Clara's War
by Clara Kramer and Stephen Glantz
NEW:
CLARA’S WAR, co-authored by Clara
Kramer and Providence born author Stephen Glantz was selected as
a 2010 Sophy Brody Honor Book by the American Library
Association at its annual meeting in Boston on January 17, 2010.
More
Other news:
Northeast Public Radio WAMC's interview with Stephen and Clara
with Joe Donahue now available online:
Leonard Lopate's WNYC interview with Clara
On YouTube
Interview with Clara Kramer |
Book TV
interview with Clara and Stephen Glantz
Purchase Book/Publisher Harper Collins
Amazon.com (Reviews) |
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 About
Stephen Glantz
For the past
25 years, Mr. Glantz has enjoyed a wide
ranging career in journalism, television and
film.
After
studying English Literature at the
University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Glantz moved
to New York City and for the next 12 years
pursued a dual career in journalism and
documentary film.
His credits
as a film editor include the award winning
PBS series THE AMERICAN DREAM MACHINE. He
also edited segments of SIXTY MINUTES and
several rock documentaries.
His
documentary writing credits include two
horse racing films which were produced
independently and subsequently sold to CBS.
THE BALLAD OF CANONERO II which told the
story of the first black trainer to win the
Kentucky Derby won in its category at the
Chicago Film Festival. It was the first
sports documentary to employ multiple
cameras. Eight cameras were used to film the
Belmont Stakes and the film’s visual style
has become the industry norm for covering
horse racing and motor sports. Mr. Glantz
also wrote the music and theme songs for
both documentaries.
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Contact
Stephen
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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 gdBecks' 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
collection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington, D.C.
From Publishers Weekly
Polish-born Kramer, president of the Holocaust Resource
Foundation at Kean University, was a teenager when her family
and others hid from the Nazis in a secret bunker, rescued by a
former housekeeper and her husband, a reputed drunken
anti-Semite who turned out to be an avenging angel. Kramer's
extensive recollections range from a liaison that threatened the
household and daily squabbles in the tomblike underground
quarters where food was scarce to their fear of discovery by the
Nazis and the shock and desperation of learning about relatives
and friends who had been killed. Her sister was sold out by a
neighbor boy for a few liters of vodka. This vividly detailed
and taut narrative is a fitting tribute to the bravery of
victims and righteous gentiles alike. 8 pages of b&w photos.
(Apr. 21). Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* For 18 months, a young teen hid with 17 other
Polish Jews in a bunker dug under the home of their avowed
anti-Semitic neighbor, Beck, while the Nazis occupied their town
of Zolkiew. The unrelenting hardships of daily life are
spellbinding. With German soldiers moving in upstairs, “a snore,
a sneeze, a cough could mean the end of us.” How to keep
children quiet and not smother a four-year-old when she cries;
how to use the toilet bucket; how to empty it. When it is safe,
the ethnic German Becks lift the trapdoor and bring the Jews
food. Unlike Anne Frank, Clara survived; now she lives in New
Jersey, and her diary is in the Holocaust Museum in Washington,
D.C. The blend of the young girl’s experience with the insight
of the survivor looking back is riveting, especially because
there is no idealization—neither of the Jews nor of their
rescuers. World War II is raging outside; mass deportations are
ongoing; bombings are terrifying. But in the house, there is war
upstairs with the husband (“our saint”) betraying his wife,
Julia, who is plain, arthritic, and the strongest of all. And,
in the bunker, the families fight for food, air, and space; some
resent taking in children; the wealthy do not share. When the
Russians come at last, of the 5,000 Jews in Zolkiew, there are
50 left. And they must save their rescuers. Both a gripping
thriller and a heartbreaking drama of human kindness, this is
sure to become a classic of Holocaust history. --Hazel Rochman
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Jewish Voice
& Herald Article