Grab the tissues, The Forgotten Children is a real heartbreaker. This is a dual timeline story beginning in 1938 and ending in 1990. Both timelines needed tissues. I couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

The story begins in Berlin in 1938 giving the reader an overview of what it was like for the Jewish people at the beginning of the war. Helga and her family lived in a Jewish neighborhood that soon became a place attacked by those thinking they were better than the Jewish people. They have no option but to flee. It won't be easy. I sit in marvel over what had to be endured in order to escape.

As a reader, I was able to gain a better understanding of some of the challenges many were up against as they fled Germany. Helga and her sister, Ruth, ended up on a ship without a parent heading toward Cuba. I had no idea that the Cuban president changed his mind and yet kept the money spend on visas. I didn't realize that members of the Nazi party worked on the ships, watching, waiting and

Helga and Ruth, as children, got assistance for the OSE, giving the reader a look into the dedicated people that were trying to save Jewish children. Unfortunately, safety is an allusion. Helga and Ruth are soon separated. Helga is sent to America. Ruth was to meet her at a later date, but it never came. Helga may have survived, but was she able to live?

I will never completely understand how the war atrocities affected the survivors. It was dealt with in many different ways. For Helga, she lived in the world of denial. She began anew in England, never to speak of her family or her childhood. That is until she could no longer avoid it.

In 1990, her daughter, Naomi, went to work in Paris. In a market she discovered a picture. It was the same picture her mother had on her windowsill in England. She had questions. Questions her mother did not want to answer. I had questions, questions my mother didn't want to answer. The Forgotten Children gave me direction to search and get answers. I am so grateful to the author for giving me guidance.

The Forgotten Children gives the reader two perspectives--what happened during the war and what happened afterwards and changed by 1990. From the safety of my chair, I was given glimpses into the evils of WW2. Even after closing the book, by heart still bleeds for the innocence lost. What made this story different is that it centered around children and how they were affected. They have had to live a very long time with the past haunting them. They are to be respected and honored for surviving. We can do that by making sure the atrocities don't happen again.

This dual timeline historical fiction follows the experience of eleven year old Jewish twins, Helga and Ruth Beider growing up in Berlin, Germany just preceding and during the war. On the evening of Kristalnacht, the happy lives of the girls change with the loss of their mother and as danger escalates, Tate Beider makes plans for his daughters to find safety away from Europe. In alternating chapters, we forward to 1990 where we meet Helga and her daughter adult daughter Naomi , who knew nothing of her mother’s experiences during the war until she gets a job in Paris and finds a postcard in a flea market depicting a children’s home in France, an exact likeness to a photograph in Helga’s home.

This is a story of the children who bore witness to war, the trauma they carried into adulthood and the love of family and friends to help them reconcile their childhood by unburdening the anguish and finding peace. I appreciated this story as told from the perspective of the innocent children who lose their childhood when living in wartime. It is heartbreaking that these experiences are still being realized by children throughout the world today.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Dual timeline story,set in present day and World War Two.. Really interesting characters,mother and daughter relive the past. Complicated and distressing for both. A good read.

Another unique ARC to read! There is so much to unpack in the story and I almost wish that we knew more about what happens after Helga has fully opened up, particularly more of a resolve about what happens to her daughter, Naomi, once she comes to her own realisations.

Ann Bennett's The Forgotten Children is a dual timeline story of a woman, Helga, who has survived the Nazi purge of the Jews but lost all of her family. Her adult daughter, Naomi, begins to dig into her mother's past to uncover what her mother has refused to tell her all these years. It is a story of familial love, hate, injustice, kindness of strangers, and finally making peace with the past. It will tug at your heartstrings and and make you want to be a better person. I highly recommend it. I was able to read an ARC on #NetGalley.

This book is good, but not the best. I didn’t like the way it switched between the 1930-40s and the 1990s. I think Helga’s journey in the 1990s took space from the story of two girls orphaned by war and trying to survive. Instead of Helga telling her daughter what happened to her sister, the reader might have been able to read Ruth’s story after they were separated. I also don’t understand why this story is called the Forgotten Children, since Helga and Ruth weren’t forgotten by anyone in the story.

What an emotional read !

Naomi decides to take up a position in the Paris office. Then by coincidence when rifling through a market she comes across a postcard which is identical to a photograph that her mother Helga has on a wall at home. She decides to uncover the secrets behind this which proves to be more traumatic than she realises.
I felt that Naomi and Helga were both emotional souls. Helga’s story is heartbreaking as it unfolded.
It has to be read to be appreciated.

Ann Bennett's books never let me down so I was excited to learn that another book was on the horizon. The story is told in a dual timeline, alternating smoothly between 1938 and 1990, revealing what happened to the lives of twin Jewish girls in Berlin. Witnessing the terror of Kristallnacht and its consequences through children's eyes is particularly gut-wrenching as is the shameful voyage of the MS St. Louis. There are few happily-ever-after endings here but there is closure. WWII historical fiction should reflect the truth of that terrible time and the tragic consequences of Nazism, especially now that nationalism & fascism is once again on the rise. I highly recommend this excellent book but suggest you have tissues close by unless your heart is made of stone.

Many thanks to NetGalley & Bookouture for the opportunity to read the ARC. The review is my own.

This phenomenal story will touch your heart in so many ways… an amazing escape that you are sure to cherish long after you finish reading… I absolutely loved this

I thought this book was excellent. It gives an insight into the early days of the Holocaust and in particular Kristallnacht and the infamous journey of the St Louis. While there is a positive ending, and plenty of heart wrenching detail, there is a realistic finale. It would be easy to have written of a miraculous reunion but a better, more true to life ending saw a main character finding out about those she lost, coming to terms with her grief and being left with some previously undiscovered mementoes. A thoroughly worthwhile read.

Firstly thank you Netgalley for this Arc

Another great book by a great author

Forget sleeping if you read in bed so many emotions you just keep saying one more page next thing the book is finished