Michael Rosen relates his lengthy quest to find out about the fate of his great aunts and uncles in France and Poland during World War II in this short volume of prose and poetry. Jewish Rosen grew up in England after the war. His father didn't talk much about these relatives, but noted obliquely when asked, "they were there at the beginning of the War, but they had gone by the end." As an adult, Rosen worked on piecing together what happened, following twists and turns that included moments of breakthrough and inquiries that led nowhere. He started with stories from an aunt and uncle in the United States, later following the leads in letters found by American cousins sent by one of his French great uncles during the war. From there he engaged in research, reading, and trips to France, gradually piecing together the path that led to Auschwitz, and death, for his French great uncles. The Polish relatives were harder to trace; but one, 17 at the start of the war, survived. Each brief prose section describes another discovery in Rosen's research, and concludes with a poem. A foreword by Marc Aronson and Rosen's final chapter both note that this story about the Holocaust resonates with the fate of refugees today. (Ages 10-14)

An award-winning author and poet traces the history of his relatives lost in the Holocaust in a personal, powerful narrative with resonance for readers today.

“They were there at the beginning of the war, but they were gone by the end. I suppose they died in the camps.”

That’s all young Michael Rosen, born in England just after the end of the Second World War, was told about the six great-aunts and great-uncles who had been living in Poland or France at the beginning of that war. This wasn’t enough for him. So, as an adult, he started to search. He asked relatives for any papers they might have. He read book after book. He searched online, time and again, as more information was digitized and suddenly there to be found. In a unique mix of memoir, history, and poetry, scholar and children’s literature luminary Michael Rosen explores his family history, digging up more details than he ever thought he would and sharing them with readers so that now, a lifetime after the Nazis tried to make the world forget the Rosen family and the rest of Europe’s Jews, his readers can do something essential: remember. With an extensive list of titles for further reading, maps of France and Poland, a family tree, and an introduction by lauded author and anthologist Marc Aronson, this immensely readable narrative offers a vital tool for talking to children about the Holocaust against the background of the ongoing refugee crisis.