Family memoir literature—a sensitive remembrance of the Shoah and the heroism of ordinary people, intended for the youngest readers, the generation of great-grandchildren.

Children’s and Young Adult, Memoir

The true war-time story of Eva Hermannová is told from the perspective of the stuffed toy rabbit that the heroine got for her fourth birthday. The little girl grew up in a harmonious family, her father was the co-owner of a department store in Opava and her mother was an Austrian opera singer, before darkness began to fall over her childhood and adolescence—she was transported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp as a mischling in 1943. The author recounts her heartbreaking time in Theresienstadt with deep comprehension and sensitivity towards child readers. She also focuses on the world-famous production of the opera Brundibár, which the children staged in the camp’s oppressive conditions. Evička, known as Eva as she grew older, returned home at the age of sixteen, and as an adult became the artistic director of opera at Prague’s National Theatre, and had a family of her own. Linda Marková’s illustrations fittingly alternate cheerful and darker tones, documenting the narrative by Klára Dvořáková, one of the central heroine’s grandchildren. The author was also involved in publishing her grandmother’s memoirs, which came out in 2020 with the title The Last Herrmann Girl – The Road to Theresienstadt (Poslední Herrmannovic holka. Cesta do Terezína) aimed at adult readers.

Age: 7+