The experiences of eight children who suffered at the hands of the Nazis are cogently related in a book that includes many documentary photographs and clear historical backgrounds for context. Seven of the eight lived to tell their stories; the eighth was Anne Frank. Each of the children represents a different kind of persecution and method of survival. Beate Siegel, the daughter of a prominent Jewish lawyer, was sent at age 14 to live with a family in England as part of the Kindertransport. Alexander Michelowksi was one of the thousands of Polish children snatched from their homes to be "Germanized" and adopted into German families. Barbara Richter was a Bohemian gypsy child who was sent to Auschwitz, where she was subjected to experiments conducted by Dr. Mengele. Joseph Steiner and his older sister, Ania, escaped the Warsaw ghetto just hours before it was obliterated by the Germans and lived by their wits for the next few years, sometimes serving as a messengers for the Polish Resistance. All of the stories are as gripping as they are heartbreaking, and most were gathered firsthand by the author. A recent photograph of each survivor is included at the end his or her story. (Ages 11 and up)

Joseph Steiner and his sister were eight and eleven when the Jews were rounded-up from the Warsaw ghetto. For weeks they hid in abandoned warehouses, escaping only hours before the ghetto was obliterated. When Alexander Michelowski was ten, he was taken from his home in Poland by the Gestapo and sent away for "Germanization", and later to a Hitler Youth Camp. Beata Siegel was sent from Germany to England on the Kindertransporte. It was to be nine years before she saw her mother again.Witnesses to War tells the story of how these children and others from across Europe endured persecution at the hands of the Nazis. Award-winning journalist Michael Leapman provides valuable background and insight into their histories, but it is the stories themselves -- vivid, unembellished and utterly compelling -- that stand as the finest testimony to the courage of the children of the Second World War.