Karl and Rosa's family watch in horror as Hitler's troops parade down thestreets of their home city -- Vienna. It has become very dangerous to be a Jewin Austria, and after their uncle is sent to Dachau, Karl and Rosa's parentsdecide to send the children out of the country on a Kindertransport, one of themany ships carrying refugee children away from Nazi danger.Isolated and homesick, Karl ends up in Millisle, a run-down farm in Ards inNorthern Ireland, which has become a Jewish refugee centre, while Rosa isfostered by a local family.Hard work on the farm keeps Karl occupied, although he still waits desperatelyfor any news from home. Then he makes friends with locals Peewee and Wee Billy,and also with the girls from neutral Dublin who come to help on the farm,especially Judy. But Northern Ireland is in the war too, with rationing andair-raid warnings, and, in April 1941 the bombs of the Belfast Blitz bring thereality of war right to their doorstep.And for Karl and Rosa and the other refugees there is the constant fear thatthey may never see their parents again.Based on a true story -- there was a refugee farm at Millisle and among itsoccupants was a young boy called Karl.Children's LiteratureIn 1938, shortly after the Nazis declared their intentions against the Jewswith Kristallnacht, Jewish parents in Naziheld countries were forced to make anunconscionable choice. The choice (which was not a choice at all) was to sendtheir children on the socalled Kindertransports, trains that carried infants toseventeenyearolds to safe havens in Great Britain. Ten thousand Jewish childrenwere fostered out or placed in hostels throughout the British Isles, includingsome sent to a working farm in Northern Ireland. There is an intriguing storyin this situation, Jewish children finding safe haven in the unlikely oasis ofProtestant Ireland. Karl and his little sister, Rosa, are two of the childrenwho are separated in their new country. Rosa, adorable and young enough to beappealing, is quickly taken in by a wealthy family who showers her withmaterial things, but cannot deal with her homesickness. Karl is sent to aworking farm, and it is his adjustment to a new country, culture and languagewith which readers will more easily identify. Karl carries the additionalburden of being old enough to feel responsibility and guilt for the family heleft behind in Austria. It is this 'survivor's guilt' which is the mostcaptivating part of Karl's character. There are, however, some problems withthe book. In an effort to acquaint the reader with the progression of eventsthat led to the Nazi's ascension to power, Taylor resorts to cramming historylessons into the character's casual conversation. It is not an appealing formof exposition. Also, the character of Judy, Karl's Irish Jewish girlfriend, isa stereotyped princess who evolves, rather unbelievably, into a good sport andadept farmhandin just a chapter or two. Another problem is the cover art whichshows two children who appear, at most, to be age ten. These youngsterscouldn't possibly be the emotionally involved adolescents Taylor describes inher story. Despite these flaws, this is a new chapter of history to be added toWorld War II study guides, one where the question might be posed, 'What if thishappened to you?' 1999, O'Brien Press, Ages 10 to 14, $7.95. Reviewer: LoisRubin GrossKLIATTThis Irish import offers a fictionalized account of the way some EuropeanJewish refugee children escaped the Holocaust through the Kindertransportproject to Northern Ireland. Faithful to the details and events of the time,Taylor is less successful in rendering fiction from her facts; there is apaucity of character development and the plot plows along without thematictensions explored or motifs expanding it from story line to story. She doesprovide an accessible version of the dynamic issues faced both by a refugeeteen and by an Irish teen. Karl, a thirteen-year-old from an assimilatedmiddle-class Viennese family, arrives aboard one of the war's lastKindertransports in charge of his seven-year-old sister Rosa. He has alreadywitnessed the breaking of his once-vibrant uncle at the hands of the Nazis andknows that his parents are in grave danger. In Ireland, he is among a largegroup of older refugee children placed on a working farm while Rosa is to befostered by a childless couple. Judy, an Irish-Jewish girl from Dublin, is sentto the farm while her older sister recuperates from tuberculosis. Judy and Karlvary in their experiences with and understanding of the war, of course, buttheir personalities, too, are considerably different. Taylor doesn't developthe viewpoints of these two main characters so much as she reports on theiractions across time, with minimal reference to their perceptions of eachother's apparent changes. A lot happens to and through these characters: Karlprotects Rosa from the probable reality of their family's demise, Judy becomesless self-centered, and together they befriend an Irish Catholic family thathas no awareness of what being Jewishmeans (understanding only that one iseither Protestant or Catholic), and so on. Because the factual history isinteresting and little known, especially to younger readers, it is"
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