Hide: A Child's View of the Holocaust

by Naomi Samson, Kenneth Jacobson (Foreword by), Joseph Samson (Preface by)

In 1942 German Nazis and Polish collaborators drove nine-year-old Naomi Rosenberg and her family from the town of Goray, Poland, and into hiding. For nearly two years they were forced to take refuge in a crawl space beneath a barn. In this tense and moving memoir, the author tells of her terror and confusion as a child literally buried alive. Her family owed their survival to the reluctant and constantly wavering support of the barn owners, gentiles torn between compassion for Naomi’s family and fear of a Nazi death sentence if the family was discovered.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, History, Holocaust

194 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2000

Reviews

[Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bomb drops as an explosion shatters the air, destroying our safe haven. Where to hide? How to survive? How could it be that after all we just went through, it ends, just like this… Hide by Naomi Samson is an amazing firsthand experience of the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland, and as read through my short paraphrase above, the experiences have been expressed very well throughout this book. Many Holocaust books aren’t written as a firsthand account, but by directly breaking out of her role as narrator and addressing the reader about the difficulty of the writing process many times throughout this book, Naomi Samson conveys the gravity of her childhood memories, not through the sheer violence and gore of other books, but by emphasizing the trauma she still experiences to this day over her experiences. This was my first time reading a book in which the author inputs their emotions and thoughts going through their head as the book is being written, something I found to be more powerful than some of the writing itself.

Hide follows the story of Naomi ( age 9 ½) and her family as they live through an increasingly hostile Nazi-occupied Poland. The author chooses to begin her recollection in 1942, something that reflects increased Nazi activity at that time. The author recalls the death of her father and sister and expresses remorse, confusion, and terror at the thought of why this was happening to them. As they flee to a nearby town, they attempt to seek refuge with their close friends, however, what now commences a repeating pattern, they are turned away either in fear or disgust. Those who sympathize offer little aid as their fear of retribution dwarfs their goodwill. Eventually, the family is able to find a place to hide and do so until yet again, they are ousted in fear of discovery by the ever-present SS and Nazi sympathizers. The story continues to follow Naomi as her family struggles to find help and avoid the once seemingly friendly and welcoming Polish.

Overall, there are many things about Hide that I find very distinct, unique, and powerful, however, I found there to be a few persistent issues that the author has either chosen to include or in my opinion, failed to address. Beginning with positive observations, as already mentioned, the author-to-reader connections made throughout the book are extremely powerful. It might be through author notes regarding her thoughts while writing select passages, for example: “To talk of Stefan Mrozyk is still very disturbing to me, but I feel like I have to. At this point in my life, I must tell. for if not now, when?” ( Samson, 51 ). Or, it might be the unique way in which the character's thought process throughout the book seems to resonate with your own, for example, “Oh god, why was all this happening? What did we do wrong? The Jewish never hurt anybody.” ( Samson, 34 ) In those ways, the book can send powerful messages in simple, yet direct ways. My favorite example of this is when the author addresses Jewish confinement and goes into detail about how the Nazis were able to identify those who were Jewish. It discussed how the Polish population worked voluntarily in line with the Nazis in order to disclose Jews, something I had not assumed was the most widespread way of identifying religious identities, “Ironically, the Germans couldn’t have accomplished this on their own, simply because they couldn’t always identify a Jew. Since we, the Jewish people, don’t really have horns, many of us could have passed for non-Jews. But Hitler had no problem with that because many polish gentiles happily volunteered to help the Nazis with their task.” ( Samson, 47 ) The direct way it was addressed, especially for someone who was not entirely aware of the entire situation was very impressive, and therefore has stayed at the forefront of my mind, and therefore this review. To add on without giving away the ending, the final chapters of this book are incredible. The ending was certainly one of my favorite parts of the book as it goes into details that many other WW2 books seem to avoid going over, including immigration after the war and relocation programs in Europe. Moreover, the book does an overall incredible job at accounting the firsthand experiences of the author, however overall is the key word here, and several sections or recurring themes in the book are, in my opinion, more criticizable.

Despite the well-written and documented story, from my perspective as the reader, I found several key moments in the book rather frustrating as the author chooses to allocate very little literal space for select points in the story. My foremost example of this is when, after spending almost two years in hiding, the main character and her family ( I am attempting to avoid giving away the book) are displaced from their hiding place, hide once again, leave the family who has been sheltering them, are able to escape, etc.. ( could give away the book… ) and the author chooses to spend somewhere around 4 pages covering this chronicle of events. Not that I am devaluing the importance of sharing the experiences of being in hiding, but the book itself is fairly short, so in my eyes, for this extremely significant section of which I would have loved to have read more of, there should have been more than what is essentially what seems to be a bare minimum amount of writing. Again, the view on these passages may vary, but this type of oversimplification over important topics continues to recur throughout the book. Another example is when after being given a task while in hiding which gives Naomi and her family a sense of purpose, the task is taken away in fear of discovery, and once again the author appears to give little thought to it when writing, which I imagine is fairly unrealistic. Trying to place myself in her shoes, I can imagine spending months and months in hiding, after which I am given an enjoyable task to spend my time which, and then that task being taken away, would be at the forefront of my mind for an extremely long time. It seems like the author is devaluing the lack of purpose she continues to characterize her characters as constantly having when she includes passages such as, “ Our spirits were low. We were sad souls. Most of our time was not spent lying down under that dirty, scratchy hay cover in complete silence.” ( Samson, 85). My point being that this was the extent of what was written after their ‘task’ was taken away, and not that it isn't addressed, I just imagine this point in their lives to be much more significant than what it appears to be in writing ( apologies for the inadequate explanations, attempts at not giving away the book have been made ). Just to summarize what may have been a rather confusing monologue, I feel as though the author places very little importance or emphasis on events that she went through which would have been incredibly important and should have been given much emphasis.

To conclude, this book is amazing and I would recommend it to someone wishing to expand their knowledge of the Holocaust, however, I might refrain from recommending it to someone who would otherwise be reading a more in-depth and more well-put-together type of book. Clearly, I have been criticizing this book fairly heavily, something that I find myself possibly overdoing, but to give it credit, the ending of this book was possibly my favorite WW2 book ending I have ever read, and some of the messages in this book are more powerful and well structured / straightforward than other similar books, and I was very impressed. So I apologize for the potentially mixed messages being sent, but If you do have the time ( it's short so it shouldn't take too long!) then I would recommend checking this book out and seeing if the style is for you, and if these nitpicky issues I have with it bother you. If they do not, this book will most certainly not disappoint!

[Tess Challu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hide: An Evocative Tale of Oppression and Resilience

Naomi Samson

Rating: ★★★★★


Hide: A Child’s View of the Holocaust is a book that will forever impact your appreciation of life. This heart wrenching memoir details the real life of Naomi Samson, the author, a Jewish girl from Poland who’s world was upended when the Nazis invaded. Hide shows the persistence of hope, and humanity in a time when both are seemingly lost to the darkness and violence of reality.

The theme of hope or the lack thereof, appears many times throughout the book. There are many times when hope seems to vanish altogether only to be found holding on by a thread and prevailing. Naomi, who thought her mother had left her, had lost hope. She had begun to think: “She wanted me dead. Jewish children were just garbage now,” (Samson 33) showing how she had deeply internalized the messages of hate spread by the Nazis until she had even begun to think of herself as trash. Despite these intense thoughts of worthlessness and hopelessness, Naomi still clung to the intense hope her mother would come back to her.

Naomi’s family suffered many losses and hardships during their time in isolation. Most prevalent among these was their struggle to retain their humanity. There were times when their hunger was so intense that they ate the scraps the animals had left behind as though they were animals themselves. Naomi’s mother was appalled and saddened to see her children so desperate. It was because of her that their family retained any semblance of humanity. Despite their starvation, she still insisted that they throw out their beans to abide by the rules of passover, a Jewish tradition she would not let go. She clung to tradition and they celebrated their holidays, even wishing each other “a good year - a sweet year - a year filled with blessings - a year of life” (Samson 101) when the new year came. Despite their living conditions they held onto religion, because that is what made them human and if they lost their humanity then that meant the Nazis won.

While reading the book it was easy to forget the truth behind the pages. The reality is, this isn’t just another novel about the holocaust, this is a true story, a memoir. These are people’s friends and family that have died and suffered. The pain and the regret and extreme personal connection of the author seep into the writing and give it life. The impact of the words hits you hard, it makes you think and feel strongly, so much so that it will forever change your appreciation of life.

Hide: A Child’s View of the Holocaust is not an easy read, it is terrifying but it is real and this is why it deserves a five star rating and why I strongly believe everybody should read this memoir. It gives you a direct window into the past, it throws the tragedies of the holocaust right at you. Reading this book will change the way you think of the holocaust, changing it from a saddening historical event, to an absolutely devastating and terrible affront to everything we stand for as human beings. This is the exact impression we need of the holocaust, and while it may be over, it is our duty to never forget what happened.

[Makenna Oates · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who loves to read about the Holocaust, this book was an interesting read.

This book tells the story of a little girl, Naomi, and her family as they live through the horrific times of World War II.

I have read many books about the Holocaust, and this is the first true story on the topic that I have read. Naomi Samson does a great job explaining her view as a child during WWII and the views of her family and other people in her story. I love how she wrote so in depth about her feelings and thoughts, it felt like I was there experiencing everything myself. It was also a very emotional book due to everything her family went through.

Even when everything seemed impossible, Naomi’s sister always believed that Naomi would survive to tell the story of everything that they experienced.

“I can’t anymore,” she said, “but you, Naomi, you can still run, so waste no more time.
Maybe someone from our family will survive to tell about these horrors;
maybe that someone will be you.’’

It’s odd to think that her sister was once telling her that she could be lucky enough to survive the war. Even through all of the hard times she was put through, she still ended up surviving to tell her story.

There was also a point in the story where Naomi thought she would be better off dead.

“Well you should have left me there to die in my sleep! It would have
been over for me, and I wouldn’t have to die once more. How many times
do I have to die? You did me no favor in bringing me out here to die in the mud!”
I yelled at my best friend.

She got angry at her mom for saving her life because she was ready to give up. She didn’t feel like surviving anymore, but even when she felt like quitting, she never did.

This book is very descriptive and Naomi’s writing style is really authentic. Overall, this book is a really great book if you are looking to read a true story about the Holocaust.

[Emilia Esposito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the summer I was challenged with picking a book for my summer reading project. There was an extensive list of books with lots of variety, but I chose the book titled Hide. I have enjoyed reading about the holocaust even though the subject is an erie and sad one, I was actually looking forward to this read. There are many reasons why this book had lots of meaning and was really important, however one reason really stuck out to me. This book was about how a 9 year old girl that lost her family, friends, and all peace during the holocaust and survived. I was shocked, there were no words that I could think of to describe how I felt while I was reading this book. This girl was only 9 yet I looked up to her, and the enormous amount of bravery she had.

The book just takes off right from the beginning when we meet a young girl named Naomi, and some of her family. We learn that they have been hiding in Poland from the Germans for a while now. Naomi loses some of her family members along the way of this devastating journey. She however never gives up hope, even her own mother loses all hope but she stays strong. “Mama, must we die only because we are Jewish” (6)? This was the mentality of children during this time, throughout this book we see how children do not understand but they do know that they are dying because they are Jewish. “I envy the dead. They do not have to die again the way you and I do” (7). This also symbolizes how terrifying this situation truly was. This poor family was rejected by others, told that they had to leave or they would be killed, and even chased down and shot at. The horrors that this young girl faced are terrors that not even adults today could handle. To envy the dead as a 9 year old is terrifying in its own right. I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who is interested.

[Aidan Jacks · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It’s a great book for history fans!”
The book Hide is based off of a young girl, Naomi, and her family who are constantly avoiding the Germans during the horrible days of the Holocaust during WWII. To make sure they stay safe, extreme measures must be taken. From staying in attics to basements to crates, they were constantly narrowly avoiding the harsh punishment of the Germans. This book is a very well written, action-packed book that everyone needs to read. It realistically narrates what it would be like to live the life of a Jewish person during the Holocaust of WWII.
Throughout the whole book, the main character, Naomi, needs to step up alongside her family and fight for survival. It is a tough challenge, with countless obstacles that just seem to keep getting worse. However, every step they take through every challenge posed to them, is one step closer to the freedom they’re trying to achieve.
This is a really great book for people who enjoy action, suspense, and historical nonfiction. This book has a similar feeling to The Book Thief by Marie Suzak. The author Naomi Samson seems to go really heavy with the suspense in this book, giving the reader almost no breath in between plunges of stressful situations and teeth-chattering questions like “What will happen next?” As well as that, there are curve balls thrown at you all throughout the book, when you least expect them. The plot has so many twists and turns, and it just gets crazier to think that someone went through this in real life.

[Katelyn Ziems · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emotional and Exciting
Hide, by Naomi Samson, is a real account of the Holocaust in the point of view of a Polish Jew named Naomi. The book describes her encounters as a Jew during the German invasion of Poland. The author, who is Naomi herself, describes what she was thinking and feeling during the events of the Holocaust. This book was very well written, and provoked a lot of emotion due to the hardship Naomi and her family faced and how they coped with it.
I would recommend this story to people who enjoy a quicker read, and who like historical books. This book is not very long, but it really helped open my eyes to what Jewish people had to live through during the Holocaust. This book has a good story, but it was also hard for me to follow at times. To me, it seemed like the story jumped to what had happened before Poland was invaded and did not indicate clearly when this was happening. Some parts in the story were very uneventful, so it was harder to get through, but I thought it was a good choice on the author to include these parts because it helped to show how the Jews really felt at the time. I liked how the author was very descriptive during the story, making it feel as though I was actually there since I could clearly envision what was happening. This book overall was really good and I enjoyed reading it.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very real and descriptive account of the horrors of the Holocaust as remembered by Naomi Samson, who at 9 1/2 years went into hiding to escape the killing of Jews in Poland. It tells of the kindness of very few who hid, fed, and clothed them, and the cruelty of so many who killed or turned in Jews without any remorse, just for a bag of sugar in some cases.
This trauma continued into her adulthood, and stayed with her forever, although she did eventually seek out therapy, which helped her to deal with the trauma.
An extraordinary look at the courage of the Jewish people who fought to survive.
Let's learn from this!

[Juan Landa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most powerful first hand accounts of life during the holocaust while in the midst of war, persecution, and suffering. When we think of the holocaust we think of the concentration camps and ghettos that fed into the mayhem however, no book gives a better account of life in hiding then this masterpiece here. This book will make you question at what point is it really worth continuing on with life and how long one can truly cling to hope. It was great. It took me 10 years to find it again after reading it as a kid and it was every bit as powerful.

Landa

[Trudy Ackerblade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hide by Naomi Sanson is not a literary masterpiece but is a masterpiece of survival during the holocaust. I recommend it, especially in the current United States. My next book was going to be to reread On Tyranny, but I was afraid I would become suicidal. I needed a break between two.

[Bethanyweed · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the last 2 books, particularly about the Darfur genocide, I was drawn back to Holocaust literature. I always feel compelled to learn more, to understand as though it somehow honors the victims by my knowing about it. This is a moving little memoir that exposes a lot of gray area in people and events of the Holocaust.