Wunschkind: Child Without a Country

Wunschkind --German for coveted child--offers a different perspective on the Holocaust. The moving story chronicles the violent awakening of a young girl, who was born in 1941 as her parents gift to Adolf Hitler, and dedicated to him at two weeks of age. The story is autobiographical and rendered especially for young readers. It follows her early childhood and adolescence. Shocked and confused when she learns of Kristallnacht from a former Jewish neighbor, Liesel begins her journey into adulthood, bearing the secret and unspeakable weight of her parent s guilt.

Since her publication in the Los Angeles Times and adult memoir, The Neighbor's Son, Appel has toured the USA and Canada teaching audiences about the value of multiculturalism and love in a world prone to prejudice and hate.

Appel s writing motivation is her desire to achieve a small measure of justice for her family s former Jewish neighbors, to keep the lessons of the Shoah alive for present and future generations and to empower young people to make choices which are just.