by Chana Stiefel
Illustrated by Susan Gal
Scholastic Press
2022
40 pages
ISBN; 9781338225891
From School Library Journal: "A beautiful tribute...highly recommended."
Yaffa Eliach grew up in what is now Lithuania (at the time it was a town called Eishyshok) before it fell to the Germans during WWII (It was then Poland). When the Germans invaded, they rounded up the town's people, but Yaffa and her family escaped through the woods with only the clothes on their backs, but Yaffa grabbed some family photos and hid them in her shoe. Her family was able to hide out during the war. After the Russians freed her town, Yaffa's family left Europe and settled in Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, Yaffa goes to school and she meets her husband. They immigrate to the United States in 1954. Yaffa continues her education eventually earning her doctorate in history and establishes the Center for Holocaust Studies, Documentation and Research in Brooklyn, New York. President Jimmy Carter reaches out to Yaffa, known as Dr. Yaffa Eliach to help in building a memorial in the National Holocaust Museum. Yaffa remembers the photos she put in her shoe which reminded her of the happy times before the war. She thought of her little village and its people. What had happened to the friendly faces she knew? She decided to find as many survivors as she could and tell their story through photographs.
Yaffa did radio interviews, took out ads in newspapers, and traveled to Israel to find anyone who remembered Eishyshok. She knocked on doors and found some old friends who shared their photographs. It took seventeen years for her to travel the globe, seeking people who knew Eishyshok, and collecting over 6,000 photos and stories.
The photos became the "Tower of Life" at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. This memorial includes1,000 plus photos and soars from the floor up three stories to the ceiling. Dr. Yaffa Eliach remembered the people, sharing their faces, their hearts and their stories for all Americans and visitors to see and remember this time in history. The last survivors of the Holocaust will soon be gone, but the museum and Yaffa's tower teach us about the Holocaust and its survivors.
The BEST book about the Holocaust. This easy picture book makes information accessible and the watercolor art captures Yaffa and the people.
Highly, highly recommended for everyone. This is the ONE Holocaust book that should be in every library and on every bookshelf.
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