The Brushmaker's Daughter

Starred review from July 15, 2020
It is Berlin in 1941, and the Nazis have further escalated their search for Jews to deport to the concentration camps. Lillian Frey and her father, who is blind, run through the night to a promised safe place at Otto Weidt's factory, which is contracted to supply brushes to the army. His employees are blind Jews. Weidt is not Jewish, but he too is blind and at risk of deportation or murder by the Nazis for this disability. The factory contains a secret room where the workers, who have developed close friendships, can hide in an emergency. Weidt arranges for safe housing, where Lillian and her father are fed and well cared for by their kind landlady. But their safety remains precarious at best, for the Gestapo is always watching. When the workers are brought to the trains for deportation, all seems lost. Weidt uses every possible means to rescue them, threatening to report the Gestapo agents for endangering the army and providing bribes to secure their release. Kacer creates the fictional Freys and has12-year-old Lillian narrate the events in a voice that is true, strong, and wise beyond her years. In a detailed afterword the author presents the biographies, backgrounds, and outcomes of Weidt and several of the real workers. Otto Weidt's compassion, strength, and bravery have led to his recognition as Righteous Among Nations at Yad Vashem, and with this novel, Kacer brings him to life for children. The unimaginable is made alive, heart-wrenching, and reachable for modern young readers. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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