Internal Struggles

The Secret Jewish Sisters by Tikva Rager is a compelling historical novel. It is the first book in Unforgettable World War II Stories and can be read as a stand-alone. Each book in the series is written by a different author.

The book is fictional but is based on facts as we follow two young German Jewish sisters through the war years and beyond.

Smuggled out of Nazi Germany to Belgium, the two sisters are eventually hidden in a Catholic orphanage. They are physically hiding and they are also hiding who they really are. For the youngest sister, she believes she is Christian as she has no recollection of ever being Jewish. It is more complicated for the older sister as she remembers her Jewishness but makes a personal decision to become a Christian.

We witness the internal conflict their identities bring to both girls when an uncle returns after the war and demands they return to their roots – both physically and in their faith. Christianity is to be hidden. Their Jewishness is to be celebrated. The reader feels for these girls as they struggle to be who they really are. As their religions collide there are some awful consequences.

The Secret Jewish Sisters was a quick read that occupied me for a few hours.

JULIA WILSON