Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Lidia Janina Durr wants to join her papa and her older brother Ryszard at the lake on this sunny first day of September. They are at her Grandfather Albin's house in the countryside near Warsaw. Her mother refused to allow her to go, saying the men are busy fishing and won't want her there. After banging out Chopin's "Minute Waltz" in rebellion against her mother, Lidia races out of the house with an egg basket. In the field she hears and then sees a plane with the Nazi cross on its wings and watches as the plane drops a bomb that destroys their barn.

After the attack, they learn from the radio that the German invasion of Poland has begun. Lidia's papa refuses to stay with Grandfather and sells their automobile to grandfather's Jewish neighbor, Mr. Adelstein. He explains that this will be a safer way to travel back to Warsaw as the Nazis will think they are important people if they use the automobile. Before they leave, Grandfather warns Lidia that when the Nazis arrive in Warsaw, she must do whatever she needs to survive. 

They return to Warsaw, where they had moved a year ago so Lidia could study music at the same university as Chopin. They find their home has survived the initial bombing, but after several days hiding in the cellar, one corner has collapsed. Lidia, Ryszard and Mama search the home for clothing and supplies. Papa decides to join the Polish army to fight the Nazis, against the wishes of his family. After Papa leaves, their family maid, Ruth Gollstein whom they call Doda , along with her mother Bubbe arrived seeking shelter. Lidia insists that they accept them, although her mother is reluctant.

On September 17 they learn that Russia has invaded from the east. Then the Nazis announce that they will release poison gas into Warsaw if the city does not surrender. Warsaw falls and the Soviets and Germans sign a treaty dividing Poland in half. With Poland now occupied by the Soviets in the East and Germany in the West, life for Lidia, Ryszard and Mama becomes much more difficult. Their school building is destroyed and then all schools are closed by the Nazis. Jewish shops are targeted, Jews are forced to wear the yellow Star of David, libraries, museums and universities are closed, and Jewish men are put into forced labor.

Lidia and her family learn from Henryk Katz who was her papa's driver, that he is in a prison camp in Russia. Lidia's mother is despondent after hearing this as well as having discovered that the Nazis have stolen all their savings. This means that Mama must now work. Then a young Polish boy whose family had been helped by Lidia's parents, comes to warn them that the Nazis are planning to confiscate their home. Although Doda plans a way to save Lidia's beloved piano, they leave it behind and move into Bubbe's old apartment in the Wola district. It has no bathroom and one bedroom and a small kitchen. It is located on the south end of the Vistula River and near Lidia's piano teacher, Madame Kazowska.

In fall of 1940, thirteen-year-old Lidia and her family watch as the Nazis build a wall around the Jewish quarter using forced labour by Jews. One day after visiting the market, Lidia returns home to find Doda and Bubbe have been forcibly taken into the Jewish ghetto behind their apartment. The ghetto is now completely enclosed by a wall and guarded by Nazi soldiers. Lidia attempt to bring them food is cut short when she witnessed a Polish man shot dead for trying to do the same.

In 1941, Lidia learns from her friend, Maryna, that there are underground schools in Warsaw. Determined to attend, Lidia raises the tuition by selling the beautiful porcelain dolls her grandfather gifted her. They also receive a letter from Papa at this time telling that he is in a prison camp on a Russian island. Near the end of 1941, they learn from the underground newspaper, that Ryszard smuggles home, of the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. From a story about mass executions at Chelmno, Lidia learns that the Jews are being sent to camps to be killed. Later when Lidia looks into the ghetto she sees that it is extremely crowded and that many people are desperately thin and are starving. This motivates Lidia to begin helping those in the Jewish ghetto by slipping them food.

Throughout the spring of 1942, with her friend Maryna, Lidia continues passing food into the ghetto by various means. However, when a sign warning that those helping the Jews will be immediately executed, Lidia and Maryna are terrified. They decide they must stop helping with the food. However, the two girls discover the reality of the ghetto as they witness the Polish Jews being loaded into boxcars of a train supposedly to resettlement camps. Hearing what she believes is Bubbe's voice, Lidia attempts to get near the area but she is warned and then slapped by a German soldier who threatens to place them on the train. 

In January of 1943, they awaken to fighting in the ghetto. As Lidia watches a group of young Jewish fighters take on the German soldiers, she is impressed by their courage. She confronts Ryszard, telling him she knows he is part of the resistance and insists that she too is intent on joining. Despite his threat to tell their mother, Lidia begins to reach out to those she knows are involved and soon finds herself undertaking dangerous work as a messenger. 

Discussion

Uprising is based on the real life of Lidia Janina Durr who was a member of the Polish resistance in Warsaw, during World War II. The novel is divided into five parts: Part 1 Invasion, Part 2 Occupation, Part 3 Resistance, Part 4 Uprising and Part 5 The Escape. 

Some details of Lidia's life differ slightly from what is portrayed in Nielsen's book. For example, Lidia was born in 1924 in Warsaw, Poland and was fifteen-years-old, not twelve, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. She joined the resistance two years later when she was seventeen and worked as a messenger. While being active in the Resistance, Lidia managed to complete her high school education at an underground school. She also illegally studied medicine in the underground University of Warsaw and music at the Conservatory of Music, where Chopin once studied Lidia participated in the Warsaw Uprising (August 1 to October 2, 1944) as a messenger. The Warsaw Uprising was led by the Polish resistance as the Germans were retreating from Poland ahead of the Soviets. The Polish Resistance hoped for assistance from the Soviets but instead, Stalin order Soviet troops to halt, allowing the Germans to attack and destroy the Polish Home Army and the city of Warsaw. Almost sixteen thousand resistance fighters were killed and close to two hundred thousand Polish citizens in Warsaw were executed by the Germans. As mentioned in Nielsen's novel, no outside support from the Allies was offered, dooming the resistance to fail.

In her Author's Note, Nielsen writes that she made Lidia a few years younger in her novel. The events portrayed in the novel are taken from Lidia's own journals, writings and stories told to friends. The difficult relationship portrayed in the novel between Lidia and her mother, Janina, was real and only resolved many years later near the end of Janina's life. It's likely the premature death of Janina's first daughter, Krystyna was a factor.

In Uprising, Lidia is often arrogant, stubborn and unwilling to follow advice or direction from the leaders in the Polish Resistance. She is not a likeable protagonist until she grows older and more mature. Whether this is an accurate portrayal of the real Lidia Durr or dramatic license is uncertain. At any rate, it is obvious that under the constant threat of death, amidst the horrors of war, Lidia showed remarkable courage, ingenuity and determination as a member of the resistance. 

Nielsen has included an informative Author's Note the provides more background information on the Warsaw Uprising and the people that Lidia worked with, some of whom are also in the novel, as well as Lidia's life after the war. There are many black and white photographs of Lidia and her family to help readers relate better to the real Lidia Durr. A map detailing the location of Poland, Russia and Germany would have been helpful as well as one of Warsaw to show the location of the Warsaw Ghetto in the city and some of the other landmarks. As Nielsen mentions in her Author's Note, the city was leveled by the Germans as punishment for the uprising.

Uprising is another well-written and engaging historical fiction novel by Jennifer A. Nielsen that focuses on the Polish uprising during World War II.

Book Details:

Uprising by Jennifer A. Nielsen
New York: Scholastic Press   2024
356 pp.