Childhood: A Young Girl’s Experiences During World War II

Childhood is the gripping memoir of Sala Kamm, a young girl growing up in Poland and Germany during World War II. The book recounts Sala's earliest memories as an only child in Katowice, Poland. Beginning with her life as a beloved daughter of Josef and Irena Kamm, the author describes her life in a large extended family where the emphasis was on education and culture. There were yearly trips to the country for month-long vacations and a succession of maids to help with chores and meals in the Kamm family home. With the advent of hostilities between Germany and Poland, Sala's idyllic life changed. Childhood traces Sala's remarkable journey through the farms and forests of Poland following the loss of her home, her parents and her extended family. As a newly orphaned 13-year old, she became Eva Stanek, a Catholic worker shipped to Stuttgart, Germany, where she spent the remainder of the war as a kitchen helper and bakery assistant. Filled with an indomitable survival instinct, the author lived on her own among her enemies for the rest of the war, until she was liberated by the American Seventh Army in 1945.