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    Paper Hearts
    Paper Hearts
    Paper Hearts
    Ebook332 pages2 hours

    Paper Hearts

    By Meg Wiviott

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A forbidden gift helps two teenage girls find hope, friendship, and the will to live in this “beautifully told true story about brave young women who refused to be victims and walked out of Auschwitz with their heads unbowed” (School Library Journal).

    An act of defiance.
    A statement of hope.
    A crime punishable by death.

    Making a birthday card in Auschwitz was all of those things. But that is what Zlatka did, in 1944, for her best friend, Fania. She stole and bartered for paper and scissors, secretly creating an origami heart. Then she passed it to every girl at the work tables to sign with their hopes and wishes for happiness, for love, and most of all—for freedom.

    Fania knew what that heart meant, for herself and all the other girls. And she kept it hidden, through the bitter days in the camp and through the death marches. She kept it always.

    This novel is based on the true story of Fania and Zlatka, the story of the bond that helped them both to hope for the best in the face of the worst. Their heart is one of the few objects created in Auschwitz, and can be seen today in the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMargaret K. McElderry Books
    Release dateSep 1, 2015
    ISBN9781481439855
    Paper Hearts
    Author

    Meg Wiviott

    Meg Wiviott grew up in New Jersey. She attended the University of Wisconsin where she majored in history, and earned a Master's degree in Education from Northwestern University. She is working on a Master's of Fine Arts degree at Vermont College of Fine Arts, in their Writing for Children and Young Adults program. Meg and her husband have two grown children and live in New Jersey.

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    Reviews for Paper Hearts

    4.5/5

    30 ratings5 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Absolutely stunning work in verse about the experiences of young Jewish girls in Hitler's concentration camps. Despite the setting and subject matter, the spirit of the girls remain shining and unbroken.
    • 5/5
      This was a poignant tale about survival, fear, hope, and friendship. Emotions seeped from the pages and deep rooted sympathy filled my soul.

      It was about two girls that ended up at Auschwitz and found friendship in one another. Zlatka and Fania were pulled from their homes and sent to a work camp filled with ugly hatred and brutal punishment. Both lost family and both craved freedom. Together they protected one another and helped instill hope in their hearts. Zlatka found strength in her purple blouse that cost a whole days ration and Fania found strength in a paper heart filled with encouragement. Both pieces were banned, but both girls would not let go. In the end it was the simple things, friendship, and bravery that carried them home.

      My heart was truly touched by this book. I found the brutality to be inspiring. It really made me feel appreciative and blessed for the most simple of things. I looked at my pen and paper completely differently. It no longer was just a piece of tree and an ink cylinder. It was a sliver of hope and power. A way to tell a historic story that should be shouted from the rooftops. I found the words insightful and important. I wanted to jump into the story and wrap my arms around the girls. I wanted to tell them how brave they were and how inspiring their story was. To know this was based on a true story just makes it that much more enthralling. I highly recommend it to every reader. This is a piece of history we should immerse ourselves in in order to always be reminded of how truly blessed we are...
    • 4/5
      Written in verse, "Paper Hearts" is based on true events and tells the story of Zlatka and Fania, two young women who lost everything but found each other in Auschwitz. Their courage, compassion, resilience and determination to survive can only be admired.While heartbreaking and inspirational, the sparseness of the words made "Paper Hearts" very accessible as well as emotional, and perfectly represented the bleakness of Auschwitz. A great read.
    • 5/5
      Humanity survives while living in, and with, inhuman conditions. Never again!
    • 5/5
      A novel-in-verse, this book tells of two girls at Auschwitz Concentration Camp during World War II.You meet Zlatka first where she already lives in a Jewish Ghetto. The novel-in-verse quickly moves to her being placed on a transport to Auschwitz with her mom and two siblings. Her brother and father were separated to another train. Upon arrival, Zlatka is separated from her mom and youngest sibling, leaving her and Necha, her sister. Only the strong will survive. Zlatka learns that willing others to live doesn’t guarantee they will survivelFania looks Aryan, but she is a Jew. When she tries to take her brother to safely, she is identified as a Jew, arrested, and sent to Auschwitz. She is on her own without any family. Zlatka and Fania meet. Along with other girls they are determined to get revenge against the Germans by surviving. The novel-in-verse was written after seeing a display in the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre. Wanting to know about the girls who created the paper hearts on display, the author researched and wrote their story. These are real people. At the end, the author tells what is factual and what she changed for purposes of the story. I loved it. They refuse to lose their humanity when treated like animals for years. You will be inspired by their courage and survival.

    Book preview

    Paper Hearts - Meg Wiviott

    Chapter 1

    Zlatka

    Prużany Ghetto

    Through the village

    once loved.

    Eyes lowered

    not shamed

    footsteps steady

    not faster

    or slower

    than before.

    Ignored jeers.

    Ignored curses,

    Brudny Żyd!

    Dirty Jew!

    The clump of mud

    thrown by Oleg Broz

    who’d gone to the same school as me

    whose father worked at the same bank as me.

    I never

    covered the accursed yellow armband.

    But I never

    looked my tormentors in the eye.

    I knew better

    than to glare at an angry bull.

    My throat grew thick

    with swallowed tears

    as I passed

    the school

    forbidden,

    the synagogue

    empty,

    friends’ homes

    vacant.

    Clenched fists

    hid in my pockets

    as I passed

    the German guards.

    My village

    had become

    a nightmare

    a ghetto.

    A monster that held Jews

    in its barbed-wire belly.

    Let out only

    to work

    for slave wages,

    or in death

    exhaustion

    disease

    starvation.

    I hurried home

    looking past the barbed wire

    to the horizon

    the sunset

    still beautiful.

    The Germans Arrived

    in June of 1941

    the beginning of summer

    when hope

    should have

    hung in blue-filled skies.

    But hope burned away

    in the heat of summer.

    First came the yellow armbands

    branding all us Jews.

    Then came the fences

    closing out the rest of the world.

    Then came the refugees

    Jews from neighboring villages and countryside

    weighed down with wagons of belongings

    herded inside the wire

    with no houses in which to live.

    Then came the other family

    assigned to share our home.

    Ten people

    six in my family

    four in the other

    crammed in a three-room house.

    Then came the confiscations

    anything of value

    jewelry

    money

    even Mama and Tata’s wedding bands.

    Then came the shortages of

    food

    water

    medicine

    jobs

    coal

    firewood.

    I was fortunate.

    Even though

    school was forbidden,

    at seventeen

    I had a job outside the ghetto

    at a small bank

    where people hated me

    because I was smart

    spoke different languages

    Polish

    Russian

    German

    was a Jew.

    Then

    even that was taken away.

    You cannot work here anymore,

    I was told.

    No Jews.

    Oleg Broz’s father smiled

    as I walked out.

    Then

    came

    the

    transports.

    The List

    The Judenrat ran the ghetto

    enforced the Nazis’ laws.

    They posted lists

    names of families

    to be sent away.

    No rhyme or reason.

    Just a list of names.

    I checked the list

    every night on my way home

    from scrounging food

    trading through the barbed-wire fence

    shoes

    dresses

    books

    for a bag of flour

    potatoes

    meat

    with Poles

    some of whom wanted to help

    some of whom were nearly as desperate as we

    some of whom wanted everything.

    A tattered paper tacked to

    the synagogue door.

    I avoided neighbors’ faces

    too embarrassed to see

    naked fear

    or relief.

    The first day

    our name was not on the list.

    Relief

    of not being sent away.

    The second day

    our name was not on the list.

    Fear

    of what was yet to come.

    The third day

    my eyes tripped down the list.

    Scarf tightened.

    Breath stopped.

    Head spun.

    I blinked.

    My heart climbed up my throat

    along with what little food was in my stomach.

    Cold sweat dripped down my spine.

    I forced myself to

    look again.

    No mistake.

    No mirage.

    Sznaiderhauz.

    My name.

    My family.

    The third day.

    Terror

    of the unknown.

    Family Decisions

    Partisans hid in the countryside

    fighting against the Germans.

    Iser wanted to join them.

    Mama would hear none of it.

    You are just a boy,

    she said, cradling his face in her shaking hands.

    But, Mama!

    Iser’s voice cracked

    his face flushed.

    We must stay together,

    Tata decided.

    We must do as we are told.

    We have done nothing wrong.

    We have nothing to fear.

    The Germans are not monsters.

    I could not imagine Iser

    a partisan,

    fighting

    in the woods

    against the Germans.

    He was just a boy,

    my little brother,

    even if he had grown taller

    in the year since his bar mitzvah.

    I could not imagine myself

    a partisan,

    fighting

    in the woods

    against the Germans.

    I was just a girl

    yet I wanted to go.

    Wanted to fight,

    do something other than

    what I was told.

    Little Lázaro played happily

    oblivious

    on the floor with his train.

    Smiling when the wheels spun

    round so fast they hummed.

    Necha’s head bowed over a book

    oblivious also,

    though she was old enough

    to know better,

    her feet tucked under her

    to keep them warm.

    But, Tata,

    Iser argued.

    But, Tata,

    I argued.

    Tata cut us both off with

    a stern look.

    Enough, Iser.

    Zlatka, mind yourself,

    Tata’s voice harder than I had ever heard.

    No more discussion.

    I knew

    even if he disagreed with Tata

    Iser would do as he was told.

    I wondered,

    If I were a boy,

    would I?

    It Would Have Been Enough

    If God had allowed us to stay

    in our own home

    Dayenu

    It would have been enough.

    If God had allowed us

    to take in refugees

    Dayenu

    It would have been enough.

    If God had provided wood

    to heat our home

    Dayenu

    It would have been enough.

    If God had given me

    a job outside the ghetto

    Dayenu

    It would have been enough.

    If God had given us

    enough to eat

    Dayenu

    It would have been enough.

    If God had kept our names

    off the transport list for two days

    Dayenu

    It would have been enough.

    If God had kept us all together

    Dayenu

    It would have been enough.

    But I wondered,

    Was it?

    Worldly Possessions

    The Judenrat told us,

    Bring only what you can carry.

    Only what is necessary.

    What do I pack?

    Mama fretted.

    Only what is necessary,

    Tata answered.

    But what is necessary?

    Mama’s voice rose.

    We don’t know where we are going.

    We don’t know how long we will be gone.

    Just take,

    Tata said,

    what you cannot live without.

    A change of clothes.

    Something nice

    for Shabbos.

    Wool sweaters

    overcoats

    to keep us warm.

    A silver frame

    to hold the family together.

    Shabbos candlesticks

    wrapped in Mama’s undergarments.

    Tata’s Torah and Talmud

    tucked under his suit.

    Iser’s tallis and tefillin

    gifts for becoming bar mitzvah.

    Such a good boy and a better man, Mama said.

    Necha’s well-worn book

    read a dozen times.

    You will go blind you read so much, Mama said.

    The engine to Lázaro’s train set

    with wheels that

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