'Always Remember Me'        

[APRIL 26, 2006]  ^"Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II," by Marisabina Russo, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2005, ages 8 and up

Review by
Louella Moreland

Understanding the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust is difficult for adults, but the subject is especially difficult to comprehend for children. While sympathizing with those who would wish to shelter children from the harsh realities of the world, history shows us that without knowledge of the past, people are doomed to make similar mistakes in the future. So, if you are an adult struggling with this dilemma, there are some excellent choices in literature that may open the door to discussion without giving children nightmares. Marisabina Russo's "Always Remember Me" is a great place to start.

Russo's story is about her own family's remarkable survival as Jews in 1930s Germany. Based on stories she heard around the Sunday dinner table, Russo weaves a miraculous story told by Oma, her grandmother, through pictures from the family photo albums.

It begins when her grandmother is a young girl and marries. The photos record the early married years of living in a small apartment in the city, around the corner from a zoo. Soon a baby girl is born and Grandfather goes off to fight in World War I. Oma gives him her special gold heart locket to keep in his pocket to bring him luck.

Their lives are faithfully recorded through many pictures in the first album, including the birth of two more daughters and the harder years when Grandfather dies suddenly. Oma's first photo book ends as the three girls become young women.

The second album is a story of Oma and the adult lives of the three daughters. Russo tells us her grandmother usually ended the story without looking through all the pictures in the second album. However, on one particular Sunday, Oma decides her granddaughter is old enough to hear the rest of the story. It is the difficult part "when the Nazis came into power" making "speeches everywhere against the Jews." Life becomes much harder, friends turn against them, there are new laws, and the little family starts to break apart.

The oldest girl and her boyfriend move to Italy, where they marry and finish college. Oma tells of the government identity cards, Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass), stores smashed and synagogues burned, cloth stars that had to worn by all Jews, and people leaving their home.

This family was luckier than many. The gold heart locket and picture albums sailed to America with one of the daughters, Oma survives her years in a concentration camp, and she unites again in America with all three of her daughters. One daughter's husband is killed in the war. The family is left with very little to begin a new life. However, they have each other, their pictures and the gold locket. Oma believes that they are a very lucky family, and the locket is the symbol of their luck. The granddaughter is given the locket as a token to carry on the brave and optimistic history of this truly remarkable group of women.

The afterword explains more of the history of those times in a language easily understood by younger children. Russo's illustrations of a granddaughter and grandmother cozily sharing photos and stories on a Sunday afternoon helps distance the story from the atrocities that occurred. Endplates of the book show actual family photos taken during the years the story describes.

"Always Remember Me" is a story of history, family love and courage. For this book and others about this difficult time in history, visit us at the Lincoln Public Library at 725 Pekin St.

[Louella Moreland, youth services librarian, Lincoln Public Library District, Lincoln]

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