Guardian Angel House by Kathy Clark is based on the true story of two young Hungarian Jewish sisters, Susan and Vera, who were sheltered by nuns during the Holocaust.
Susan and Vera are the author’s real-life mother and aunt. The book, published by Second Story Press, is part of the award-winning Holocaust Remembrance Book for Young Readers series.
Clark, who lives outside Ottawa, wrote Guardian Angel House after watching a Hungarian documentary about the nuns at the Sisters of Charity in Budapest.
She begins the book with a useful introduction that explains the setting of the book. A young reader, unfamiliar with the history of the World War II and the Holocaust, will learn about Hitler’s Aryan policies and how Hungary’s Jews were able to avoid the transports until Germany invaded Hungary in 1944.
After their father was arrested by Hungarian police, the girls’ mother was talked into sending the girls to the convent by Isi, a Catholic who is a close family friend. Isi later helped their mother survive in the ghetto by throwing her bags of food.
There were many other Jewish girls hiding in the convent. Although they attended daily church services in Latin, took catechism classes and said the rosary, the nuns made no attempt to convert them and even allowed them to pray in Hebrew on Fridays and celebrate Passover.
Things got tough for them as the Soviets advanced, since the convent was situated high on a hill beside a German-occupied citadel. Bombs fell on the convent grounds, and the girls had to hide in a dank crypt beneath the convent.
Overall the book is well told and fast paced. Young readers, especially girls, will admire the characters and find the book suspenseful and easy to understand, yet also very educational.
Through the makeshift seder with the nuns, Clark is able to explain the similarities between Catholicism and Judaism. And through Lena, the Gypsy girl who takes refuge in the convent, the reader will learn that Jews weren’t the only people persecuted by the Nazis.
Guardian Angel House is a welcome addition to this series of award-winning books that includes Kathy Kacer’s Hiding Edith, Karen Levine’s Hana’s Suitcase and several other renowned books.
