The Holocaust in terms a child can understand

Odette’s Secrets by Maryann Macdonald, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, (c) 2013, 978-1-5990-750-5; 225 pages,  $16.99

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO — Although classified as “fiction,” Odette’s Secrets cannot be so easily pigeonholed.  Author Maryann Macdonald found a copy of the real memoirs of the late Odette Meyers, who as a child in Nazi-occupied France had posed as a Christian in the home of kind and brave farmers.  Macdonald later met with Meyers’ son, and visited many of the places that were mentioned in the memoirs.  Finally, in free verse, she recast Odette’s story into a diary in such an interesting fashion that before I knew it, I had read it in a single sitting.

These weren’t Odette’s real words,  so Macdonald’s work cannot be called history or biography.  Yet the words were based on fact, so it really can’t be classified with those books that are spun strictly from the imagination. We could call it “historical fiction” but that somehow would mask the freshness of Macdonald’s free verse.  I would classify this work as simply remarkable.

The story is written from a child’s point of view.  It tells of Odette’s father going off to war as a French soldier, the battles coming closer to her home in Paris, the arrival of the German troops, the restrictions placed on Jews, the requirement that children over 6 wear yellow stars, the way “friends” began avoiding her, the rumors of roundups, and a decision by Odette’s mother to have a beloved Catholic neighbor escort the child by train to the countryside, where she was taken into the home of a righteous family.

Thereafter, Odette had to learn how to pose as a Catholic.  She learned how to cross herself, memorized basic prayers, was drilled on how to act in church.  As she became more and more Christian in her outward appearance, the safer she felt.  And she wondered if perhaps she didn’t want to be Jewish anymore.

Eventually, Odette’s mother came to the countryside as well — her activities in the Paris underground having become too dangerous. Mother and daughter moved together to yet another town, and now the child had to be teacher.  Odette had to teach her mother the ways of the Christians, lest they be exposed. But what was easy for Odette to accept and to internalize was difficult indeed for her mother.

To give the flavor of the book, let me quote a stanza Macdonald writes in Odette’s voice about an incident that occurred in that town, when she was confronted by neighborhood children who accused her of really being a Jew.  Odette heard a sound by the stream where she was playing and thought perhaps it was the cows.

No, it’s the village children marching toward me.
One look tells me they’re not here to play.
They look like farmers ready to chop down a big tree.
Paul, the big boy who threw stones at the kittens, is the leader.
He has no family.
The old lady he lives with works him too hard,
almost as hard as a grown man.
Simone walks beside him.
I thought she had to help her mother.
Something must have happened.
She looks at me though she’s angry,
as though she knows I’ve lied to her.

One doesn’t have to be a fortune teller to know that this book will someday be compared and contrasted with the Diary of Anne Frank, which underwent some editing before Anne’s father, Otto, had it published.   How similar are they?  Both girls went into hiding, both girls were dependent on Righteous Gentiles for their survival.  Anne perished in the Holocaust, and Odette survived, going on to have children of her own and to write her memoirs.  Anne’s diary was published when the impact of the Nazi terror was new and raw; Odette’s Secrets was published 68 years after the events.  In the interim, generations of school children–including author Mary Macdonald–had learned and reflected upon the Holocaust and its lessons.

The immediacy of Anne Frank’s diary to the actual events makes it a more significant historical resource.  But the freshness of Macdonald’s approach may prove Odette’s Secrets to be as profound a lesson for the children who read it.  I recommend it not only for children, but for parents who wish exposure to an author with a genius for writing children’s books.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com