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The Lost Girl from Belzec
A little girl disappears from Belzec Camp without a trace. Will she survive the war on her own?
Poland, 1942. At the very height of World War II, little Ruthie and her mother are forced to leave their home and transported to the forbidding Belzec Extermination Camp, from whence no one has ever returned.
Ruthie’s mother knows that her daughter’s life is in grave danger. By a stroke of luck, she catches the eye of the camp commander and he makes her his housekeeper, delaying their death sentence for the time being.
Realizing that she must act fast, with no regard for her own life, Ruthie's mother is able to smuggle her beloved daughter out of the camp to safety. But it is not long before the commander inevitably discovers her betrayal – and while he chooses not to kill her, he leaves her with a scar that will follow her for the rest of her life.
This is the gripping story of Ruthie, the lost girl from Belzec, intertwined with that of her own daughter Noga, many years later. As Noga delves into the untold mysteries of her mother’s past on a quest to heal their fragmented relationship, she is about to discover shocking truths which will change them both forever.
Poland, 1942. At the very height of World War II, little Ruthie and her mother are forced to leave their home and transported to the forbidding Belzec Extermination Camp, from whence no one has ever returned.
Ruthie’s mother knows that her daughter’s life is in grave danger. By a stroke of luck, she catches the eye of the camp commander and he makes her his housekeeper, delaying their death sentence for the time being.
Realizing that she must act fast, with no regard for her own life, Ruthie's mother is able to smuggle her beloved daughter out of the camp to safety. But it is not long before the commander inevitably discovers her betrayal – and while he chooses not to kill her, he leaves her with a scar that will follow her for the rest of her life.
This is the gripping story of Ruthie, the lost girl from Belzec, intertwined with that of her own daughter Noga, many years later. As Noga delves into the untold mysteries of her mother’s past on a quest to heal their fragmented relationship, she is about to discover shocking truths which will change them both forever.
275 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 2, 2022
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567 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
April 9, 2022
Who is the lost girl?
Noga is the youngest of five children of an Israeli family whose mother is a Holocaust survivor. Not just any survivor, but one of the few, perhaps even the only one, who survived the extermination camp near the Polish village of Belzec. Noga’s story, and the story of her mother, Ruthie, are interwoven through the book, along with fragments of the story of Adva, a young girl Noga has been treating in her capacity as a clinical psychologist. It is a story of mothers and daughters, and of how the trauma of one generation can affect another. Noga’s questioning of whether her mother really loves her, and of whether she can love her mother, is never quite settled for her, especially when the secret her mother has kept for much of her life is revealed. And at the end, you are left wondering which of them is the REAL lost girl of Belzec…
Some readers will hate the jumping from one story to the other. I didn’t. Some will hate the ending. I didn’t exactly, although I more or less guessed it a couple of chapters before it ended. It is definitely a book worth reading if you want one that will make you think and will stay with you for awhile.
Noga is the youngest of five children of an Israeli family whose mother is a Holocaust survivor. Not just any survivor, but one of the few, perhaps even the only one, who survived the extermination camp near the Polish village of Belzec. Noga’s story, and the story of her mother, Ruthie, are interwoven through the book, along with fragments of the story of Adva, a young girl Noga has been treating in her capacity as a clinical psychologist. It is a story of mothers and daughters, and of how the trauma of one generation can affect another. Noga’s questioning of whether her mother really loves her, and of whether she can love her mother, is never quite settled for her, especially when the secret her mother has kept for much of her life is revealed. And at the end, you are left wondering which of them is the REAL lost girl of Belzec…
Some readers will hate the jumping from one story to the other. I didn’t. Some will hate the ending. I didn’t exactly, although I more or less guessed it a couple of chapters before it ended. It is definitely a book worth reading if you want one that will make you think and will stay with you for awhile.
April 18, 2022
Well….I had to start over because I couldn’t tell who was telling the story. The story goes into mom’s past, the tellers past, the tellers present….then the moms also….the jumps back and forth are confusing along with poetic crazy talk. I couldn’t get into this book and so, I didn’t finish it.
July 15, 2022
Not enjoyable
Too disjointed to be a good reading experience. I only read a few chapters and then gave it up. I do not like this style of writing.
Too disjointed to be a good reading experience. I only read a few chapters and then gave it up. I do not like this style of writing.
April 6, 2024
I think the blurb on this book was entirely misleading. Yes, there were parts of it that dealt with WWII. And yes, there was a girl who survived Belzec. But it was so much more than this, with a lot of mental health issues, intergenerational traumas, family secrets, and family relationships. I really enjoyed it, once I was able to see it for what it was rather than what I had supposed it to be.
July 1, 2023
Thought provoking
An unusual twist compared to many stories about the Holocaust, its survivors and their descendants. Chapters alternating voices and time periods were fairly easy to navigate, unlike the tangled weave many stories become when told this way. All in all, it's a very worthwhile read.
An unusual twist compared to many stories about the Holocaust, its survivors and their descendants. Chapters alternating voices and time periods were fairly easy to navigate, unlike the tangled weave many stories become when told this way. All in all, it's a very worthwhile read.
March 8, 2022
I struggled to finish this book, maybe because of the disjointed story telling. Some parts read easier than others but it was a chore.
July 19, 2022
A complex historical holocaust novel based on a true story. It explores the complex psychological relationship between a mother and her daughter.
The Nazis thrust Ruthie and her daughter Noga into the Belzec concentration camp in Poland. Ruthie desperately wants to save Noga, so she smuggles her out of the camp. The author narrates the saga from both their points of view and alternates back and forth. While the author creates well-delineated characters in heartbreaking situations, this dual arrangement can be confusing and annoying.
For young adults and adults who enjoy carefully researched historical novels or those that explore complex psychological issues, this book is an excellent choice. The characters struggle to survive and experience pain and suffering through physical and mental torture. Readers should expect that the book will make a deep impression on them.
The Nazis thrust Ruthie and her daughter Noga into the Belzec concentration camp in Poland. Ruthie desperately wants to save Noga, so she smuggles her out of the camp. The author narrates the saga from both their points of view and alternates back and forth. While the author creates well-delineated characters in heartbreaking situations, this dual arrangement can be confusing and annoying.
For young adults and adults who enjoy carefully researched historical novels or those that explore complex psychological issues, this book is an excellent choice. The characters struggle to survive and experience pain and suffering through physical and mental torture. Readers should expect that the book will make a deep impression on them.
June 8, 2024
A story based around the horrific extermination camp in Belzec, Poland where 600,000 Jewish people were exterminated. The lost girl was spirited out of the camp and hidden in unimaginable conditions for almost 3 years until the war's end. It is her family, specifically her youngest daughter, who is the focus of the story.
There are a few times when the story gets bogged down and a bit incomprehensible and repetitive. Like who exactly is Jenny? At first I thought she was a granddaughter and it wasn't until page 171 that her role was explained.
The reveal was expected.
The story takes place in Tel Aviv (except for flash backs). There is a lot of information on the unrest on the West Bank between Israel and Palestine which is, again, a hot topic of war and genocide.
There are a few times when the story gets bogged down and a bit incomprehensible and repetitive. Like who exactly is Jenny? At first I thought she was a granddaughter and it wasn't until page 171 that her role was explained.
The reveal was expected.
The story takes place in Tel Aviv (except for flash backs). There is a lot of information on the unrest on the West Bank between Israel and Palestine which is, again, a hot topic of war and genocide.
February 13, 2022
I did not enjoy the disjointed telling
of the story, but in the end, with a story like this, one really cannot complain about how it is told.
There is a lot of pain here, the kind of pain which does not disappear with the end of the story.
I did not read the introduction so I don’t know if these particular human evils are true. If they are, we have to look at them, say how could this be? and swear to ourselves never to be part of such evils. If they are not, I don’t think anyone ought to make them up just because equal evils did.
I am not going to get over this one for a long time.
of the story, but in the end, with a story like this, one really cannot complain about how it is told.
There is a lot of pain here, the kind of pain which does not disappear with the end of the story.
I did not read the introduction so I don’t know if these particular human evils are true. If they are, we have to look at them, say how could this be? and swear to ourselves never to be part of such evils. If they are not, I don’t think anyone ought to make them up just because equal evils did.
I am not going to get over this one for a long time.
August 6, 2022
It made me cry, it made me smile, it made me pray
This was actually a hard book to read. The pain, suffering and misunderstanding fuses the words together. An amazing story of survival in unbelievably horrendous times. Please God may we never experience such hate again is a cry for the ages. May we not lose the ideals that we need for the world to survive, may we stop the hating before it destroys us forever.
This was actually a hard book to read. The pain, suffering and misunderstanding fuses the words together. An amazing story of survival in unbelievably horrendous times. Please God may we never experience such hate again is a cry for the ages. May we not lose the ideals that we need for the world to survive, may we stop the hating before it destroys us forever.
July 28, 2023
I had no issue with the back-and-forth stories. I did have an issue with the literary writing it was too poetic, too abstract, which I think took away from the story . It could’ve been linear. It could’ve been more clear direct. I feel like it could’ve been a better story or better yet, the story could’ve been better told. Nevertheless, the story about the little girl survive the camp was captivating. I wish we knew more about the other girl.
August 11, 2022
Well not sure what to say about this book, starting reading and was not a fan too much back and forth. Last and present, lots of names to remember, hard for me to read. But I kept reading and found the end was quite amazing, it tied it all together, at least for me it did. WWII story told in great detail. Read if WW II is your interest.
October 30, 2022
I really tried.
I really tried to like this book, to get into it, to enjoy reading it. I was ready to give up on it 25% in. I kept reading thinking it must get better.
At 51% in I finally gave up. Certainly if a book hasn’t grabbed my attention by then it isn’t going to.
Maybe it got better. I will never know.
I really tried to like this book, to get into it, to enjoy reading it. I was ready to give up on it 25% in. I kept reading thinking it must get better.
At 51% in I finally gave up. Certainly if a book hasn’t grabbed my attention by then it isn’t going to.
Maybe it got better. I will never know.
July 31, 2023
Hard to follow
This book is in a series about heroic children of ww2 but the majority of the book focused on the daughter of the "lost girl from Be!zec" and her dysfunctional relationship with her mother. This book would have been much better had it focused on the actual survivor.
This book is in a series about heroic children of ww2 but the majority of the book focused on the daughter of the "lost girl from Be!zec" and her dysfunctional relationship with her mother. This book would have been much better had it focused on the actual survivor.
November 12, 2023
Too confusing
Got into it 17% and still had no idea what was going on. It switched back and forth without enough change of voice to know who was speaking. Never got to a point of knowing who got lost and why. I tried, but not sure I'll give it another try later. Too many books I want to read to struggle further with this one.
Got into it 17% and still had no idea what was going on. It switched back and forth without enough change of voice to know who was speaking. Never got to a point of knowing who got lost and why. I tried, but not sure I'll give it another try later. Too many books I want to read to struggle further with this one.
July 27, 2022
I really wanted to like this book, but reading it was a chore. The disjointed story telling and flipping back and forth between stories/timelines was not very well done. I didn’t really care much for Noga and felt like most of her story was unnecessary. Reading the blip about this on goodreads makes it sound like a completely different book and I think it would have been much better had it been more about Ruth and her mom than about Noga and her issues.
July 28, 2022
Didn't like it
This book seems more about the daughter, with all her angst and mental gymnastics, than the girl in Belzec. I skimmed most of it and just read the parts about the camp. Couldn't get into it and don't recommend.
This book seems more about the daughter, with all her angst and mental gymnastics, than the girl in Belzec. I skimmed most of it and just read the parts about the camp. Couldn't get into it and don't recommend.
January 11, 2023
The Lost Girl from Belzec
This is an interesting story about life as a Jewish girl growing up. I have learned much about a culture much different from mine. It is hard to remember this is fiction. I look forward to reading more books by this author.
This is an interesting story about life as a Jewish girl growing up. I have learned much about a culture much different from mine. It is hard to remember this is fiction. I look forward to reading more books by this author.
April 20, 2023
This was an interesting story. There were times I wax’s angry with the main character for awhile in her treatment and lack of understanding of her mother. Interesting twists and turns and the ending was perfect
May 25, 2023
Brilliantly written
Words escape me! I loved the details of life on kibbutz as well of existence in the pit. I found the story riveting and sad. If more stories are written by Ravit, I’d surely want to read them.
Words escape me! I loved the details of life on kibbutz as well of existence in the pit. I found the story riveting and sad. If more stories are written by Ravit, I’d surely want to read them.
June 17, 2023
intense
Book was a little depressing! It also had 3 different time lines! Present, has a child and as mother a child! Based on a true story! The Jewish Holocaust era was gut wretching!
Book was a little depressing! It also had 3 different time lines! Present, has a child and as mother a child! Based on a true story! The Jewish Holocaust era was gut wretching!
June 23, 2023
Very little about the Mother in Belzec. The book is very difficult to follow. Jump around too much from a little girl in the early years of school to who knows what. Read 4 chapters and then skimmed to see if anything about the concentration camp time. Awful waste of time.
September 4, 2023
Such a complex family, battered by the Holocaust to a second generation. From perspective of the daughter born last, puzzling her way through life, wanting to understand what happened to her mother, not quite fitting with older siblings.
September 15, 2024
Hidden Burden
Time switch backs may lead to confusion but essential to highlight understanding a past life impossible to live but was. Readers must learn never to repeat such heinous acts or so reap such consequences.
Time switch backs may lead to confusion but essential to highlight understanding a past life impossible to live but was. Readers must learn never to repeat such heinous acts or so reap such consequences.
October 3, 2024
A Wonderful Book
This was a fabulous book. With all the tragedy going on in Israel at this moment, people who are sitting safely in their comfortable armchairs should see the reality of hate, love and resilience.
This was a fabulous book. With all the tragedy going on in Israel at this moment, people who are sitting safely in their comfortable armchairs should see the reality of hate, love and resilience.
March 19, 2025
Jumps around
Very different from all other books about Holocaust survivors. Strange how her children grew up.
The writer struggles with her own life as if she were a survivor of trauma.
Jumps without warning from the main person's experiences to the mother.
Very different from all other books about Holocaust survivors. Strange how her children grew up.
The writer struggles with her own life as if she were a survivor of trauma.
Jumps without warning from the main person's experiences to the mother.
Read
February 20, 2022Not for me. I chose to not finish this so I will not rate it. Happy reading!
July 19, 2022
Upsetting, emotional story of a family whose mother survived the holocaust and went to live in Israel on a kibbutz and how the damage continues through generations but also survival is heroic.
July 25, 2022
Slow to get into
I found this book slow to get into. It was hard to follow because it jumped from back and forth.
I found this book slow to get into. It was hard to follow because it jumped from back and forth.
September 10, 2022
As others have said, this book is too disjointed and hard to follow. While I really wanted to know the details, I gave up due to the confusion.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews