Based on the experiences of the author’s mother in Theresienstadt, this was a very quick and not terribly detailed glimpse into life in the “nice” camp (those quotes are carrying a LOT of weight bc, while not a death camp, it was still an ungodly place of horrors where 30,000 people died). I wish there had been more to it and that several dropped plot lines had been fleshed out, but the lack of gory detail does make this slightly more approachable for those with weak stomachs than some of the other Holocaust memoirs I’ve read. The story the authors mother told is beyond reproach, because a person’s bravery to tell their trauma to a new generation in order to educate and prevent recurrence of atrocities is always to be praised and lauded. However, the writing itself leaves something to be desired.

I’ve read many memoirs and fiction about the Holocaust and am a Holocaust educator. It’s not often I come across a book that would be accessible to middle grade students that is not super graphic. This book did a great job with reality but is accessible for all.

Based on her own mothers experiences in Theresienstadt, Monique Polak delivers a chilling, heartbreaking view of life in a concentration camp through the eyes of a teenager.

Anneke Van Raalte and her family are non practicing members of the Jewish community in Holland. That doesn’t stop them from being deported once the Nazis invade the Dutch country. Her fathers status as an artist manages to keep them safe during their internment by working for their captors but that doesn’t mean they won’t be subjected to the horrors that await those that the Germans deem undesirable. Unlike other concentration camps, Theresienstadt is not a killing center. It is actually the camp the Nazis gussy up and use as propaganda to the world that they’re treating their prisoners well. Trying to be strong becomes more and more difficult as time passes. Anneke sees and experiences things that invade her dreams and begin to break her. She doesn’t agree with what her father is doing to keep them safe and it isn’t until the Russians liberate them that she realizes the lengths her father went to that kept her entire family alive until the tanks rolled in.

Originally published in 2008, this is a beautiful ode to the authors mother. As she states in her authors notes, we must listen to the stories of those that survived the Holocaust so that we never forget and never repeat the atrocities that were committed during WWII. Because this is written from a teenagers perspective, I feel like it is easier to understand the feelings and emotions that drip from each page. I haven’t read any stories that take place in Theresienstadt so this was a unique perspective for me. I highly recommend this for young adult audiences.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orca Book Publishers and Monique Polak for access to this story and a little bit of history that I didn’t know much about.

Everyone needs to read this at least once. It’s a powerful story of a young girl coming of age in a concentration camp during World War II. The details the author shares about the living conditions, work conditions, relationships, etc. while living in a camp as a Jew during that time we’re things I have not heard before from other holocaust books I have read. (and I’ve read quite a few!) The only thing I wished the author would have disclosed at the end was telling of what happened after the girl and her family were saved.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orca Book Publishers for allowing me to read an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Anneke was a pampered, and rather spoiled child living in Holland when the Nazis came and upset her life. She and her whole family were shipped to Theresienstadt. For those of us who don't remember our history, Theresienstadt was the camp that was made to look like a model, humane prison for Red Cross inspectors. Anneke was outraged at the things she was asked to, but she eventually learned what she had to do in order to survive, Students who read this will be unsettled about Anneke's circumstances, but hers was not as bad as those in other camps. This novel is based on the memoirs of the authors mother, and is well worth reading, especially for young people. I received this as an ARC, and was not influenced to write a positive review.

Ramona Thompson

What World Is Left by Monique Polak is a memoir-like historical novel set during World War II. The author tells her mother's personal story through a fictional main character who relates her experiences in first-person narration. In the novel, Anneke Van Raalte is a young teen growing up in Holland where her father is a political cartoonist and illustrator. While they are Jewish, they are not observant, so they don't see themselves as Jews, but when the deportations begin, they are sent to Theresienstadt, Germany's "model city," where they are forced to labor in desperate conditions. They are considered lucky because Theresienstadt is not a death camp, but regular transports carry prisoners away to camps like Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen from which thy never return. The story tells of the Van Raalte's efforts to survive disease, starvation, and transport as the war drags toward its end.
Polak's story gives a clear, personal picture of conditions inside Theresienstadt, a concentration camp that is rarely discussed. Readers see the day-in day-out struggle to survive, the heavy weight of hopelessness and depression, and the difficulties to re-assimilate even once they were freed.
While the story is classified as young adult, it reads much more like a middle grade voice and tone. Anneke seems very young and childlike, and the pacing and stakes of the story are more in keeping with younger readers. There are, however, elements that make it less appropriate for younger readers, like the talk of the "cubbyholes" where couples sneak away for intimate moments, and Anneke speaks of the feeling between her legs when she interacts with the boy she likes. These elements make the story difficult to recommend or to classify since it feels to young for YA but has elements that I would not use with MG readers.
On the whole, What World Is Left is a genuine story of the Holocaust that will resonate with readers since it is based on the true story of the author's mother. It would work well in a comparative study of Holocaust novels or as a companion to The Diary of Anne Frank or The Hiding Place.

A Child's View of Theresienstadt

Inspired by a true story this is the story of a young girl, Anneke, coming of age in the German concentration camp Theresienstadt. She was a happy pampered child living in Holland before the war. Her father drew cartoons for the newspaper. Her life was good and she was happy.

In 1942 that came to an end when the Nazi's invaded Holland and deported Anneke and her family to Theresienstadt. She learns to live the cruel life of hunger and work in the camp. She is more privileged than most as her father draws signs and pictures for the Nazi's in the camp which means the family is allowed to stay together.

Anneke is conflicted by her father's work and it causes her to question her father. The Nazi's are making a pretend model camp of Theresienstadt to fool the Danish Red Cross into thinking they are treating the people in the camp good which is not at all true. So she cannot figure out why her father is helping them by drawing pictures and signs for them. As she experiences loss of friends and the cruelty in the camp she becomes cold toward her father, until she finds the other picture her father has drawn.

It is a picture of what it must have been like for a child to be uprooted from her home and all she knew and transported to the worse place on earth where hunger is so great that a rotten potato is a treat and a crust of bread can mean life or death.

It focuses on the hoax that the German's portrayed to the world in the camp of Theresienstadt and how they actually had the world believing their lies.

This was an interesting historical book written for young people so that they could understand this time in history. It was very sad in spots but not so violent that it would be too much for a child. I think that it would be a good book to explain the holocaust to children 12 and older. I would recommend it.

Thanks to Monique Polak for writing the story , to Orca Book Publishers for publishing it , and to NetGalley for making it available to me.

A quick and easy read of a lesser known part of World War 2 history.

I quickly read through What World is Left in a matter of hours. The writing pulled me in from the first page, and it was interesting to learn about a lesser known part of history through the eyes of a younger girl. I would say that there are quite a few things for younger readers to be wary of, but it is suitable for middle school readers up to adult.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orca Publishing and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.