Info
In this companion book to the award-winning
Stolen Child, a young girl is forced into slave labour
in a munitions factory in Nazi Germany.
In Stolen Child, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch introduced readers to Larissa, a victim
of Hitler’s largely unknown Lebensborn program. In this companion novel, readers
will learn the fate of Lida, her sister, who was also kidnapped by the Germans and
forced into slave labour — an Ostarbeiter.
In addition to her other tasks, Lida’s small hands make her the perfect candidate to
handle delicate munitions work, so she is sent to a factory that makes bombs. The
gruelling work and conditions leave her severely malnourished and emotionally
traumatized, but overriding all of this is her concern and determination to find out
what happened to her vulnerable younger sister.
With rumours of the Allies turning the tide in the war, Lida and her friends
conspire to sabotage the bombs to help block the Nazis’ war effort. When her work
camp is finally liberated, she is able to begin her search to learn the fate of her sister.
In this exceptional novel Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch delivers a powerful story of
hope and courage in the face of incredible odds.
French edition
Feb 2015.
Éditions Scholastic
Excerpt
Chapter One
Chapter One
1943
Losing Larissa
The room smelled of soap and the light was so white that it made my eyes ache. I held Larissa’s hand in a tight grip. I was her older sister after all, and she was my responsibility. It would be easy to lose her in this sea of children, and we had both lost far too much already. Larissa looked up at me and I saw her lips move but I couldn’t hear her words above the wails and screams. I bent down so that my ear was level with her lips.
“Don’t leave me,” she said.
I wrapped my arms around her and gently rocked her back and forth. I whispered our favourite lullaby into her ear.
A loud crack startled us both. The room was suddenly silent. A woman in white stepped in among us. She clapped her hands sharply once more.
“Children,” she said in brisk German. “You will each have a medical examination.”
Weeping children were shoved into a long snaking line that took up most of the room. I watched as one by one other children were taken behind a broad white curtain.
When it was Larissa’s turn her eyes went round with fright. I did not want to let go of her, but the nurse pulled our hands apart.
“Lida, stay with me!”
I stood at the edge of the curtain and watched as the woman made Larissa take off her nightgown. My sister’s face was red with shame. When the woman held a metal instrument to her face, Larissa screamed. I rushed up and tried to knock that thing out of the nurse’s hand, but she called for help and someone held me back. When they finished with Larissa, they told her to stand at the other end of the room.
When it was my turn, I barely noticed what they were doing. I kept my eyes fixed on Larissa. She was standing with three other children. Dozens more had been ordered to stand in a different spot.
When the nurse was finished with me, I slipped my nightgown back on. I was ordered to stand with the larger group – not with Larissa’s.
“I need to be in that group,” I told the nurse, pointing to where Larissa stood, her arms out-stretched, a look of panic on her face.
The nurse’s lips formed a thin flat line. “No talking.”
She put one hand on each of my shoulders and shoved me toward the larger group. A door opened wide. We were herded out into the blackness of night.
Larissa screamed, “Lida! Don’t leave me!”
I looked back into the room, but could not see her. “I will find you, Larissa!” I shouted. “I promise. Stay strong.”
A sharp slap across my face sent me sprawling onto the cold wet grass. I scrambled up and tried to break through the sea of children. I had to get back to Larissa. Strong arms wrapped around my torso and lifted me up. I was thrown into blackness. With a screech of metal the door slammed shut.
Reviews
Review by Michal Hoschander Malen
Lida and her sister, Larissa, kidnapped from their Ukrainian village by the Nazis in 1943, are separated in the first chapter of this powerful wartime story and the book follows older sister Lida as she worries about Larissa and tries to survive the horrors of a slave labor camp. She is aware of the plight of the Jews; her mother had tried to save a Jewish girl and had been shot for it and one of her fellow inmates is also Jewish, unbeknownst to their captors. Both girls know that that discovery of this fact will lead to immediate death. The situation of prisoners like Lida was not, of course, the same as that of Jews in concentration camps but it was harsh and terrifying and this piece of history is not widely known. One of Lida’s main tasks was the assembling of bombs for the use of the German war effort and she makes an effort to sabotage as many bombs as she can. Somehow Lida manages to survive and is reunited with her sister whose story is told in a companion volume, Stolen Child. This book is gritty, raw and excellently written and tells the story in a memorable way. It is recommended for ages 9-14.
Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch and winner of the 2013 Silver Birch Fiction prize, Making Bombs for Hitler is the poignant and chilling and deeply moving account of a young Ukrainian girl’s experiences working as a slave labourer in Nazi Germany. Filled with instances of shocking inhumanity and calculated cruelty, and small and great acts of courage and kindness, this story will move you to tears. A wonderful book for readers from Grade 5.
FernFolio Editor
Kontakt TV on the book launch.
From Canadian Children’s Book News, Summer 2012: With Making Bombs For Hitler, author Marsha Skrypuch continues the story of two sisters, Lida and Larissa, that she began with Stolen Child.
Making Bombs for Hitler is Lida’s story. Lida’s morther had said it was possible to find beauty anywhere, but she — like Lida’s father and grandmother — was killed before her daughters were captured by the Germans. Beauty is almost impossible to find in a brutal Nazi slave labour camp. But Lida’s strongest motivation to survive is her quest to find her beloved sister, Larissa.
Lida knows she needs to remain useful in the camp if she is to survive — and death can happen at any time. Doctors and nurses will kill those deemed “unfit” to be a part of the Nazis “machine.” Guards can barely wait for an excuse to berate, brutalize or kill their prisoners. There is the gnaw of hunger and the reality of misery and torture everywhere. Then Lida and some of her friends are given a new work assignment: making bombs — a task they have no choice but to undertake. It is a blessing that by now she knows there is beauty, even in the camp — in a shared song or story, a loving memory, a selfless act of resistance.
These gifts sustain her, both as a prisoner, and later, in a refugee camp, where she is finally safe. All she has to do is somehow find dear Larissa and a way back home. But finding Larissa will take nothing short of a miracle. And if the rumours about Ukraine are true, going home may never happen.
Making Bombs for Hitler is an achingly sad and intensely hopeful novel — honest about suffering, but also about resilience. It is gripping in its plot and its striking characters, and full of historical accuracy.
In Stolen Child, it takes Larissa almost the entire novel to remember her real name and her past. She spent five years in a Displaced Persons camp with the loving couple who have brought her to Brantford, Ontario. She knows that she must refer to Marusia and Ivan as her mother and father or they will risk losing their place in Canada. She must also go by the name Nadia. But disturbing, disjointed flashbacks and nightmares are raising troubling questions.
Why are her happy memories infused with the colour and scent of lilacs? Why are her horrible memories tied to blood and flames and desperate cries? Who are her real mother and sister? And why is she almost certain the boys who call her a Nazi are right?
Stolen Child brilliantly and deftly deals with the horrifying issues of post-traumatic stress disorder and the Lebensborn program (the Nazis stole blond, blue-eyes Polish and Ukrainian children and brainwashed them before placing them with their ‘rightful’ Nazi families). Larissa became one such child, and the road back to the truth is terrifying. She must have courage if she is ever to have peace or find Lida.
When, at the end of Making Bombs For Hitler, Lida is finally given a letter from Larissa, a beautiful link is made between Making Bombs for Hitler and Stolen Child. These two novels are a perfect fit, covering not only war, prejudice, injustice and loss, but also love, healing and new beginnings.
Enrolled in the Humber College Creative Writing Program, Christina Minaki is working on her second novel.
From Resource Links, April 2012
Rating: Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
SKRYPUCH, Marsha Forchuk Making Bombs for Hitler
Scholastic Canada, 2012. 186p. Gr. 4 – up. 978-1-44310730-3. Pbk. $8.99
Making Bombs for Hitler is a companion novel to Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s previous novel. Stolen Child This novel tells the story of Lida, a young Ukrainian girl who lost her parents during World War II, and who, with her sister, is taken away from her grandparent’s care by the Nazis and sent to a forced work camp. Before arriving at their final destination, the girls are separated, and Lida must do all she can to survive the conditions of deprivation and despair in the camp, clinging to the hope that one day she will be reunited with her sister.
This novel really tells two stories. On the surface, it is the story of Lida, and how she triumphs over adversity by being resourceful and optimistic, even in the face of cruelty and sadness. Lida emerges as a leader, through her compassion towards other camp workers, and by her bravery in helping to sabotage the bombs that she and the other workers are forced to manufacture for the Nazis. Her example brings courage and hope to those with whom she is imprisoned; she demonstrates empathy and humanity in the most brutal conditions, even when the adults around her treat her as though she is less than human. The novel also tells a parallel story, that of the Ostarbeiter, or East Workers. Beginning in 1943, an estimated 3 million to 5.5 million people, mostly under the age of 25, were abducted from the area of Reichskom- missariat, Ukraine by the Nazis. They were used as forced laborers, with the law enabling the Nazis to use these prisoners until they died from overwork, malnutrition, and exposure. After the war ended and the prisoners were repatriated to the Soviet Union, many were sent to work camps in Siberia or killed by their own government, as Stalin viewed these former Nazi prisoners as Nazis themselves.
This novel contains some stark and unsettling descriptions of conditions in forced work camps and the way in which prisoners were treated as expendable commodities, rather than human beings. Parents and educators may wish to use sections of the novel as a starting point for discussions about some of the events of World War II and how these events have impacted our laws today.
Thematic Links: World War 1939-1945 Children; World War 1939-1945- Prisoners and Prisons; Sisters
Roxanne Burton
Source Citation
http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.torontopubliclibrary.ca/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA289361593&v=2.1&u=tplmain&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w
From Helen Kubiw: The title of Marsha Skrypuch’s newest book may blindside you, even knock you senseless about reading it, but it would be a shame for anyone not to read this compassionate historical fiction about a little known tragedy of World War II. As always, Skrypuch demonstrates that she is to be trusted and respected for her ability to transform even horrific history into gentle but honest and enlightening stories.
With Russian Communist rule in Ukraine and Stalin determined to destroy the country to keep it from the Germans coupled with the Nazis heading for Moscow by invading Ukraine, Ukrainians were in an unfortunate position, territorially and psychologically, during World War II. Sadly, this senseless situation leads to the murder of eight-year-old Lida Ferezuk’s father by the Russians and her mother by the Nazis. Separated from her younger sister, Larissa, Lida is taken with numerous Ukrainian children to Germany to be Ostarbeiter (eastern workers) for the Nazis.
Housed in barracked camps, provided with no clothes or shoes, and essentially starved on watery broth once a day, Lida and other children are slave workers for the Nazis, kept only as long as they are useful. After showing her skills with needle and thread, Lida is assigned to the Nazi laundry. But, after being gifted a cast-off shirt by the laundress, Officer Schmidt decides Lida has been too privileged and assigns her with five others girls to construct bombs in a compound away from the camp.
With repeated defeats at the front, many Nazis retreat and, without supervision, the girls begin to sabotage the bombs to ensure they are ineffective. But, relentless bombing by the Allies destroys the camp, allowing many to escape. Unfortunately, a number of them, including Lida, are captured and taken to a German town where their enslavement is reimposed under a man manufacturing ammunition. Locked in a basement, they endure inhumane conditions, worsened when they are abandoned by the departing Germans feeling the threat of the Allied forces.
The inevitable arrival of Allied soldiers and their discovery of Lida and others brings the reader small pleasure, as the deaths of many and the images of the starved with legs turning to sticks and teeth loosening cannot be erased or ameliorated. Even with their rescue and care by compassionate soldiers and nurses, the Ukrainian children are in jeopardy from the Soviets who view them as Nazis, deserving of punishment. If they do survive the machinations of the Soviets to retrieve and punish them, many will spend years in displaced persons camps, waiting, hoping to be reunited with family.
This heart-breaking story, as told from Lida’s young eyes and heart, offers an opportunity for our young readers to get a different perspective of World War II beyond the battles expounded upon in history books or Remembrance Day activities at school or the tragedy of the Jewish people. It provides an opportunity to see war from a Ukrainian child’s perspective, hopefully sparking discussions with grandparents or research to understand more fully the plight of so many during war. [n.b. I may begin my own research with A History of Ukraine by Paul R. Magocsi (University of Toronto Press, 1996)]
Being of Ukrainian heritage, recalling vague discussions about Ukrainians dealing with the enemy they knew and the enemy they didn’t, I recognize that choices were more akin to gambles, made with the single goal of survival. As Lida acknowledges, even with the difficulty in believing that people could be so cruel, they saw hope even when there was none, just as Lida tries to see beauty anywhere, just as her mother deemed it was possible. Helen Kubiw, Canlit for Little Canadians.
From Volodomyr Kish: Marsha Skrypuch certainly needs no introduction either to the Ukrainian community in Canada or to this country’s literary scene in general. As one of Canada’s foremost writers of books for children and young adults, she has earned numerous awards and distinctions for her prolific output.
Making Bombs for Hitler is her fifteenth book, and like many of her previous works, it deals with the painful and tragic effects of war and historical turmoil upon innocent victims. In this case, it portrays the experiences of Lida Ferezuk, a young Ukrainian girl not even in her teens, who is uprooted from everything she has known and held dear by the German invasion of Ukraine during the Second World War. Like millions of other young Ukrainian people, she is taken into forced labour in Germany where she joins the ranks of the Ostarbeiter, in effect, slave labourers from the East. The Germans considered Ostarbeiter to be Untermensch or sub-human. As such, they were used, abused and often literally worked to death, keeping the Nazi war machine going.
The story traces Lida’s agonizing experiences as she is orphaned and taken from her home to eventually wind up working in a small factory making bombs for the German military, hence the book’s title. Her struggle to survive in the face of overwhelming trials and tribulations is painted in vivid and yet at the same time very human terms. Skrypuch possesses a unique and distinctive ability of being able to place the reader into a protagonist’s consciousness, so that we experience and feel what the story’s main character sees and feels. It makes for a gripping read. Despite the fact that the book is geared for a young adult audience, once I started reading, I did not put the book down until I had finished it. It was that captivating.
Although the story is ostensibly fictional, it is based on real accounts, and the experiences described are historically accurate. It is estimated that some 2.5 million young Ukrainians were taken as Ostarbeiter to work in Germany. A significant number died from hunger, disease, overwork and as innocent victims of bombings or being caught in the crossfire of battling armies. After the war, most were forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union where they were unjustly subjected to retribution and persecution by the Communists as being “collaborators” and “traitors”. A small number were able to immigrate to new homes in Western Europe, North America, Australia, as well as other countries.
The story has a personal resonance in that my mother and one of my uncles who did manage to reach Canada after the war were Ostarbeiter. While they were still alive, I tried a number of times to get them to recount the details of their experiences in Germany during the war. Regrettably, they were more than a little reluctant to speak of that cruel period in their young lives. I was usually rebuffed with a statement to the effect that it was better that I did not know of the inhumanity and cruelty that people were capable of inflicting They wanted to put that sad time behind them.
As much as I can understand their unwillingness to resurrect painful memories, I think that it is vitally important for posterity that their story be told. Sadly, too little has been written of this shameful history and the world is too little aware of the human toll that it took on Ukraine and Ukrainians.
There have been a number of attempts in recent decades by scholarly researchers in Canada to document the experiences of Ukrainians who lived through these events and wound up immigrating to Canada from the DP (Displaced Persons) camps after the war. Sadly, these efforts gained little traction, as most people, similar to my mother, were unwilling to confront the psychological scars that those times had inflicted on their psyches.
I am glad that Skrypuch decided to shine a moving and interesting spotlight on these events within her historical narrative. Regardless of one’s age, it is a book well worth reading. Published by Scholastic Canada Ltd, it will be available in bookstores across Canada as of February 1, as well through Amazon.ca.
Walter Kish, New Pathway
From Rebecca’s Book Blog: This book tells the story of Lida, a fictional young Ukranian girl, who is captured by the Nazis to be used for slave labor shortly before her ninth birthday. Lida’s father was killed by the Soviets, and her mother was shot by the Nazis for attempting to hide their Jewish neighbors. After that, Lida and her beloved younger sister, Larissa, went to live with their grandmother, where they were captured by the Nazis. The girls were separated, with Lida being sent to a work camp. Lida is devastated, as she doesn’t know what happened to her sister, her only remaining family, and she fears she might have been harmed or killed because she is too young to work.
The conditions at the work camp are awful. Lida lies about her age, hoping she will be seen as more useful, and thus, be kept alive. There is never enough food and everyone is cold and hungry. Lida is lucky, because she is given a good position working in the laundry, which is clean and warm. However, after a few months, she is forced to go to work in a factory, making bombs for the Nazis. Lida hates having to help the Nazi war effort, because if they win, she will never be free again. However, she is able to find comfort from memories of her family, from her friendship with other children living at the camp, and from keeping alive her hope that one day she will find her sister again.
Before reading Making Bombs for Hitler, I didn’t know that so many children and young adults from Eastern Europe had been used as slave labor by the Nazis during World War II. I wouldn’t necessarily say I enjoyed reading this book, because it’s a very sad and tragic story about the suffering of children in war. However, I think it is a very important story to tell, and the author tells it well. Lida was a very couragous character who survived living and working in conditions that were nearly unbearable, all the while keeping alive the hope that she would someday be reunited with her sister. This book is a companion novel to another book by the author, Stolen Child, which was about Lida’s sister, Larissa. Making Bombs for Hitler can be read as a standalone, but you will want to read Stolen Child too, to find out how Larissa survived the war. I recommend this book to young readers studying World War II as well as to adults with an interest in the subject.
Rebecca’s Book Blog.
From the Montreal Gazette:
In Making Bombs for Hitler, a Ukrainian woman warns 8-year-old Lida in the cattle car transporting her to slavery in Germany, “Be useful or they will kill you.”
Lida’s story dramatizes the little-known story of slave raids made by Nazi forces in the Soviet Union during the war. Young people were rounded up and used for forced labour in appalling conditions. Many were worked or starved to death; some were used in medical experiments.
From the Bukovina region of Ukraine, Lida is all alone in the world. Her mother was murdered by Nazis as she tried to help Jews, her father was killed by the Soviets. Lida is ripped away from her younger sister, whose story is told in the earlier novel, Stolen Child.
Lida learns to lie to protect herself, to say she is much older than she looks. But, alongside shrewdness, she has other sources of strength. She remembers her mother’s teaching that “You can make beauty anywhere.” And so she takes pains to stitch her work badge, the one that marks her in the eyes of her masters as a subhuman from Ukraine. Her talent with a needle saves her on more than one occasion, but her survival instinct doesn’t blunt her conscience. In a brave attempt to shield a Jewish child, she gives up her one precious keepsake, an iron crucifix.
Making Bombs for Hitler is a sensitively written page turner that teaches lessons in courage, faith, ingenuity and hard work. Lida’s odyssey brings her to the edge of death and, after a protracted struggle, immigration to Canada. It is an important story, but one requiring much adult guidance, even for an older age group than the 9-to-12 bracket for which it is recommended.
From the Waterloo Record:
Making Bombs for Hitler, by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (Scholastic Canada, 160 pages, $8.99 softcover) — How are parents or teachers supposed to teach children or pre-teens — or even teenagers — about the horrors of the Holocaust?
The only possible answer is that it must be done with great care and sensitivity.
Brantford writer Marsha Skrypuch, author of 15 books, delivers the truth about the Holocaust, describing it through the eyes of 12-year-old Lida, a Ukrainian girl who is forced into slave labour in Germany during the Second World War. Lida is honest, caring, and confused — why, she wonders, is all of this happening to her and to the people she loves?
I was surprised by the ways in which I was entranced by this book. As the reader, you want to know what’s going to happen to Lida and you are horrified alongside her when something awful happens, which is an all-too-common occurrence.
Making Bombs for Hitler does an incredible job of recounting the hateful acts committed against Jews and other “undesirables” during the war. It is a safe and sensitive book, as well as a great conversation starter, allowing for more than a few teachable moments with young people who read it.
For ages 9 to 12.
Mandy Wiebenga is a Cambridge writer.
More WWII Victims — Making Bombs For Hitler 5/5 stars
The book begins with “… and the light was so white that it made my eyes ache.” This story makes my heart ache. At times I had to put it aside because of its intensity. The author shines a harsh light on more victims of the Nazi regime and makes me squirm with discomfort. Compelling read. Companion novel to Stolen Child. Both books should be read by anyone studying WWII because it wasn’t only Jewish children who suffered. That war was beyond awful. Kudos to Marsh Skrypuch for remembering the OST Arbeiter children. Gabe’s Meanerings
Book Review: Making Bombs For Hitler
Making Bombs for Hitler
begins in the aftermath of raids of Ukrainians kidnapped and transported to Nazi Germany as slave labour, known as Ostarbeiters. The main character Lida is separated from her sister Larissa and tries to survive the camp system with a keen intuition and quick wits, constantly in fear of what the fate or herself, her fellow children or her missing sister will be.
Lida is given quick wisdom in passing from a fellow slave labourer to ‘find a way to be useful, or they’ll kill you’. Lying about her young age and revealing a talent for embroidery taught by her mother (who was killed by the Nazis, while her father was killed by the Soviets) aids her in securing work in the laundry, avoiding the tragic fate of some of her companions who work in terrible conditions and regarded as sub-human. Her hard work ethic is noticed, and the few privileges it gains her shocks her German task masters as she selflessly shares them with her fellow slaves to help their deplorable conditions. As her reputation for quality and detail builds, Lida finds herself promoted to assembling weapons of destruction for the Nazis. This weighs heavily on her conscious, as she is haunted by the dilemma that her diligent work that keeps her useful (and therefore alive) contributes to stopping the people trying to liberate her.
Making Bombs for Hitler is a companion novel to Stolen Child
which is centered around the story of Lida’s sister Larissa, whom are quickly separated at the beginning in this story.
I found this book to be quite enjoyable. While it boasts 170 pages, it is broken down into many digestible chapters and is written in a quick tempo that makes the book a surprisingly quick read. What is also refreshing is that the book does not go into too many details about World War 2, sparing the reader from all the names and places that could have turned the story into a boring history text. And while the book does bring into light the often overlooked plight of Ukrainians and even other nationalities (like the Poles or the Hungarians), one does not need to be too familiar with their back stories to understand their issues in this book.
Making Bombs for Hitler is available at local retailers and online at Chapters, Amazon and Google Books.
CM Magazine Review, Highly Recommended:
excerpt:
I waited for the people in front of me to be served.
When it was finally my turn, I held up my bowl and said, “I would love some German soup, please.”
The cook barely glanced at me. Instead, he looked over to the warden and raised his eyebrows.
“Russian,” she said.
I’m not Russian, I’m Ukrainian.”
The warden frowned at me. “Do you see a sign here that says Ukrainian? You’re from the east. You’re Russian.”
The cook stepped over to the lone Russian pot and slopped some of its contents into my bowl, using a separate ladle. I looked down at the murky brown mess and my eyes filled with tears.
“Could I at least have some pudding?”
“We don’t waste precious food on sub-humans,” She said. “Go sit down.”
In 2010, Skrypuch’s Stolen Child appeared (See CM, Vol. XVII, No. 1, Sept. 3, 2010). That historical fiction novel told the story of 12-year-old Nadia Kravchuk, who, along with her “parents,” Marusia and Ivan, had immigrated to Brantford, ON, from Europe in 1950. All three had been displaced by the events of World War II, and, as the story unfolds, readers discover, along with Nadia, that she has had two other identities: Gretchen Himmel, the daughter of General Himmel who was connected with the Auschwitz concentration camp, and her true identity, Larissa Ferezuk. It was five-year-old Larissa who had been seized by the Germans occupying Ukraine and declared Lebensborn or biologically fit to be “Germanized” by being raised within a German family. However, Larissa’s eight-year-old sister, Lida, did not meet that program’s criteria, and she was only deemed suitable to be an Ostarbeiter or forced labor worker. It is Lida’s story that is the stuff of Making Bombs for Hitler, a book which is not a sequel to Stolen Child. Instead, it should be seen as being a complementary read.
Making Bombs for Hitler begins in 1943 with the sisters’ separation and concludes in 1951 with their having made mail contact and the anticipation that they will eventually be reunited in Canada. Following the girls’ involuntary parting, Lida, along with other forced labor workers, is shipped by cattle car to her Bavarian work camp, arriving on March 14, her ninth birthday. Warned by older girls in her barracks that the Germans don’t like younger workers, Lida passes herself off as being 13 during the identification process, a lie which saves her life as those who were under 12 were killed, with some being literally bled to death, their blood providing transfusions for wounded German soldiers. While readers may be aware that Jews in occupied German territories had to wear yellow stars on their clothing, they may not know that the forced labor workers also had to wear identifying OST patches, and to be found without one could mean being shot. Awakened daily at 4:30 am., Lida downed a breakfast consisting of “a triangle of black bread the size of my palm and a tinful of coloured water the cook called tea” while lunch was thin watery turnip “Russian” soup [see excerpt]. Her work day concluded at 6 p.m., and there was no supper, with lights out a 7. Saturdays, Lida and the other labourers finished at noon while Sunday was usually a work-free day. Because of her sewing ability, Lida was initially assigned to the laundry, but, as the title indicates, she was eventually part of a team of slave labourers who were required to assemble bomb components. The war’s end brought new dangers to Lida and her fellow Ukrainians whose homelands then fell under Soviet rule. Being sent back home would mean punishment, perhaps even death for Lida, as the Soviets considered her a traitor for having worked for the Nazis, despite the fact that she had no choice. Camps for displaced people then became Lida’s home as she tried to fulfill the pledge she had made years before to her little sister: “I will find you. Larissa….I promise.”
While Lida is the novel’s main character, Skrypuch populates Making Bombs for Hitler with many other characters, mostly her fellow slave labourers, including a young man, Luka, who appears to be part of Lida’s future. His story, just hinted at in Making Bombs for Hitler, merits its own telling.
The conclusion to my review of Stolen Child I will essentially repeat for its complementary tale: Making Bombs for Hitler is a most worthy addition to the body of juvenile literature about the Second World War, and it is a novel that definitely continues to break new ground in terms of its subject matter.
Highly Recommended.
Dave Jenkinson, CM‘s editor, lives in Winnipeg, MB.
From the Calgary Herald:
Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (Scholastic Canada, 186 pages, $8.99)
Skrypuch gives us another compelling tale based on the slave raids Hitler conducted throughout the Soviet Union. This is the courageous story of Lida, who was separated from her family. Her determination to find her sister and her usefulness as a seamstress help her survive the brutal labour camps. By Barb Hesson.
For ages nine and up.
From LibrisNotes:
Canadian author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch continues her historical fiction series for young readers, this time focusing on the little known slave raids conducted by the Nazis during the Second World War. Making Bombs For Hitler picks up the story of Lida Ferezuk whose kidnapping (in 1943 along with her younger sister, Larissa) by the Brown Sisters was mentioned in Skrypuch’s earlier novel, Stolen Child. The narrator in that novel, Nadia Kravchuk, who is really Larissa, has a flashback remembering how she and her older sister were brutally taken from their grandmother’s home in the village of Verenchanka, in the Chrenivets’ka region of the Ukraine. Making Bombs For Hitler backtracks, telling Lida’s story from 1943 to 1951.
The novel opens with the two frightened girls arriving at a large building along with many other children. There they are sorted into two groups – those who will be slave labourers or Ostarbeiters for the Germans and those who will go into the Lebensborn program. Neither of them know what the two groups are for at that time. While Larissa is designated as Aryan and therefore suitable for the Lebensborn, Lida is shipped out of the Ukraine to Germany to become an Ostarbeiter. She is a mere nine years old.
Not knowing what has become of her younger sister, Lida must now face her fate along with many other young people, all the while worrying what has become of Larissa. Crammed into a cattle car with other Ostarbeiters, she is transported to Germany. She meets Luka Barukovich and fourteen year old Zenia Chornij both of whom are from Kyiv, as well as the very young Olesia Serediuk and Kataryna Pick.
When they arrive at the German factory, Lida quickly learns that to stay alive she must lie about her age and she must prove her usefulness to her German masters. Lida states that she is thirteen years old but when she is sorted into a group of younger children to be sent to the “hospital” she tells the officer that she is a good seamstress. She ends up working in the laundry and mending clothing and bedsheets. The fate of the younger children who are sent to the hospital, is horrifying to Lida. The true desperation of her situation finally settles upon her. She is slave working to help the Nazis win the war, and that death might come at any time.
Lida is eventually moved from one factory to another, finally making bombs by hand for the German war machine. This is a task that both frightens her and fills her with shame; she wonders how many people will die as a result of the bombs she makes.
When the war finally ends, and Lida and her fellow laboureres are liberated, it takes many months for Lida to recover from her ordeal and some time before she learns her sister, Larissa’s fate.
Making Bombs For Hitler is a well written, informative novel about this little known aspect of World War II. Skrypuch doesn’t spare the reader any of the details about what went on in the camps or the suffering Lida and the other Ostarbeiters endured, but at the same time the book is not gruesome. Instead it is a poignant recounting of a cruel time in which many, many people suffered because of a terrible ideology. Skrypuch is able to convey the horror, the humiliation, and the loss many of these young people faced during the war. For many, their suffering didn’t end with the war, as Lida’s did. In a cruel twist of fate, many Eastern Workers who were liberated and sent back to the Soviet Union were not welcomed but instead sent to work camps or murdered because they were considered Nazis.
Lida is a strong character who evokes empathy and sympathy. It’s hard to believe that she is so very young, for her voice is that of a wise, but terrified young teen. But Lida also displays courage, intelligence and a remarkable ability to find the beauty and good in small things. It is these qualities that help her and others to survive the degradation and brutality of the camps. When Lida is rewarded for her excellent work in the laundry, she selflessly uses it to help another girl, worse off than herself.
There are many supporting characters in this novel, one of whom is Luka, whom Lida seems to have a great deal of affection for. When he is injured in a bomb blast, Lida risks her life to know whether he is alive or not. And the ending of the novel suggests that these two have a future path to travel together, hopefully in the form of another novel!
The author also uses these supporting characters to portray the dignity some of the labourers brought to the camps despite being viewed as animals or spare parts for the German war machine. Whether it was older workers helping younger, newer workers adjust to camp life or sharing bread, many tried to retain their dignity in spite of the inhuman conditions.
Sensitively written, Making Bombs For Hitler, is highly recommended!
From Maryleah Otto’s August Bookbag column in The Muskokan:
Stories about the horrors of the Nazi war machine during World War II are numerous but this one deserves very special mention. Children’s author Marsha Skrypuch is one of Canada’s most respected writers and her awards are many. In this achingly memorable novel she lets her nine-year-old heroine Lida tell her own story of how it felt to be captured by the Nazis and sent as a slave labourer to work in a Bavarian munitions factory. Her Ukrainian homeland, now occupied by the Germans, becomes a memory as she struggles to work 12 hours a day on a starvation diet but she will never forget her promise to find her younger sister Larissa who was spared her fate.
Making Bombs For Hitler is a companion piece to Stolen Child. Both are highly recommended. Skrypuch deserves high praise for making this painful subject accessible to pre-adult readers.
Wartime novels offer insight
By Fran Ashdown, North Shore News, November 7, 2012
Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Skrypuch (Scholastic Canada) $8.99
Torn Apart: the Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi, by Susan Aihoshi (Scholastic Canada) $16.99
ON Remembrance Day especially we take time to pay homage to those who went to war so that we might enjoy freedom – a freedom which was bought at a horrific cost for so many.
We can more easily appreciate the sacrifices made on our behalf by learning about them through various resources – family history, television documentaries and books. One very powerful approach to learning is through personal narrative, which broadens and enriches the historical perspective. Kids (and this reviewer) can relate more easily to social history, which allows them to see through the eyes of the protagonist and comprehend how war affects a particular individual.
Two excellent books that provide this perspective are Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Skrypuch and Torn Apart by Susan Aihoshi. Both titles focus on individuals who by strength of character and resourcefulness face and deal with circumstances that drastically change their worlds.
Skrypuch writes about the slave raids conducted by Hitler throughout the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Between three million and 5.5 million Ostarbeiters, as these people were called, were transported to Germany and forced to work under horribly inhumane conditions. Thousands died either from starvation or from overwork.
Many who were rescued and sent back to the Soviet Union were killed by Stalin who considered even Nazi captives to be Nazis. For this reason people kept silent for many years about their experiences as captives and it was not until the Soviet Republic dissolution in 1991 that information began to surface.
The story describes the capture by the Nazis of eight-year-old Lida and her little sister Larissa. They endure appalling conditions on the train to the work camp and are separated as soon as they arrive.
Lida is advised by another prisoner to lie about her age and find a skill or she will likely be killed. She tells the Germans about her ability as a seamstress and is sent to work in the laundry where she proves that she is indeed talented. Unfortunately, she is soon transferred to a new assignment, assembling bombs. With incredible bravery, Lida and her fellow prisoners risk certain death in carrying out a plan to sabotage the bombs and contribute their bit to defeating the Nazis. Finally, they are rescued and in the gruelling aftermath of war Lida and her friend Luca face more challenges in the refugee camps.
The harsh, brutal and unrelenting pain, fear and misery encountered by the camp labourers is made evident in Skrypuch’s wonderful writing. Lida’s world is documented with clarity and accuracy. The reader is left wondering how anyone can survive such misery and thankful that we live in a different place and time.
Susan Aihoshi’s Torn Apart is subtitled “The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi” and is set in Vancouver in 1941. While in no way as gut-wrenching as the Skrypuch title, it makes it clear that war affects everyone. This is another title in the excellent Dear Canada series which melds fiction with historical information and photographs.
In the acknowledgements we learn that the author has drawn on family experiences to flesh out the book’s main character. The diary format provides a window on the everyday life of a girl whose entries begin on her 12th birthday, Saturday, May 24, 1941. We see her happy family life begin to disintegrate as the government imposes more and more restrictions on Japanese Canadians.
Mary’s entry for Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941 describes the news about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and its effect on the family. Mary ends her entry with the comment, “The war has finally become real in a way it never was before.” Finally, the unthinkable happens and Mary’s grandfather is sent away to a labour camp.
A mere seven months later Mary and her sisters find themselves on a train to New Denver to begin a new life in an internment community. Her family is fractured as her mother is still in Vancouver caring for an ill brother and her father has been detained for questioning. The diary ends with a reunited family still living in New Denver hoping to eventually return home.
Mary’s life as a child in the 1940s in Vancouver in many ways reflects the life of any child of that era. She describes her enjoyment of Guides, her school life and her special interests and activities. Mary’s voice is authentic and charming and because she is so likable the reader is all the more appalled at the unfeeling cruelty of the government. It was not until Sept. 2, 1988 that Brian Mulroney announced a Redress Settlement which acknowledged the offences against Japanese Canadians during and after the Second World War and ensured that in future no Canadian would be subject to this kind of injustice.
Torn Apart is suitable for readers aged eight to 12. Skrypuch’s title is for a slightly older audience that includes adults. Reading either or both will reinforce your gratitude for the heroic efforts made by those who fought for us.
Fran Ashdown worked for many years as the children’s librarian at the Capilano branch of the North Vancouver District Library. She will be thinking of her father, an RAF radio officer, on Remembrance Day. For more information check your North Shore libraries.
Contributing Writer
Thursday, November, 08, 2012 – 1:01:00 AM
The Book Shelf – Nov. 8
Making Bombs for Hitler, By Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, 160 pages. @ SPL: J FIC Skryp
Making Bombs for Hitler brings to light one of the lesser-known aspects of World War II and the Holocaust – slave labourers, often teenagers or young people in their early 20s. Captured by Nazi soldiers in Russia, especially in the Ukraine, they were brought to Germany and forced to perform dangerous work from dawn to dusk.
Regarded as “expendable,” they were shot if they became too sick to work. In Marsha Skrypuch’s story, Lida was one of the youngest slave labourers. When she was taken by Nazi soldiers, Lida was separated from her parents and her younger sister and sent to a labour camp. Surviving on a meager daily portion of bread and thin soup, and clothed in only a thin dress, Lida survived the long days of hard work only through luck, resourcefulness and the desire to find her sister.
Then, with a group of other girls, she was assigned the dangerous work of constructing bombs that would be used by the Nazis to kill allied soldiers and civilians. How Lida survived the terrible days which followed was later a mystery to her.
But she did survive, barely, and was later rescued by allied soldiers, only to find that she could not go home. Joseph Stalin regarded anyone who had been captured by the Nazis to be a Nazi. Such people were either killed or sent to work camps in Siberia.
Making Bombs for Hitler is a companion book to writer Marsha Skrypuch’s award-winning Stolen Child, which relates the story of Lida’s sister, Larissa. Both of these stories, told with sensitivity and compassion, are based on historical fact.
** Recommended for ages nine to 12.
– Sally Hengeveld, librarian
Andrea Mack’s That’s Another Story Blog:
I couldn’t put this book down! Whenever I read about life in a work or concentration camp, I am shocked and saddened that people could ever treat other people in such a cruel and inhumane way. At times, this book made me feel very emotional. I was rooting for the main character, Lida, and her friends to survive. The author did a great job of creating a character that I cared about. I liked the way her research blended seamlessly into the story to create a compelling read. Now I want to read her other book about Lida’s sister, called Stolen Child.
As a writer, I would study this novel to see how every detail was portrayed through the main character’s perspective. There is nothing unnecessary to the story here.
FernFolio review can be read here.
