Nothing Could Stop Her. The Courageous Life of Ruth Gruber by Rona Arato

Ruth Gruber was born in 1911, to David and Gussie Gruber who had immigrated from Russia. Her father owned a liquor store and their family of five children lived above the store which was located in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.  The Grubers were Jewish and in their village, people spoke Yiddish. They celebrated Jewish holidays, but on Saturdays - the Sabbath, Ruth's parents kept their store open. 

In public school, Ruth's "first grade teacher was a young Black woman who taught a class of Jewish, Irish, Polish, and Black girls." Her teacher encouraged Ruth's parents to care and support her because she was sure she was going to be a writer.

Ruth's family moved into a German neighborhood in 1921 where she and her sisters and brothers made good friends. But meanwhile, in Germany, Adolf Hitler was on the rise. 

Ruth was an exceptional student: she entered high school at the age of twelve and New York University at the age of fifteen. While majoring in German, Ruth had many interesting opportunities to explore the world outside of Brooklyn and to enter a summer program at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. In this intensive German program, Ruth did everything in German.

After completing her studies, Ruth won a fellowship with the University of Wisconsin's German department for the full tuition for the year-long master's program in German. She hitchhiked to Wisconsin and initially lived in a dorm named German House. Experiencing anti-Semitism from both the woman in charge of the dorm and the head of the German department, Ruth ended up boarding with a Norwegian family. 

After completing her masters thesis, Ruth won a one-year exchange fellowship to the University of Cologne. But her parents were not keen on her accepting, and tried to dissuade her from going. They were concerned with the rise in anti-Semitism especially since Ruth would be there in 1931. In Cologne, Ruth stayed with Frieda Herz and her family. As the situation in Germany continued to worsen, Ruth decided to stay, especially after she was invited to earn a Ph.D. by Professor Schoffler, head of the English Language and Literature Department. Her research would be original and on English author, Virginia Woolf.  In November, Ruth read Hitler's book, Mein Kampf and was horrified at his beliefs about Jews and race. She personally began to experience the anti-Semitism being pushed by the Nazis. She attended a Nazi rally led by Hitler and had to leave, she was so disgusted.

In  August 1932, Ruth returned home to America. She had earned her Ph.D., the youngest in the world to do so. Ruth began writing articles for the Herald Tribune: this was the beginning of her journalism career. In 1933, Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany. In 1935, Ruth received a writing fellowship and she decided to return to Germany to study women in different political systems: fascism in Germany and communism in Russia. At the same time she would be the Herald Tribune's special correspondent while she travelled in Europe. Although her parents were upset with her decision and felt she should marry, Ruth was excited and determined.

When Ruth returned to Germany, she found it much changed. As the situation in Europe escalated to war, Ruth travelled to Poland where she was forced to leave because of anti-Semitism there, and then onto Russia where she encountered the realities of communism. She returned to Europe near the end of the war to escort a large number of Jewish and non-Jewish refugees seek safety in America and worked tirelessly for them to stay.  This was the beginning of Ruth Gruber's life work - to advocate through her writing and action for the Jewish communities throughout the world.

Discussion

Author Rona Arato has written an engaging biography of a remarkable woman, who ignored social conventions to live life on her own terms. Told in seventeen short chapters, the author describes Ruth Gruber's early life, her education and travels to Europe in the 1930's and 1940's. The book focuses on Ruth's early life and education, demonstrating how that led her to her life's work which was to advocate on behalf of refugees and various Jewish communities throughout the world.

The author captures Ruth Gruber's sense of adventure, her determination to help others and her openness to learning about other cultures and peoples. Ruth had the courage to actively push back against the anti-Semitism that was spreading throughout Germany. She read Mein Kampf to learn about Hitler's plans for the Jewish population and she refused to accept her friend Johann's belief that the Nazi's were doing good for Germany. Ruth used her journalism skills and her camera to capture what was going on in Europe and for the Jewish refugees in the Oswego camp in Oswego, New York.

Included in the text are separate boxes which highlight specific topics such as Russia's Many Peoples, Siberia and the Soviet Arctic, The Great Depression, and President Truman. Arato's Author's Note at the back, tells the rest of Ruth's story after the war, including photographs. Also included are a Glossary, Source Notes, a Timeline of Ruth's life, a Bibliography, and an Index. The illustrations were rendered digitally by Isabel Munoz.

Rona Arato has authored more than twenty books for children, many of them focusing on human rights issues. Nothing Could Stop Her highlights the determination of Ruth Gruber to help combat anti-Semitism. She would not be stopped by Nazis, Communists, the Arctic cold, or even the indifference of people to the plight of the Jewish people.

Book Details:

Nothing Could Stop Her: The Courageous Life of Ruth Gruber by Rona Arato

Minneapolis, MN: Kar-Ben Publishing   2023
139 pp.

The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman

Valentina Kaplan lives in Pripyat, Ukraine with her mother Galina Yurievna Goldman Kaplan and her father, Nicolai.

One Saturday morning in April, 1986, she awakens to find that there are no blue jays, blackbirds or sparrows in the sky or on her windowsill waiting to eat the pieces of salami. To the south, instead of the robin-egg blue sky, there is a crimson glow with blue smoke lifting into the sky. Underneath that smoke is the nuclear power station,  the V.I. Lenin Power Station, also called Chernobyl, where her father works. Valentina's father is usually home from his night shift at the power station by morning, but today he hasn't returned.

Although Valentina is beginning to panic, her mother reminds her that they were running a safety drill at the station and that he might simply be late. She also tells Valentina that they must act normal, go to school and work so they don't attract the attention of the government and the secret police. And because they are Jews and hated, it was important to be safe. 

Outside, Valentina notes that the air tastes like metal and sees policemen everywhere. At school, Valentina meets Oksana Savchenko, a Ukrainian girl with blond hair and blue eyes. Oksana lives with her father, Ilya who works at the power plant. She dislikes Valentina who is Jewish because her father has told her that all Jews are liars who work together to try to destroy everyone else. Valentina's father had been given the promotion at the nuclear station that should have gone to Oksana's father. Oksana challenges Valentina to a race in the  hopes she can win and go home to brag to her father, but she loses the race. When Oksana taunts Valentina about being Jewish, their teacher, Svetlana Dmitrievna steps and punishes the two girls by having them kneel on rice. 

While none of her classmates seem concerned, when they leave school at noon, Valentina sees military trucks with drivers wearing gas masks driving into Pripyat. As the two girls return to their apartments in the same building, Valentina meets Dyadya Sergei who is very brown from "tanning" on the roof. In Oksana's apartment just as they are getting ready to eat, Valentina and her mother, Galina Yurievna arrive and tell Oksana and her mother Eleonora that she has learned that reactor number four exploded during the safety drill, causing the explosion and a fire. The men are now at the hospital and the mothers and daughters leave carrying their family's radiation medicine: a glass bottle of milk and cucumbers. On their way out of the building they encounter Dyadya Sergei who is now suddenly desperately ill. Oksana's mother tells him he needs to get to the hospital. Oksana wonders if there is something in the air that can hurt them.

At Pripyat Hospital it is chaotic and filled with horrific smells. Valentina and her mother find her father, Nicolai, burning with fever, sweating profusely. Valentina is hauled out of the room by a doctor who tells them that the explosion has made her father's body very radioactive and that being close to him might kill her. He tells them to leave immediately and that he cannot tell the other families because the government is worried about causing widespread panic. The doctor also tells them that their husbands are being flown to a special hospital in Moscow and that they should return with clothing for them.  But when they return they learn that the men have already been taken to Moscow.

In her apartment, Oksana tries to study but instead focuses on drawing. Her father wanted her to study engineering and Oksana was good at math and science but she hated these subjects. Oksana's mother reveals that her father was buried under the rubble from the explosion and is dead. Her mother mostly ignores Oksana and is worried about being alone. In Valentina's apartment, her mother makes her take the tablets, they shower and throw away the clothing they were wearing. 

The next day they are ordered to be evacuated from Pripyat. When they are checked with dosimeters, Oksana's mother is sent to the hospital as her radiation levels are too high. A terrified, distraught Oksana is taken in by Valentina's mother who tells her they must take the bus to Kiev where she has a friend who can help them. On the bus, Oksana notes all the dead blackbirds and sparrows and the damaged trees and bushes.

In Kiev, Oksana wants to travel to Minsk where her mother has been hospitalized but Valentina's mother discourages her from doing so, telling her the trip is too far and that she will call to find out about her mother. Instead they take the subway to Dimeezskaya Street where Valentina's mother's friend, Masha Petrovna lives

At the apartment, the girls bathe and that's when Valentina sees Oksana's wounded back and scars. They are unable to learn much about Oksana's mother and unable to reach her relatives near Pripyat. When they listen to the foreign radio station they learn that "... high levels of radiation were detected at a Swedish nuclear power plant this morning..." and that "Swedish nuclear experts traced the weekend's wind currents and determined the radiation originated from the Soviet Union."  With the government denying everything, Valentina's mother realizes this is much worse than she believed. As a result Masha insists Valentina's mother and the girls leave immediately, believing them to be a health risk. 

Valentina's mother decides they will travel to Leningrad to live with her mother but when they try to get train tickets, only two are available so Valentina and Oksana are put on the train while she stays behind. In Leningrad the two girls are met by Valentina's grandmother or Babulya, Rits Grigorievna. 

Life with Babulya proves to undo the lies that Oksana has been told by her father about Jews. Not only that but for the first time in her life, she begins to feel good about herself and truly loved. Oksana learns the truth about herself and it is this belief in her own goodness that ultimate saves Oksana when she finds herself back in an abusive situation with her mother.

Interspersed with Valentina and Oksana's stories, is the story of twelve-year-old Rifka Friedman who is living in Kiev, Ukraine, Soviet Union with her pregnant mother and two younger brothers. In August of 1941, the Germans begin their invasion of the country. Rifka's mother, who has just given birth to her brother Avrum, insists that she flee east with her fifteen year old cousin, Nathan. 

The two leave but when the German army catches up to them, Rifka and Nathan hide in a farmer's barn. However, the farmer forces Nathan to work for him, while Rifka must continue on alone. She escapes the German bombing with the help of fleeing Ukrainian refugees who do not realize she is Jewish. Rifka realizes this when they accept her presence and uses the name Yelena. However, as fall turns to bitter winter and Rifka suffers from hunger and the cold, she is overheard mumbling in her sleep about Adonai - the Jewish word for God. She is forced out into the cold. Near death, Rifka is rescued by a young Muslim girl, Feruza Chorieva and her mother Ona.

Rifka stays the remainder of the war in Tashket, Uzbekistan, a part of the Soviet Union, living with Feruza and her seven siblings. Feruza and her mother Una accept Rifka even though she is Jewish. She attends school but works on their farm and is treated with love and care. Believing God has abandoned her, Rifka decides to ignore God.

When the war ends, Rifka returns to Kiev to find her family have all been murdered. In despair and unsure what to do she travels to Leningrad. There at the Shabbat service at the Grand Choral Synagogue, she meets a young boy, Yuri Goldman, whom she eventually marries. They have a daughter, Galina, which mean "light". Galina will go on to marry and have her own daughter, Valentina, thus completing the circle and connecting all the characters.

Discussion

The Blackbird Girls is a beautifully crafted story about friendship that spans a forty-year period and two major catastrophes, the German invasion of Ukraine in 1941 and the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.

The novel opens in April, 1986 in the city of Pripyat, Ukraine on a Saturday morning as two girls, Ukrainian Oksana Savchenko and Jewish Valentina Kaplan are going about their day, attending school in the morning as usual. The Chernobyl nuclear reactor has malfunctioned during a test overnight, has exploded and is now on fire. The people of Pripyat are unaware of the deadly situation they are in. They believe whatever has happened, their government will protect them and their men who work at the reactor. As the day progresses and the situation worsens, they are evacuated. However, Oksana's mother is taken away because she has been exposed to a higher level of radiation, having worked for a short time on the rooftop garden. Oksana finds herself alone, her father having died during the explosion, with no where to go. It is Valentina's mother who kindly takes charge of Oksana, telling her they will care for her.

From this point forward, against the backdrop of the Chernobyl disaster and their evacuation, this story focuses on the relationship between Oksana Savchenko and the Jewish Kaplans.  Although the two girls are classmates, they are not friends. Oksana has been told by her parents that "All Jews are liars...They're always watching you, trying to find a way to steal your job away from you or take your place...." Oksana has been told her father didn't get the promotion he deserved because of Valentina's father. Her deeply entrenched anti-Semitic views make Oksana reluctant to be connected with the Kaplans.

In Kiev, Oksana continues to feel alone and afraid. "What should she do? Who would help her? She couldn't stay with the Kaplans. Her father hated them." When Valentina's mother insists that Oksana stay with them in Kiev, Oksana continues to feel conflicted. "Stay with Jews. In the same room. Eat the same foods. Sleep under the same ceiling." Oksana realizes she has no one to rescue her except two Jews. 

As Valentina and Oksana are sent on alone to Leningrad to Valentina's grandmother, Oksana begins to realize that what she's been told about Jews by her father doesn't seem to be true. Valentina's gratitude towards Oksana for helping her understand her father's last words trigger Oksana to remember her father saying "that gratitude from a Jew was a poisoned gift. That they were liars...."  These revelations create a deep sense of conflict within Oksana regarding her father.

Babulya's modest apartment, called a kommunalka or community apartment is where the poorest people lived. Oksana's father had said that Jews were secretly rich and hid their money. But Babulya's home and lifestyle was that of a poor person. These revelations crush Oksana. Was her father just mistaken or lying? If her father was wrong about Jews perhaps he had been wrong about other things too. Oksana feels confused and angry.

Valentina and Babulya's kindness deepen Oksana's conviction that she has been lied too. Oksana arrives at Babulya's with a badly infected wound from a cigarette burn inflicted on her by her abusive father. Her abuse is discovered when Valentina and her grandmother have to take her to the hospital. This revelation  makes Valentina realize how little she really knows about her classmate. The kindness Oksana experiences begins to change her. When Valentina is bulled at their new school, Oksana defends her.  She also begins to believe in herself, that she is good, not weak or bad as her father had repeatedly told her. Valentina changes too, deciding she no longer wants to hurt Oksana.

Oksana's deepest desire is to be reunited with her mother, believing that with her abusive father now dead, she and her mother will have the chance to forge a meaningful relationship. However, this doesn't come to pass when her mother becomes involved with yet another abusive man. Losing all hope, Oksana reaches out to the one person who has been a faithful friend, and that is Valentina. In an act of friendship and love that unites the three main characters and transcends time, Valentina and her mother reach out to Feruza, to once again rescue someone in dire need.

The Blackbird Girls is a wonderful story of the healing power of friendship. Blankman has created realistic characters who suffer deeply but also grow as a result of the kindness of others. Just as Feruza and her mother helped Rifka heal from the extreme suffering and hate she experienced during World War II, Rifka now a grandmother (Babuyla) and Valentina help Oksana heal from the abuse and lack of love within her own family. This gives Oksana the courage to leave and find safety once again with Feruza, bringing the circle of healing to a close.

The blackbirds, mentioned throughout the novel and in the title, are "...a symbol for eternity" Feruza tells Rifka. Feruza believes their friendship will last their entire lives, binding them together no matter where they are. Like Rifka and Feruza, Valentina and Oksana are also "blackbird girls".  Valentina, who wants to have Oksana return to Leningrad, fears she will never see Oksana again. Babulya tells her "Distance between true friends doesn't matter when their friendship lives in their hearts..." and that Oksana, after hearing her story about living with Feruza, believes that Valentina is her "blackbird girl". 

Blankman had wanted to write a book about the Chernobyl disaster ever since she met a new friend at the ninth-grade sleepover. That friend, Victoria Belfer Zabarko told her she had survived the disaster as a child. Victoria was one of thousands of Soviet children who were sent out of the Chernobyl region. Her parents had one plane ticket which they used to send her to relatives in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Eventually, her whole family would emigrate to the United States. 

The Blackbird Girls offers a historical perspective on both the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, as well as the German invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. Surprisingly, even in 1986, widespread anti-Semitism still existed in the Soviet Union, something many readers may not realize. Overall, The Blackbird Girls is a well-written piece of historical fiction that offers many themes to explore including abuse, the meaning and role of friendship, and racism. Blankman offers resources in the back matter for those suffering from abuse and there is a section, Further Reading providing fiction and nonfiction resources on the Soviet Union. 

This is a novel that may have been overlooked since it was published in 2020 just prior to the onset of the Covid pandemic. Well worth the read!

Book Details:

The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman
New York: Viking    2020
340 pp.

Puppet by Eva Wiseman

It is Friday March 17, 1882. In the village of Tisza-Eszlar in Hungary,  Fourteen-year-old Julie Vamosi and her friend Sophie Solymosi are watching a travelling puppet show along with many others including Morris Scharf and his younger brother, Sam. The are Jewish boys from the Old Village as marked by the clothing they are wearing, their long curling forelocks and their black skull caps.

The two girls decide to stop and visit Sophie's sister, Esther who was unable to come to the show because she is working for Mrs. Huri. They find Esther feeding the chickens in Mrs. Huri's yard. Esther asks them to come sit with her while she eats teh piece of bread she's been given for her lunch. Julie reluctantly stays hoping she can still het home before her Pa, while Sophie who works for Mrs. Rosenberg as a maid as more freedom to do what she wants.

Julie lives in a small cottage with her Ma and Pa and her younger sister Clara. Their cottage has a small wooden table with chairs, a metal fireplace and four cots along the walls. Julie has made a fire because her mother is cold. Her mother became ill a year ago, first suffering from pain that gradually grew to become unbearable. However much she pleaded with Julie's father, he would not allow Dr. Weltner to treat her because the doctor is Jewish. So Julie waited until her father was working in the fields and brought the doctor to their house. Dr. Weltner told Julie's mother that she has breast cancer and that he cannot help her. Even though Julie told him they cannot pay, he gives them a powder to mix with water. As the days passed Julie's mother has taken more and more of the medication, putting her to sleep but also reducing her pain less and less.

Julie's father is physically abusive and struggles to get work. He also hates the Jews that live in their village often making crude remarks about them. But Morris Scharf, a young Jewish boy the same age as Julie brings a pot of soup that his stepmother has made for Julie's family. 

Julie's friend, Esther is a live-in servant to Mrs. Huri who abuses her and doesn't let her out except to attend church. On the morning of April 1st, 1882, Julie arrives at Mrs. Huri's house to buy milk. There she witnesses Esther being beaten by Mrs. Huri for not following her instructions. Esther fills Julie's container with milk and tells Julie that she is cold and starving as she hasn't been allowed to eat that morning. Later that morning, Julie meets up with a shivering Esther who is on her way to buy blue paint at Kohlmayer's, in the Old Village. Esther arrives in a hurry, giving Julie a tin cup of milk for Clara and her mother, and refuses Julie's offer to accompany her to Kohlmayer's. Esther is given money by two village women, Mrs. Lanczi and Mrs. Csordas to buy them soap and nails respectively. As she leaves to go on her errand, Esther hugs Julie and tells her she is the only friend she has.

Later that afternoon, Esther's mother comes to Julie's home looking for her daughter. Julie is preparing potatoes while Clara naps and her father works at the Rosenberg's farm. Mrs. Solymosi tells Julie that her daughter Sophie and Rosie Rosenberg met her on her way back to Mrs. Huri close to one o'clock. That was the last time she was seen. Mrs. Solymosi is certain something has happened to Esther and she decides to check the river believing Esther may have gone for a walk. Julie and Mrs. Solymosi walk along the Tisza River but when it grows dark they both return to their homes.

The next day, Sunday April 2, Julie meets Mrs. Solymosi at the well and learns that Esther is still missing. At this time, Mr Scharf who is the Jewish caretaker of the synagogue attempts to comfort Mrs. Solymosi by telling her that a girl who went missing in the village of Hajdunanas was found after it was believed the Jews had taken her. She returned home after having fallen asleep among the reeds next to the river. However when Mrs. Solymosi doesn't respond, Mr. Scharf becomes embarrassed and explains that he was only trying to comfort her. He leaves to go to the synagogue to listen to Solomon Schwarcz, who Julie believes is the new butcher.

However the situation turns ugly when Mrs. Csordas tells Mrs. Solymosi not to believe a word Mr. Scharf has said. She states, "You know what these Jews do. Every year, before their Easter, they kill a Christian child and use his blood to make their matzo!" When Julie questions this but is put down by Mrs. Csordas who urges Mrs. Solymosi to talk to the magistrate. Mrs. Solymosi does just that. 

On April 27 when Julie cannot wake her mother that morning, she takes Clara and they walk to Dr. Weltner's home. While waiting for the doctor to return from Mrs. Scharf's, Elizabeth Sos, one of Julie's costomers, accompanied by Mrs. Farkas, the sister of the village magistrate, arrives at the Weltner home. Julie and Clara have been waiting outside for Dr. Weltner to return, along with Sam Scharf. Julie watches as Mrs. Farkas attempts to manipulate five-year-old Sam Scharf by telling him what he saw the day of Esther Solymosi's disappearance. 

Julie's mother is dead when she returns with Dr. Weltner. Five weeks after the disappearance of Esther Solymosi, Julie and her family bury their mother. At the funeral meal, Mrs. Solymosi, consumed with grief loudly asserts that the Jews murdered her daughter and that they must pay. She also repeats the story that Sam supposedly told Mrs. Farkas about how Esther was lured into the Jewish temple. Several of the women relate stories about Sam that seem to support his story. Julie feels confused and lost without the guidance of her mother. 

The next day Clara is sent to live with their Aunt Irma and Julie is made to move to the jail where she works as housekeeper for Sergeant Toth who is a mild manner man. The job is unpaid and Julie has no time off, so she is unable to visit Clara. One day in May, while on an errand for Toth, Julie visits Sophie at the Rosenbergs. During her visit she learns that two men from the district court in Nyiregyhaza are in Tisza-Eszlar asking questions about Esther. Rosie Rosenberg tells Julie that they were also questioned. However, Sophie believes that the Jews killed her sister, although she doesn't blame the Rosenbergs.

Back at the jail, Julie witnesses Bary and Peczely interrogate, intimidate and abuse first Sam and then Morris so they can use one of the boys as a witness. Because the cannot use Sam's tale, Bary, Beczely andd Chief Recsky torture Morris eventually taking him to Nyiregyhaza. The next day, Monday May 22, 1882, Morris is brought back to the jail and all of the Jews in the village are lined up. It is clear to Julie that he has been physically harmed and under duress he is forced in front of the villagers and the Jewish community to implicate three men and a beggar: Solomon Scharwcz the butcher, Abraham Buxbaum and Lipot Braun who applied for the job of butcher, and Herman Vollner. It is clear the police and the villagers are not interested in learning the truth but have decided to scapegoat the village Jews.

With the impending loss of her job at the jail, and her father completely abandoning her, Julie asks to be taken along with the Jewish prisoners to Nyiregyhaza where she can find work. The hatred and prejudice of the village people leads to the Jewish men being tried in the district court in Nyiregyhaza.

Discussion  

Puppet is a short novel about a real historical event that happened in the Hungarian village of Tisza-Eszlar, the blood libel of 1882. The "blood libel" is a myth that originated in England during the mid-twelfth century. It is the false belief that Jews use human blood to make the flatbread, matzos eaten during Passover. This falsehood has led to the persecution the death of thousands of Jews over the centuries. 

In the case of Tisza-Eszlar, a fourteen-year-old Christian girl, Eszter Solymosi went missing from the village on April 1, 1882. Eszter worked as a servant in the home of Andras Huri. When she did not return home from an errand, a search failed to locate Eszter.  A rumour that Eszter might the victim of a Jewish ritual began to spread quickly. This rumour may have been started by Moric Scharf, the son of Jozsef Scharf. Eventually, Hungarian leaders added fuel to the fire of the rumour by suggesting that the young girl was murdered to use her blood on the Jewish passover which would begin on April 3, 1882. However, for Jews any food that came in contact with blood, either animal or human would be non-Kosher and therefore not edible during Passover.

On May 6, Eszter's mother asked a judge to investigate and on May 10th a judge comes to the village to question the Scharf children. Josef Bary first questioned five-year-old Samuel Schraf who implicated his older brother, fourteen-year-old Moric and his father Josef. Despite Moric and his father denying any knowledge of the missing girl or her murder, Josef and his wife were arrested and Moric was taken to the commissar of safety's home in Tiszangyfalu. While there Moric "confessed" after being intimidated by Recszy, the commissar, telling him that Eszter was murdered by a Jewish lodger who lived with them, and with the help of two other Jewish men, drained blood from her body.

On June 18th the body of a girl was pulled from the river but Eszter's mother said that although the clothes belonged to her daughter, the body was not that of Eszter. The body was eventually determined to be that of a girl who was older and it was buried. Eventually fifteen Jewish men were accused and tried. They were acquitted based on the contradictions in Moric Scharf's account and the lack of evidence at the supposed crime scene. Moric Scharf eventually had to leave Hungary.

In Puppet, the story is told from the perspective of a fourteen-year-old Christian girl, Julie Vamosi. Julie and her family are fictional characters but the events she relates and the people she interacts with are real. Wiseman "...has based the trial scenes on the court transcripts from the Egyetertes, a daily Hungarian newspaper at the time, which were published in entirety in Elek Judit-Sukosd Mihaly's 1990 book, Tutajosok."  The chapters in Puppet are titled by date beginning with a Prologue July 1876 and ending with the end of the trial and Julie moving to Budapest on August 4, 1883.

It's interesting that Eva Wiseman chose to tell this story through the eyes of a Christian girl. Unlike the other Christian villagers, Julie does not seem to dislike her Jewish neighbours. Julie Vamosi is skeptical about what the villagers are saying about their Jewish neighbours because they do not fit with what she has experienced. When she first overhears Mrs. Csordas accusing the Jews of being responsible for Eszter's disappearance Julie considers what Mrs. Csordas is saying might be true. However, Julie realizes that she doesn't really know her Jewish neighbours at all. They do not speak Hungarian but German and their own language (likely Yiddish).  Because they are so different she wonders, "Could it be possible they used our blood to make their Easter bread? If they didn't kill Esther, then who did? If she was alive, my friend would have come home. The Jews had to be responsible. there was nobody else. The Jews must have killed her." 

However, Julie remembers the kindness of the Jews who have helped her family. "Then I remembered how Mr. Rosenberg hired my pa to work on his farm when nobody else would give him a job and how my pa hated him for it. I remembered how Dr. Weltner gave Ma medicine without her being able to pay for it. I remembered Mrs. Scharf sending soup to Ma. Finally I remembered the kindness in Mr. Scharf's eyes when he told us the story of the missing girl who had been found. I even thought of Morris. He had been a sweet natured little boy."  Even the Solymosi family has experienced kindess with the Rosenbergs treating their other daughter Sophie well, giving her clean clothes and the freedom to come and go. Julie wonders who is right.  When Julie tells her mother how the women believe that Esther was murdered by the Jews, Ma tells her, "People can be  foolish. They don't know much about the Jews, although they've lived among us as long as I can remember.Tiszla-Eszlar is as much their home as ours. They are ordinary people, both good and bad. They aren't devils who would do the terrible thing they are accused of."

As the rumour about the Jews murdering Esther takes root, Julie struggles with what to do. At her mother's funeral meal, when the village women accuse the Jews of murdering Esther, Julie attempts to speak up but is quickly silenced by her abusive father.  However, at the jail as Sam is questioned by Mr. Bary, Julie keeps quiet despite knowing that it was Mrs. Farkas who created the rumour about what happened. "I wanted to shout that I had heard Mrs. Farkas and Elizabeth Sos tell Sam that the butcher Schwarcz had cut Esther's leg. It wasn't Sam who had said it. All he had done was cry. However, after a quick glance at Bary's fierce face, I kept quiet."

Although Julie is intimidated into silence, when a girl's body is pulled from the river in Csonkafuzes Julie positively identifies it as that of Esther based on a scar she knows her friend had, the clothing found with her and the tin of paint. When pressed and even attacked by Esther's mother, Julie explains how she knows the body is that of her friend. She attempts repeatedly to explain to Mr. Bary but he doesn't listen and Julie even attempts to talk to the Warden Henter. "I realized at that moment, that although I knew the truth, nobody around me wanted to know it."  They don't want to listen because Esther's body has no cuts on the throat or anywhere else, meaning that the story of the blood libel is not true.

Eventually Julie does speak with Jewish mens' lawyer, Mr. Eotvos prior to the trial in June of 1883. She confirms that Morris was beaten and intimidated into confession, that he is being persuaded to believe that "the Jews are evil, wicked people" and she explains how there is proof that the Jews were likely not involved in Esther's death. But Julie's greatest challenge comes when Mr. Eotvos asks her to testify as a witness for the defence as she was present to identify Esther's body when it was found. This is not an easy decision for her. "I thought of how they had made Morris ashamed of who he was. I no longer wondered about the right thing to do. I was certain. But I was too afraid to do it." However, Mr. Eotvos counters, "Doing the right thing is never easy. The Jews of Tisza-Eszlar and Morris himself are the victims of hate. Bary, Recsky and Peczely are evil men. So is Henter. I know that it'll take tremendous courage on your part to tell the truth with them looking on in court, but I know you can do it." Teresa who Julie works with as a scullery maid at the jail in Nyiregyhaza tells her that without her testimony the Jews who are innocent might come to harm. 

However, Julie must overcome severe intimidation by her own pa, who comes to the jail the night before she is to testify and physically beats her. Initially Julie lies in her testimony telling the court she cannot be certain that the body was that of Esther Solymosi. She is competely terrified of what her father and Warden Henter might do to her if she tells the truth. However, as she gets up to leave, Julie realizes that she alone can fight the injustice that is happening in her village and her country. And so she sits down and tells the court the truth. "In that moment, I realized that here was an injustice I could right. I realized I didn't have to add to the sum of misery."  Julie's testimony along with the inaccuracies in Morris's result in the accused Jewish men being released as the charges were not proven. Her courage at this crucial moment saves the lives of the Jewish men and paves the way for Morris to realize what he's done by his lies. Julie also never judges Morris Scharf, repeatedly urges him to tell the truth, and in the end has great pity for him.

Puppet is aptly titled because Morris Scharf is no more than a puppet in the hands of authorities who are should be unbiased and determined to learn the truth about what happened to young Esther Solymosi. They are also responsible for overseeing community safety and judicial matters in a fair manner. Scharf, young and easily intimidated, was manipulated into testifying against his own father and his own people by those who hated the Jewish people living in their village and their country. At the trial in June 1883, Morris gives his testimony without any expression. "Morris began to recite his confession in a monotone. His stiff manner reminded me of the way the puppet Leslie the Brave had given his speeches in the traveling puppet show I had seen in Tisza-Eszlar. "  Morris the puppet is very much the opposite of the puppet, Leslie the Brave who boldly defeats evil in the play that Julie and Sophie watch at the beginning of the story. Sadly, Morris's lies have only served to incite the villagers against their Jewish neighbours. The syngagogue in their home village of Tisza-Eszlar has been completely destroyed and the Jewish people have left, fearful of the their lives.

Puppet demonstrates how ignorance about people who are different can lead to misunderstanding and discrimination, isolation and great harm. As Julie's mother points out, because the Jewish people in their community are different and because people do not understand their culture, they are viewed with suspicion. Mrs. Csordas exemplifies this when she speaks about her experience living next to the synagogue. "I can hear their infernal praying from my house. Their service is usually finished by eleven o'clock in the morning, but yesterday they didn't leave until noon. Something must have been going on there!" She doesn't know what happens in the "temple" but she's certain it must be something evil, merely because it doesn't conform to her beliefs or understanding.

 

While Julie’s presence at all of the key events - the bribery of the young children, the jails where the Jewish men were held, Morris being taken to the archives and offered training, and at the trial- seem contrived, the retelling by Eva Wiseman is effective. The key characters in the event, notary Joseph Bary, the brutal court clerk Peczely, Chief Recsky, and the kindly Christian lawyer Karl Eotvos are well developed.

Puppet is well-written and engaging, but because of the more mature subject matter of physical abuse, manipulation, murder, suicide (implied) and coarse language, this short novel is for older teens.

For more information on this event, you can read an entry in the Jewish Encyclopedia (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=226&letter=T)

Book Details:
Puppet by Eva Wiseman
Toronto: Tundra Books 2009
243 pp.