Clara's War: One Girl's Story of Survival

“A superlative memoir of survival….Few wartime memoirs convey with such harrowing immediacy the evil of the Nazi genocide.”
—Daily Telegraph (London)

“One Girl’s Story of Survival,” Clara’s War is based on Clara Kramer’s diary of her years spent hiding in an underground bunker with seventeen other people during the Nazi occupation of Poland. In the classic vein of The Diary of Anne Frank—a heart-wrenching and inspiring story of a life lived in fear and cramped quarters—Clara’s War is a true story of the Holocaust as told by a remarkable young girl who lived to bear witness.

This heart-stopping story of a young girl hiding from the Nazis is based on Clara Kramer's diary of her years surviving in an underground bunker with seventeen other people.

Clara Kramer was a typical Polish-Jewish teenager from a small town at the outbreak of the Second World War. When the Germans invaded, Clara's family was taken in by the Becks, a Volksdeutsche (ethnically German) family from their town. Mrs. Beck worked as Clara's family's housekeeper. Mr. Beck was known to be an alcoholic, a womanizer, and a vocal anti-Semite. But on hearing that Jewish families were being led into the woods and shot, Beck sheltered the Kramers and two other Jewish families.

Eighteen people in all lived in a bunker dug out of the Becks' basement. Fifteen-year-old Clara kept a diary during the twenty terrifying months she spent in hiding, writing down details of their unpredictable life—from the house's catching fire to Mr. Beck's affair with Clara's neighbor; from the nightly SS drinking sessions in the room above to the small pleasure of a shared Christmas carp.

Against all odds, Clara lived to tell her story, and her diary is now part of the permanent col-lection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

“A superlative memoir of survival. . . . Few wartime memoirs convey with such harrowing immediacy the evil of the Nazi genocide. . . . Her book is a model documentary.” - Daily Telegraph (London)

“This vividly detailed and taut narrative is a fitting tribute to the bravery of victims and righteous gentiles alike.” - Publishers Weekly

“Utterly compelling. At times, the tension is as high as in any thriller designed to stop your heart.” - John Clare, The Sun-Herald (Australia)

“I thought there probably wasn’t much I didn’t, alas, now know about all the horrors the Jews endured, especially Polish Jews. But that was the surprise of this one—I mean, to find it was not only a record of terrible deprivation but also a kind of unexpected nobility. . . . The twists and turns of the story are extraordinary. . . . It is a valuable addition to all the recollections of the agonies people went through in the war. ” - Margaret Forster, Author of Keeping the World Away and Lady's Maid

“Kramer’s book vividly recalls the tensions within her hidden community. . . . Of particular interest are revelations about the family who hid the Kramers, particularly how an anti-Semitic Polish householder demonstrated great courage in shielding Jews in his basement.” - Library Journal