Kindergarten

Few novels manage to capture the anguish of the individual struggle for survival as this does. In KINDERGARTEN Elzbieta Ettinger under- stands the complexity of human reaction to surviving Naziism as a Jew, as she tells the story of Elli Rostow, a young Polish Jew born into a comfortable, bourgeois family who becomes a relentless fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and in the Polish underground as she struggles to keep herself and Emmi, a young girl found in the ghetto alive. Thisis also an adventure story, filled with intrigue, deception and murder as Elli is forced to lead a double life. She goes secretly in and out of the ghetto in order to help other Jews as she and her lover Adam fight with the resistance. She lives on forged papers to conceal her Jewish identity from her German employer in particular and has no choice other than to remain silent while ajl around her Jews are exposed and taken to their deaths. Elli becomes brave and tough as a result of her experiences. Her very survival is a testament to human perserverence and adaptability when threatened with annihilation.