After the War (novel)

After the War

First edition cover
Author	Carol Matas
Language	English
Genre	Juvenile Fiction, Holocaust, Historical
Publisher	Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Topeka Bindery
Publication date	September 1, 1997 in English
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	128 pp
ISBN	0-613-04442-8

After the War is a novel written by author Carol Matas. The book was published by Simon & Schuster^[1] and released in 1997.

Plot

Shortly after the end of World War II, Ruth Mendenberg is released from a death camp in Buchenwald, one of Hitler’s concentration camps. Ruth returns to her hometown in Poland and quickly learns that both her home and her family are gone. At the age of 15, she loses her faith, and lives with the guilt of being the only surviving member of her family.

She meets a young man named Saul from Eretz Israel, who encourages recently liberated Jews to migrate to Mandate Palestine and its relative freedoms along with other Jewish refugees. She is housed along with other recently liberated Jews, which include men and women of all ages. Although Ruth believes there is no hope, she agrees to migrate with the refugees, since, as she puts it, ″she has nothing better to do."

The house is attacked by an angry mob after a Polish child accuses some of the refugees of kidnapping and murdering some of the children in the village. She is forced to hide, until the soldiers quiet the mob. Shortly after she is forced to flee, along with 20 children. Reluctantly, she becomes one of the youth leaders. The group goes on foot through Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Italy. The goal: make it to Palestine.

Told in the first person, the book is compact and a relatively quick read. After the War focuses on one young woman's experiences after surviving the Holocaust. It shows the continuing struggle of Holocaust survivors, as well as the lack of sympathy for these survivors, immediately after the end of the war in eastern Europe.

This book is intended for readers who are teenagers and young adults. The graphic descriptions of violence, especially against children, may be too intense for readers under the age of 12.

Author's note

Although the book is based on historic events, the author has taken "liberties," combining various true stories to produce a fictional account. As she says, "For instance, no ship that I read about was both attacked and managed to beach on Palestine's shore but each event did happen separately. I simply combined them for greater effect."

The author notes that,

"no character is modeled after one specific person I read about, rather my characters are modeled on many different people I both read about and interviewed."^[2]

She said that, between 1945 and May 1948, some 69,000 Jews traveled to Mandate Palestine and entered illegally.^[2]

References