Isaacs, Anne. Torn thread.

Scholastic. 188p. c2000. 0-590-60364-7. 4.99. J

To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, March 2000:

Isaacs bases this novel on the experiences of her mother-in-law who was a Jewish girl in Bedzin, Poland when the Nazis took over that country in WW II. Young Eva was with her father and sister, Rachel, when the Nazis forced them into a ghetto. Rachel was sent to a work camp in Czechoslovakia, and the father made a decision to send Eva there as well, thinking the two of them together would give them a better chance of survival, since they could look out for each other. He tells Eva to seize every opportunity to extend their lives, even for one hour, and in that way perhaps they can survive the war. Again and again, in the two years of their experience in the work camp, the sisters use that advice from their father. And miraculously, when the Nazis are defeated and the Russians liberate their camp, the young sisters are still alive (just barely) and they lire to eventually immigrate to Canada and raise families.

The work camp had terrible conditions: sickness, starvation, and brutal fatigue killed many of the workers. There were evil people who held their lives hostage. There was also a kindly German man, a devout Christian, who owned the cloth factory where the girls worked making blankets and uniforms for German soldiers. This man did what he could to make the girls' lives slightly more comfortable. Best of all, he provided them with hope that not all adults were evil, that the Germans would lose eventually, and that they would survive together.

This is an important story of the Holocaust, as they all are, and it also is a story of the extraordinary love of one sister for the other.