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Hidden Child
A powerful story of survival, loss, and hope
Isaac was seven when the Germans invaded France and his life changed forever. First his father was taken away, and then, two years later, Isaac and his mother were arrested. Hoping to save Isaac’s life, his mother bribed a guard to take him to safety at a nearby hospital, where he and many other children pretended to be sick, with help from the doctors and nurses. But this proved a temporary haven. As Isaac was shuttled from city to countryside, experiencing the kindness of strangers, and sometimes their cruelty, he had to shed his Jewish identity to become Jean Devolder. But he never forgot who he really was, and he held on to the hope that after the war he would be reunited with his parents.
After more than fifty years of keeping his story to himself, Isaac Millman has broken his silence to tell it in spare prose, vivid composite paintings, and family photos that survived the war.
Isaac was seven when the Germans invaded France and his life changed forever. First his father was taken away, and then, two years later, Isaac and his mother were arrested. Hoping to save Isaac’s life, his mother bribed a guard to take him to safety at a nearby hospital, where he and many other children pretended to be sick, with help from the doctors and nurses. But this proved a temporary haven. As Isaac was shuttled from city to countryside, experiencing the kindness of strangers, and sometimes their cruelty, he had to shed his Jewish identity to become Jean Devolder. But he never forgot who he really was, and he held on to the hope that after the war he would be reunited with his parents.
After more than fifty years of keeping his story to himself, Isaac Millman has broken his silence to tell it in spare prose, vivid composite paintings, and family photos that survived the war.
80 pages, Hardcover
First published September 7, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 8, 2016
After 50 years of silence, Isaac Millman finds the courage to write about his childhood experiences. His compelling story, Hidden Child, tells of the tragedy, fear, horror and hope of the Jewish people during WWII. This survival story is simply told from Isaac’s childhood perspective. Readers both young and old alike will be moved to tears while reading this book. It is beautifully illustrated with Isaac’s drawings. His personal photographs that survived the war are also included in the book.
The story begins with Isaac Sztrymfman’s family emigrating from Poland to France; Isaac is a young boy of 7 at this time. In 1941 Germany invaded France, and shortly after that the Germans arrested Isaac’s father. Isaac and his mom were allowed to visit his dad once while he was in prison. The last memory Isaac has of his father is of him waving goodbye from behind a barbed-wire fence at the prison.
Isaac then recants of the many laws and restrictions put on the Jews. For example, they were required to wear the yellow star, strict curfews were imposed and Jewish children were no longer allowed to play in the parks. Isaac and his mom were living in constant fear of being arrested. After the Germans came to their apartment looking for them, Isaac and his mother decided it was time to try and relocate in the south of France or the free zone. They were almost to the end of their incredible journey when the Germans discovered them. Isaac’s story continues with the retelling of his experience of being a “Hidden Child.”
Isaac survived WWII. After the war, he went to the United States because an American couple adopted him. He took their name and is now Isaac Millman, author and illustrator. I believe that the last sentence of the book leaves the reader with a true look at Millman’s character. He wrote, “Today I am at peace with the past. Yet I cannot forget it, for the past is my parents.” Pg. 71
This book is a picture book, and I think it will be an excellent supplement to my Anne Frank unit.
The story begins with Isaac Sztrymfman’s family emigrating from Poland to France; Isaac is a young boy of 7 at this time. In 1941 Germany invaded France, and shortly after that the Germans arrested Isaac’s father. Isaac and his mom were allowed to visit his dad once while he was in prison. The last memory Isaac has of his father is of him waving goodbye from behind a barbed-wire fence at the prison.
Isaac then recants of the many laws and restrictions put on the Jews. For example, they were required to wear the yellow star, strict curfews were imposed and Jewish children were no longer allowed to play in the parks. Isaac and his mom were living in constant fear of being arrested. After the Germans came to their apartment looking for them, Isaac and his mother decided it was time to try and relocate in the south of France or the free zone. They were almost to the end of their incredible journey when the Germans discovered them. Isaac’s story continues with the retelling of his experience of being a “Hidden Child.”
Isaac survived WWII. After the war, he went to the United States because an American couple adopted him. He took their name and is now Isaac Millman, author and illustrator. I believe that the last sentence of the book leaves the reader with a true look at Millman’s character. He wrote, “Today I am at peace with the past. Yet I cannot forget it, for the past is my parents.” Pg. 71
This book is a picture book, and I think it will be an excellent supplement to my Anne Frank unit.
March 16, 2008
Why on earth does this book have low ratings? I loved it, would have given it a 4.5 if there were an option. True story of a child who had to leave his parents and shed his Jewish identity in order to survive.
April 17, 2008
Author's account of being hidden by a kind French woman during WWII. Touching.
December 28, 2024
In the introduction to his outstanding Holocaust memoir for young people, author and illustrator Isaac Millman (born Isaac Sztrymfan) states that approximately 1,200,000 Jewish children were deported and murderd by the Nazis and their collaborators. Almost all children who managed to survive had been sent into hiding, sometimes in convents and monasteries, other times on the farms or in the homes of non-Jewish families. Millman doesn’t provide an estimate of the number of Jewish hidden children, and, as I discovered, it’s very hard to find out. A website for middle and high school teachers, Echoes & Reflections, estimates that “tens of thousands [of Jewish children] were rescued during the Holocaust by non-Jewish people.” But how many tens of thousands, exactly? . . . What we do know is that Isaac was one of them. In his case an entirely fortuitous—even miraculous—encounter in Paris with an older Jewish woman, a grandmother originally from Poland, would make all the difference.
Millman’s book is well-organized and accessible to older children and young adults. The chapters are short and chronologically ordered. Typically, the reader gets two chapters at a time followed by a spread of images which provides a visual summary of the preceding pages. Most images are wonderful illustrations—some truly poignant— rendered from memory, with a few photos included as well.
The memoir begins with the author’s early life in Paris before the war. Isaac’s parents were immigrants from Poland, who appear to have left Eastern Europe for political reasons. The author’s father, Moishé, an idealistic communist, had spent a year in a Polish jail. The appeal of France was that a person didn’t have to hide his politics or identity there. And that was true . . . for a time.
In early childhood, Isaac had a Sunday routine with his beloved Papa, a tailor. The family lived at 60, rue de la Fontaine au Roi in a six-storey building in a Jewish neighbourhood. Their apartment did not have an oven, so on Sunday mornings, Moishé and Isaac took Mama’s chicken to be roasted at the corner bakery. While it cooked, the two socialized with Moishé’s customers and friends at a local café. Like the Strymfmans, everyone present spoke Yiddish. At lunchtime, father and son would pick up the chicken and make their way home for the big midday meal.
In 1940, when Isaac was only seven, the Germans invaded. France quickly surrendered, and the country was divided in two: the German-controlled North Zone (ostensibly run by the Vichy government) and the Free Zone in the South. It wasn’t long before restrictions were imposed on Jews and Moishé began to announce that friends were being arrested. Soon he himself had to report to the police station. He was then sent to an internment camp at Pithiviers, roughly 90 km south of Paris. Isaac and his mother were able to see him only once. Some of the most touching illustrations in the book depict this visit. The last letter received from Moishé was dated June 1942.
For a time Isaac and his mother, Rivelé, remained in the family apartment, but it became increasingly dangerous to do so. The police were regularly coming around, banging on the door. Mother and son often hid in Papa’s workshop.
Rivelé wanted to go south, into the Free Zone, and a friend linked her up with a guide, who, for a fee, would take them and other Jews there. They reached the demarcation line, but were captured before they could cross, and spent some time in prison. Isaac was subsequently separated from his mother; she used what money and jewelry she had to save her son’s life. Taken to a hospital, where the doctors and nurses were evidently engaged in more than medical work, Isaac was instructed to act as though he were sick. He was to stay in bed and or be moved around in a wheelchair. The Germans regularly monitored the hospital.
Eventually, Isaac was returned to Paris to the address of one of his mother’s friends. The frightened woman wouldn’t take him, so the guardian escorting him left him with the concièrge. That woman refused to have a Jew in her house and chased the child onto the street. And then . . . along came someone who spoke to the crying child in the same thickly accented French as his mother. This was Héna, a Polish Jew whose own grandchildren were in hiding. She took Isaac home with her and that made all the difference. She found placements for the boy in the village of Pontault-Combault, roughly 30 km from Paris, where her sister and brother-in-law lived.
The rest of Millman’s book details his time in hiding, including his first terrible placement with the Merciers, a couple looking for some extra income. In their home, he was ill-treated and regularly locked up. When this came to light, he was moved to the house of a Belgian widow, Madame Devolder, who treated him like a son. He was known in the village as Jean Devolder. Another very touching illustration is the one with the caption “Madame Devolder shaves my head and scrubs and washes me.” Such was his sorry condition when he was first brought to her house.
The concluding chapters of the book focus on the town’s liberation by the Americans, Isaac’s time at Les Buissons (a temporary home for Jewish children—orphans or those separated from their families), and his eventual adoption at the age of 15 by the Millmans, an American family.
Throughout his life, Isaac maintained contact with Héna. He ended up marrying her granddaughter! He was also able to visit Mme Devolder. As for his mother: on August 26, 1942, she had been transported from Pithiviers to Auschwitz together with 947 other deportees, 23 of whom survived. Rivelé was not among them, but it was her love in action which started the chain of events that ultimately saved her beloved son.
Recommended.
Millman’s book is well-organized and accessible to older children and young adults. The chapters are short and chronologically ordered. Typically, the reader gets two chapters at a time followed by a spread of images which provides a visual summary of the preceding pages. Most images are wonderful illustrations—some truly poignant— rendered from memory, with a few photos included as well.
The memoir begins with the author’s early life in Paris before the war. Isaac’s parents were immigrants from Poland, who appear to have left Eastern Europe for political reasons. The author’s father, Moishé, an idealistic communist, had spent a year in a Polish jail. The appeal of France was that a person didn’t have to hide his politics or identity there. And that was true . . . for a time.
In early childhood, Isaac had a Sunday routine with his beloved Papa, a tailor. The family lived at 60, rue de la Fontaine au Roi in a six-storey building in a Jewish neighbourhood. Their apartment did not have an oven, so on Sunday mornings, Moishé and Isaac took Mama’s chicken to be roasted at the corner bakery. While it cooked, the two socialized with Moishé’s customers and friends at a local café. Like the Strymfmans, everyone present spoke Yiddish. At lunchtime, father and son would pick up the chicken and make their way home for the big midday meal.
In 1940, when Isaac was only seven, the Germans invaded. France quickly surrendered, and the country was divided in two: the German-controlled North Zone (ostensibly run by the Vichy government) and the Free Zone in the South. It wasn’t long before restrictions were imposed on Jews and Moishé began to announce that friends were being arrested. Soon he himself had to report to the police station. He was then sent to an internment camp at Pithiviers, roughly 90 km south of Paris. Isaac and his mother were able to see him only once. Some of the most touching illustrations in the book depict this visit. The last letter received from Moishé was dated June 1942.
For a time Isaac and his mother, Rivelé, remained in the family apartment, but it became increasingly dangerous to do so. The police were regularly coming around, banging on the door. Mother and son often hid in Papa’s workshop.
Rivelé wanted to go south, into the Free Zone, and a friend linked her up with a guide, who, for a fee, would take them and other Jews there. They reached the demarcation line, but were captured before they could cross, and spent some time in prison. Isaac was subsequently separated from his mother; she used what money and jewelry she had to save her son’s life. Taken to a hospital, where the doctors and nurses were evidently engaged in more than medical work, Isaac was instructed to act as though he were sick. He was to stay in bed and or be moved around in a wheelchair. The Germans regularly monitored the hospital.
Eventually, Isaac was returned to Paris to the address of one of his mother’s friends. The frightened woman wouldn’t take him, so the guardian escorting him left him with the concièrge. That woman refused to have a Jew in her house and chased the child onto the street. And then . . . along came someone who spoke to the crying child in the same thickly accented French as his mother. This was Héna, a Polish Jew whose own grandchildren were in hiding. She took Isaac home with her and that made all the difference. She found placements for the boy in the village of Pontault-Combault, roughly 30 km from Paris, where her sister and brother-in-law lived.
The rest of Millman’s book details his time in hiding, including his first terrible placement with the Merciers, a couple looking for some extra income. In their home, he was ill-treated and regularly locked up. When this came to light, he was moved to the house of a Belgian widow, Madame Devolder, who treated him like a son. He was known in the village as Jean Devolder. Another very touching illustration is the one with the caption “Madame Devolder shaves my head and scrubs and washes me.” Such was his sorry condition when he was first brought to her house.
The concluding chapters of the book focus on the town’s liberation by the Americans, Isaac’s time at Les Buissons (a temporary home for Jewish children—orphans or those separated from their families), and his eventual adoption at the age of 15 by the Millmans, an American family.
Throughout his life, Isaac maintained contact with Héna. He ended up marrying her granddaughter! He was also able to visit Mme Devolder. As for his mother: on August 26, 1942, she had been transported from Pithiviers to Auschwitz together with 947 other deportees, 23 of whom survived. Rivelé was not among them, but it was her love in action which started the chain of events that ultimately saved her beloved son.
Recommended.
April 15, 2018
This children's book was much more text-heavy than I had imagined it would be, but I appreciate all the details that Millman included. Millman recounts games he played while in hiding, alongside painful memories. I do wish the illustrations had been throughout the book instead of chopping the pages, and sometimes the sentences, in parts. Also, the sentence, "fascinated, I watched a dying German take his last breath," seemed like an odd thing to include in a children's book but the subject matter in general is heavy so ...
June 14, 2021
Excellent picture book biography written by a Holocaust survivor who was a “hidden child.” Appropriate for children but also with meaty information and beautiful drawings; definitely a great one to read and own.
February 19, 2018
This book should be in every school library. It is a gorgeous combination of photojournalism, excellent storytelling, and beautiful illustrations.
November 27, 2018
A beautifully illustrated picture book biography of a bleak moment in history.
February 14, 2019
Hidden Child is a moving recollection of Isaac Millman's experience as a child hiding from the Nazis. Truly heartbreaking.
January 22, 2021
NF- Biography (Holocaust)
March 19, 2021
Excellent memoir of a young Jewish boy hiding in rural France during WWII. Heart-renching. His own illustrations add another layer of emotion to the story.
January 7, 2024
I am so grateful for people who are willing to tell their stories. I am in awe at the courage of so many. This is a quick read but worth seeking out.
January 10, 2025
A very moving story.
June 10, 2025
Good introduction to the Holocaust. Set in France, Isaac must stay hidden from Nazis.
November 9, 2009
It had stated that more than 1,2000,000 Jewish children were murdered by the Nazis. Those children that survived did by hiding with Jewish and non-Jewish families. Isaac was one of those children that survived by hiding with a Jewish family. Here is his story:
The author, Isaac Millman tells the true story about his life hiding from the Nazis. Issac was seven years old when the Germans invaded France which his life has changed forever. First, Isaac's father was taken away and then two years later Issac and his mother was arrested. Issac's mother was hoping to save her son's life and begged the jailer to take him to a hospital to keep him safe. Issac and many other children were at hospitals to pretend to be sick, in order to be safe. Issac was hoping that he would reunite with his family but he wasn't lucky to find them. During the spring of 1948 a Jewish couple in America wanted to bring Issac to the United States and adopt him. Before Issac left for America he had visited friends said his goodbye. The memories that he had about his parents was an old photograph. At the end of the story Issac quoted " Today I am at peace with the past. Yet I cannot forget it, for the past is my parents." After reading this quote, I began to cry. I can't believe a young boy had to go through this in order to be alive.
As I began to read the acknowledgments it has stated that he began to write this story after visiting schools about his Holocaust experience. He had received so much mail from the students that he decided to write a book about his life during the Holocaust. I appreciate the author sharing his journey with others.
The author, Isaac Millman tells the true story about his life hiding from the Nazis. Issac was seven years old when the Germans invaded France which his life has changed forever. First, Isaac's father was taken away and then two years later Issac and his mother was arrested. Issac's mother was hoping to save her son's life and begged the jailer to take him to a hospital to keep him safe. Issac and many other children were at hospitals to pretend to be sick, in order to be safe. Issac was hoping that he would reunite with his family but he wasn't lucky to find them. During the spring of 1948 a Jewish couple in America wanted to bring Issac to the United States and adopt him. Before Issac left for America he had visited friends said his goodbye. The memories that he had about his parents was an old photograph. At the end of the story Issac quoted " Today I am at peace with the past. Yet I cannot forget it, for the past is my parents." After reading this quote, I began to cry. I can't believe a young boy had to go through this in order to be alive.
As I began to read the acknowledgments it has stated that he began to write this story after visiting schools about his Holocaust experience. He had received so much mail from the students that he decided to write a book about his life during the Holocaust. I appreciate the author sharing his journey with others.
October 28, 2013
Wow... the book is simply written but it is the message between the lines. The author and the story of which it was about his childhood life growing up as a hidden Jew. The book talks about concentration camps, Star of David attached to clothing, arrest, death, German guards.
He was 7 years old when Germany invaded France. His father was taken away. Later police tried to break into their appartment and when they left; they fled. They tried to get to the safe zone; however they were caught and locked up. His mother gave a guard valuable items in exchange to send her son Isaac to the hosiptal (hide him there) and they were then seperated and never seen each other again. Several months later he left the temperary safe haven of the hosipital and was taken to the coutryside where he experience some cruelty and kindness. He had to change his name to Jean Devolder to hide his jewish name. In 1944 the war finally ended; but never was reunited with his parents because they did not survive the Holucost. He was adopted by an American family and made a new life started at the age of 15.
A very powerful book. I would recommend this book to all middle schoolage students. The hidden children are often an overlooked part of high school Holocaust studies. This book speaks volumes about human nature, from the couple who took him in, a Hidden Jewish child, and to the people who really helped him survive. Isaac Millman's description of the changes in his life from the perspective of the child that he was during the is moving and informative. This is a courageous book.
He was 7 years old when Germany invaded France. His father was taken away. Later police tried to break into their appartment and when they left; they fled. They tried to get to the safe zone; however they were caught and locked up. His mother gave a guard valuable items in exchange to send her son Isaac to the hosiptal (hide him there) and they were then seperated and never seen each other again. Several months later he left the temperary safe haven of the hosipital and was taken to the coutryside where he experience some cruelty and kindness. He had to change his name to Jean Devolder to hide his jewish name. In 1944 the war finally ended; but never was reunited with his parents because they did not survive the Holucost. He was adopted by an American family and made a new life started at the age of 15.
A very powerful book. I would recommend this book to all middle schoolage students. The hidden children are often an overlooked part of high school Holocaust studies. This book speaks volumes about human nature, from the couple who took him in, a Hidden Jewish child, and to the people who really helped him survive. Isaac Millman's description of the changes in his life from the perspective of the child that he was during the is moving and informative. This is a courageous book.
January 25, 2013
This is an excellent book. It is an adult man who has written about his experiences in the Holocaust where he lost both his parents, many aunts, uncles and cousins (One uncle and a cousin survived) and survived due to the kindness of strangers. His mother paid at the very last minute for him to be smuggled into a hospital as a "patient". After that experience he ended up back at his old apartment only to be chased away by the antisemitic manager at age 8. A stranger took him in and sent him to hide in a rural area in France where he became very close to the main woman who stayed in his life. He kept in touch after the war and eventually married a granddaughter of the woman. The reason it lost a star is not due to quality. It is a very limited book, in that it covers one child's experiences in the Holocaust and is clearly the memories of an adult looking back on what happened fifty odd years ago to him. The book was published in 2005 if this makes the math more explainable. This is not the book to lead children into studying a terrible period. Stay with the classic, Anne Frank's diary, for that purpose.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2014
Holocaust survivor stories are always difficult to read because of the overwhelming emotions they stir. But there is something life-affirming about them, too. This book is written by a man who survived the Holocaust through some luck and the goodness of others. As a child, he was saved from deportation and kept in hiding by a few different people. I really like the author's writing style - - it's simple and crisp. Although an adult when writing this, Millman describes events, thoughts and people as if he is still in that moment of his childhood. It is isn't told as a memory, but as if it is happening in the present. Each chapter contains a two-page illustration depicting scenes from the chapter. The artwork was done by the author, which adds special meaning to these pages and to the book as a whole. The last few lines of the book are heart-wrenching, so be prepared.
March 28, 2009
I thought this would be a great picture book for my Holocaust unit (supplement to Anne Frank, or to use for their WWII research papers), but the writing was nothing remarkable, and I wasn't even moved as much as the story should have moved me. It seemed incomplete, rough, and a little fragmented. It left me with many questions and utterly unsatisfied. I did learn about aspects of the Holocaust that I hadn't known before (minimal), but not enough to suggest that my students read the whole thing when there are better books that cover the same topics.
I feel really bad, as always, criticizing a memoir that expresses pain or recounts a traumatic experience, but I just wasn't brought into the character's feelings and experiences in a way that was transformative. Sorry. :(
I feel really bad, as always, criticizing a memoir that expresses pain or recounts a traumatic experience, but I just wasn't brought into the character's feelings and experiences in a way that was transformative. Sorry. :(
March 3, 2021
In ES library
Survivors
Escape
Survivors
Escape
June 11, 2011
There is something powerful about hearing about the experience in the author's own words. The danger, fear and pain is muted and it includes the brighter spots rather than dwell on the nasty side of human nature.
In the end, I wanted badly to pick up and hug the young child he was and find a way to make it all go away, to be better, to not have happened and to restore the future that he should have had. An impossible task.
As an American, my life is protected in ways I can't possibly comprehend or appreciate since I know of no other. Books like this help me put things into perspective. It is humbling.
In the end, I wanted badly to pick up and hug the young child he was and find a way to make it all go away, to be better, to not have happened and to restore the future that he should have had. An impossible task.
As an American, my life is protected in ways I can't possibly comprehend or appreciate since I know of no other. Books like this help me put things into perspective. It is humbling.
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June 14, 2011The book is the author’s account of how he survived the Nazi occupation of France. As a young boy he was forced into hiding. First his father was taken, and then he and his mother try to flee but were arrested. His mother found a way to hide him in a hospital and hoped to send him on to the care of a friend. He ends up on his own and is taken in by a woman who cares for him and sees to his safety. When the war is over he lives in a home for Jewish orphans before he is adopted in his teens by a family in the US.
May 3, 2013
A little boy named Isaac tells his story of when the Germany was invaded France. The Nazi's changed Isaac life upside down. This book will be a great read to teach students about Germany’s invasion on France. As a result, how life was difficult for Jews during those times. It can be also used for the topic about how Jews and similar races were discriminated.
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April 8, 2012This book is a true story about the author of this book. He tells of having to lose his identity as a young Jewish boy, and the pictures to go along with it take up two full pages that really show what the author went through.
March 8, 2016
very good book lots of factual info
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September 8, 2018Very interesting and emotional. Struggles a young child had to live as a Jew in Nazi Europe.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews