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The Seven Year Dress /

One of the darkest times in human history was the insane design and execution to rid the world of Jews and "undesirables."

At the hands of the powerful evil madman Adolf Hitler, families were ripped apart and millions were slaughtered. Persecution, torture, devastation, and enduring the unthinkable remained for those who lived. This is the story of one woman who lived to tell her story.

This is a narrative of how a young beautiful teenager, Helen Stein, and her family were torn asunder, ultimately bringing her to Auschwitz. It was there she suffered heinous indignity at the hands of the SS. It was also there, in that death camp, she encountered compassion, selfless acts of kindness, and friendship. Written by the award-winning, best-selling author of His Name Was Ben, comes a story of the resilience of the human spirit that will leave you thinking about Helen Stein and The Seven Year Dress for years to come after the last page is shut.

Paulette Mahurin

GMD	BOOK
Classification	F MAH
Publisher	Early Girl Enterprises, LLC, 2016-05-09
Subject	Auschwitz Concentration CampConcentration campsHolocaust- concentration campsHolocaustHolocaust - HeroesHistorical FictionFiction / HistoricalHitler, Adolf, - 1889 - 1945Nazi GermanyFriendshipTeenagersLoveFamilyAmericaImmigrantsJewish InterestAnti-SemitismGermanyGermany - Politics and government - 1933-1945
ISBN	9780988846869
Additional ISBN	0988846861
URL

Notes

REVIEW:
The Seven Year Dress by Paulette Mahurin tells of the rise of Nazism in Germany and the concentration camps, as related by aged survivor to a young nursing student who rents a room in her apartment.
There have been numerous holocaust memoirs, but most deal with the Jews of Eastern Europe, while this one focuses on Germany itself. Through Helen's eyes, we see the progression of anti-Semitism throughout the 1930s, from harassment of Jewish businesses to the prohibition against Jews working in certain professions, from racial laws prohibiting marriage or sexual relationships between Jews and non-Jews to the seizure of radios and firearms from Jews.
Like many older Jews, Helen's father takes a "wait-and-see" attitude toward Nazism, but the young Helen almost immediately sees Nazism for what it is. After the violence of Kristallnacht, a non-Jewish friend secretly offers Helen and her brother, Ben, a hiding place in the basement of an old farmhouse, but their troubles have just begun. - Raanan Geberer