I Am Rosemarie (ISBN 0735102260)

So Historically Inaccurate:
I am a Holocaust Studies major so trust me when I say that this book is SO full of errors one has to wonder if the author did ANY research at all. The concentration camps Rosemarie is sent to seem more like harsh boarding schools then camps. Before Rosemarie enters her first camp she goes to the beauty shop to have her hair cut--it is not cut again until the Red Cross must do so because she has lice--Jewish women's hair was always hacked off by the Germans soon after they arrived, most often to shame them, but also because they used it to sell. She, and her parents, travel by coach, as opposed to the dangerously overcrowded cattle cars the Nazis used, every time they are moved. When the cattle cars are mentioned they have barrels of water in them, not the single bucket the SS provided. She is always transported with her parents and she is never separated from either them, or her luggage, for that matter. It even states that Hitler wanted to keep families in tact until the children were 16. What a joke! The SS separated families all of the time! Few children under age 16 were allowed to live; indeed almost 2 million of the 6 million Jews that were murdered during the Holocaust were children. Possessions, especially food items, were taken immediately; yet, we read about Rosemarie and her family eating things they brought with them from home a year after they are taken. Rosemarie is judged too young to work in two of the camps; according to Yaffa Erliach in Hassidic Tales of the Holocaust, teens were put to work as slave laborers--if they lived past the first selection. Rosemarie is in Bergen-Belson and describes it as a harsh camp with poor food. Anne Frank died in Belson, it was the poorest run of all the camps with tents instead of barracks and disease so rampant that the guards would refuse to enter its filth to distribute food for days at a time--which of course meant NO food at all as given out. There were so many errors I cannot possibly recommend this book; there are so many other good books on the Holocaust for children. This, however, is not one of them! I would recommend books by Jewish survivors who remember what it was really like to live in a camp, ghetto, or in hiding

Rosemarie is true to life.:
I really liked this book. I felt like I could connect with Rosemarie because she was around my age. Her concerns about herself and her family are true to life and she thinks like a teenage girl. It was interesting to hear about life at concentration camps instead of life in hiding, like Anne Frank. Not many books are from that point of view. Rosemarie was very lucky, luckier than most during the Holocaust. This was more a book about the feelings she went through than the torture many were faced with. I'd defintely recommened this book.

A Wonderfully Written Tale of a Chilling Event:
Marietta D. Moskin makes a note at the end of this novel stating that this story was an invention of her, the author. It is "a composite based on very real people who lived through all the things described in this book". Regardless of the fact that the main character Rosemarie may not have actually existed, all of the events this charcter suffered through did. The Jewish holocaust during World War II was a tradgedy, and this novel captures the suffering and pain of those who survived to tell of what they endured. This book was masterfully written, and is a great supplement to history teachers everywhere who are teaching of World War II and the Jewish Holocaust. Even if you are not currently researching the Holocaust it is an eye opening book that I feel all should read. You will not only enjoy the author's writting, but it would be impossible to not take away a better understanding of the trials and tribulations of a people presecuted.

Not fact, but it gets the point across....:
There may be a little bit of farce in the composite story that Moskin has written. Indeed there were not as many nice things as mentioned, however, I didn't feel like I was robbed of anything from it. I mean, the book conveys to it's audience the horror, without having to spell it out in detail. Not everyone needs every detail in order to understand how awful the whole experience really was. It is a good book, and it's one that gets the point across without scaring the daylights out of a 8-15 year old who might read it, or anyone.

I Am Rosemarie:
I Am Rosemarie By: Marietta Moskin How would you feel if you were a teenage girl struggling to survive in one of Hitler's camps during the Holocaust where Gestapo officers would find pleasure in watching you die? I Am Rosemarie tells you the story of a teenage girl and her troubles of growing up in Hitler's camps. This book explains how the problems and shortages started out being nothing at all and grew and grew until it turned into a mass of killing and war. Rosemarie is a teenage Jew struggling to survive in Hitler's camps. A story of truth, justice, lies, friendship, and death. I was surprised at how I could never put the book down. There are surprises around every corner. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes to read. Read I Am Rosemarie and you will have a different understanding of the Holocaust and how awful it truly was!