 2020
One of the best biographies I have ever read.
Betty lauer brought tears when I read the epilogue.
The moment I finished the book, my entire country went into quarantine mode to fight the Corona virus pandemic.
I could draw parallels of what's happening now to what happened to the people during the world war II.
Betty lauer brought tears when I read the epilogue.
The moment I finished the book, my entire country went into quarantine mode to fight the Corona virus pandemic.
I could draw parallels of what's happening now to what happened to the people during the world war II.
February 6, 2025
I loved this book. This is the story of a young Jewish girl, her Mother and Sister who hid during WWII and what happened to them. It basically though followed her story and how she survived in hiding.
I was lucky enough to get to Zoom with Betty through my work and get to listen to her speak at 99 years old.
I have read alot of books about WWII and I highly recommend this book!
I was lucky enough to get to Zoom with Betty through my work and get to listen to her speak at 99 years old.
I have read alot of books about WWII and I highly recommend this book!
March 9, 2018
Unbelievable and amazing at the same time. What a true inspiration she is!!
August 20, 2018
Excellently written story of survival and identity. I read this years ago, and the most enduring memory for me is when Betty met up with a friend, later, to tell her her identity.
January 27, 2025
One of the best books I have ever read.
July 28, 2010
Meh. This was not the best memoir. I mean, it wasn't terrible, but it was both too detailed and not detailed enough. The postwar section with Krysia/Betty looking for surviving family members and trying to get out of the country covered over 150 pages and really dragged. You don't often hear a lot of detail about Holocaust survivors in postwar Europe and their attempts to emigrate, so I guess it was valuable for that reason, but it could have been cut by half or even two-thirds.
I really wish Betty had provided more information about what she was feeling during all the events she describes. For instance, after the death of Betty's sister, their mother was in such despair that she decided to commit suicide, and Betty agreed to die with her. (Obviously, things didn't go as planned.) What was she thinking at that moment, how did she feel? It could have been a very poignant and haunting chapter; it comes off very dry instead. And when she married Stefan, was it just for convenience/protection and then love came later, or did she love him already? Also, none of the dialogue sounds real -- she's attempting to tell too much by the dialogue and it comes off sounding like...well...like a book. Real people don't talk that way.
I do not believe this memoir is worth the time it took to read 550+ pages of small print. Not when there are so many other, better books out there.
I really wish Betty had provided more information about what she was feeling during all the events she describes. For instance, after the death of Betty's sister, their mother was in such despair that she decided to commit suicide, and Betty agreed to die with her. (Obviously, things didn't go as planned.) What was she thinking at that moment, how did she feel? It could have been a very poignant and haunting chapter; it comes off very dry instead. And when she married Stefan, was it just for convenience/protection and then love came later, or did she love him already? Also, none of the dialogue sounds real -- she's attempting to tell too much by the dialogue and it comes off sounding like...well...like a book. Real people don't talk that way.
I do not believe this memoir is worth the time it took to read 550+ pages of small print. Not when there are so many other, better books out there.
January 18, 2013
An autobiography by a Jewish woman surviving in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II wasn't the Western perspective I have gotten on WWII from history classes, movies, and other books. Knowing the horrible atrocities that occurred during WWII, it is difficult to imagine what it would have been like to live through the situation as it unfolded, when the history hadn't been written yet, but this account provides a view of that perspective. The details and experiences the author recounts are amazing to read about. This reminded me of Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken in many ways because it is also a World Ward II story of survival and resilience (okay, and maybe a little redemption). I never had any inkling of what it would have been like inside Poland post-blitzkrieg, and I never knew much at all of some of the events in history (such as the Warsaw Uprising). The conditions after Germany surrendered were also not what I expected.
December 8, 2009
This is the sort of book that makes you think: If we didn't know it really happened, this book would seem unbelievable. A must read as far as I'm concerned. And it's not even the best of the Holocaust survivor autobiographies I've read so far. But, throughout the book, you are worried that this young woman won't survive, even though you know she must have to have written the book. I only wish she'd included a little more about her life after WWII.
January 7, 2010
Oops. . .I had the wrong author with the first review!!!!! Make sure the author is Betty Lauer!
This book is about a Jewish young woman's true story during WWII. She hid with members of her family from Hitler's Nazis. I respect deeply the people who have suffered and still suffer today at the hands of others and prevail. At times the author added too many details that made the reading a little tedious.
This book is about a Jewish young woman's true story during WWII. She hid with members of her family from Hitler's Nazis. I respect deeply the people who have suffered and still suffer today at the hands of others and prevail. At times the author added too many details that made the reading a little tedious.
March 18, 2017
This is an inspiring but painful story. The author endured the difficulties of being Jewish in Germany in the 1930s. Her father went to America, she and her sister and mother were deported to Poland.
Eventually, Ms. Lauer obtained Christian papers and survived the war and it's aftermath.
This is not a literary masterpiece, but it is competently written. It is also an incredible and sobering story of survival in dire circumstances.
Eventually, Ms. Lauer obtained Christian papers and survived the war and it's aftermath.
This is not a literary masterpiece, but it is competently written. It is also an incredible and sobering story of survival in dire circumstances.
December 1, 2008
This book moved me to:
- unstoppable tears, imagining the pain and horror that this beautiful woman experienced.
- spontaneous laughter, with the relief of disasters avoided and the recognition of the humour in life no matter what the circumstances.
- feel physically ill, thinking of how barbarically we are able to treat each other.
- appreciate again and again how lucky I am.
- unstoppable tears, imagining the pain and horror that this beautiful woman experienced.
- spontaneous laughter, with the relief of disasters avoided and the recognition of the humour in life no matter what the circumstances.
- feel physically ill, thinking of how barbarically we are able to treat each other.
- appreciate again and again how lucky I am.
October 11, 2010
I really enjoyed reading this book. I am amazed at all that happened to Mrs. Lauer and her ability to remember in such detail what happened to her. I think that no one could forget living through such a time.
I was interested to read the experiences of a Jew that survived occupied Poland. I've never read about this subject from this perspective.
Great book.
I was interested to read the experiences of a Jew that survived occupied Poland. I've never read about this subject from this perspective.
Great book.
December 4, 2008
I am actually currently reading this...almost finished. I love it. It's very interesting, and as all historical biographies about the holocaust-important to help us remember and never let happen again.
January 26, 2008
Very interesting reading - at times thoroughly depressing and haunting - for obvious reasons. A very in-depth look at how she survived.
July 17, 2008
An incredible story with insite into what one can endure when pushed to the limits of survival under the oppression by one's fellow man.
August 24, 2008
This is a detailed account of how a young Jewish woman survived the Holocaust. I don't see how she remembered all these details.
Want to read
June 10, 2009My co-worker just told me that she finished this 500+ page book last night and immediately started reading it again. She says it's the best book she's ever read.
January 4, 2013
GREAT book!
August 8, 2013
These stories are always so hard to read. It's hard to imagine that it actually happened. People were this cruel and the persons persecuted were so determined to live.
January 1, 2015
The subtitle says it all ("The Incredible True Story of a German-Jewish Teenager's Struggle to Survive in Nazi-Occupied Poland"). Exquisite detail (500+ pages!) of what it took to survive.
January 17, 2019
Amazing story and so inspiring to read about how people survived WWII but I didn't love her writing style.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews