Prisoner in Time: A Child of the Holocaust

by Pamela Melnikoff

When the Nazis take twelve-year-old Jan’s family away, Jan finds shelter with friends. But a year in their attic becomes too much for him and he ventures into the dangerous streets of the city, where he finds refuge in the old Jewish cemetery and the tomb of Rabbi Loewe, who created a legendary giant—the Golem—to save his people from oppression in sixteenth century Prague. Jan travels back in time. Will he find a way to escape from the fate that was to befall a million and a half Jewish children in Nazi-occupied Europe?

Genres: Holocaust

142 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 1992

Reviews

[Dylan Valis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Prisoner in Time: A child of the Holocaust by Pamela Melnikoff it takes place during ww2. In the story the main character's name is Jan who is brave, kind and courageous. In the story Jan's Mother, grandfather and sister's were taken away by the nazi soldiers and taken to a concentration camp. Jan hide at his neighbors house until he couldn't imagine what was happening to his family anymore so he went to his old home and turned him self in. Jan said to himself I can't stay here anymore I have to do something to help my family. He then went to the concentration camp with hopes to find his family.
The point of view of the story is first person and that helps make the book easier to read because 3rd person can be confusing sometimes. One theme of the story is to never give up because when Jan thought it was hopeless he didn't give up and he found his mother. Another theme is to not judge a book by its cover because he thought all nazi soldier were bad people but one nazi soldier named Sergeant Kolb treated him very well because Jan would clean his home and he would give very generous rewards.
Me and Jan have many similarities for example we are both very kind and caring. Because in the story Jan shared some of his food with others, I would do the same. I would recommend this book to someone who is interested in the topic of the Holocaust. I personally am not very interested by the topic so I was not very interested in this book. I would rate it 6 out of 10 because it was well written but it was boring.
Spoiler Alert: After Jan got to the concentration camp he found his mother who died minutes after he found her and she told him that his grandfather and sisters were killed. And Jan was later taken to where the jews where killed and in the end all of the Jewish characters were killed.

[Ellen Fleischer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good narrative flow but historical inaccuracies are offensive. The book is dedicated to the memory of several children of Theresienstadt who perished. Except that one of the children named survived and, at the time that I was reading the book, was still alive. Pavel Friedman is described as being too young to be put to work when he was actually in his early twenties. I find Jan's behavior extremely unrealistic, from leaving his hiding place during the Nazi occupation, to choosing to return to his own time when he's relatively safe in the 1500s.

When writing historical fiction about a time like the Holocaust (or 9/11 or the 'killing fields' of Cambodia), particularly when introducing a fantastic element, it's hard to say how much one can depart from the facts. But at the very least, when you're putting real people in, take the thirty seconds it took me to Google each name and confirm their ages, fates, etc.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd story of a Jewish man hiding from the Nazis in Prague, who travels back in time to another period of trouble for the Jews, where he meets the Golem, a savior to the Jews.
A very unusual Holocaust story.

[Janie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very unusual holocoaust story. I liked it. The protagonist, Jan, makes friends with nazis and people in the 1500s. it didn't have the survivor story ring to it that a lot of other holocaust-era books have, but it managed to be cheerful in spite of the unhappy ending.