The girl from the train

Resource Information

The work The girl from the train represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Manchester City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The girl from the train

Statement of responsibility

Irma Joubert ; translation by Elsa Silke

Creator

• Joubert, Irma

Contributor

• Silke, Elsa

Author

• Joubert, Irma

Translator

• Silke, Elsa

Subject

• Adopted children
• Adopted children -- South Africa -- Fiction
• Fiction
• Historical fiction
• Holocaust survivors
• Holocaust survivors -- Fiction
• Jewish children in the Holocaust
• Jewish children in the Holocaust -- Fiction
• Large type books
• Large type books
• Orphans
• Orphans -- Fiction
• Poland
• South Africa
• World War (1939-1945)
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Poland -- Fiction
• 1939-1945

Genre

• Large type books
• Historical fiction
• Fiction

Language

• eng
• afr
• eng

Summary

Six-year-old Gretl Schmidt is on a train bound for Aushwitz. Jakob Kowalski is planting a bomb on the tracks. As World War II draws to a close, Jakob fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They intend to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretl's unscheduled train reaches the bomb first. Gretl is the only survivor. Though spared from the concentration camp, the orphaned German Jew finds herself lost in a country hostile to her people. When Jakob discovers her, guilt and fatherly compassion prompt him to take her in. For three years, the young man and little girl form a bond over the secrets they must hide from his Catholic family. But she can't stay with him forever. Jakob sends Gretl to South Africa, where German war orphans are promised bright futures with adoptive Protestant families so long as Gretl's Jewish roots, Catholic education, and connections to communist Poland are never discovered. Separated by continents, politics, religion, language, and years, Jakob and Gretl will likely never see each other again. But the events they have both survived and their belief that the human spirit can triumph over the ravages of war have formed a bond of love that no circumstances can overcome

Member of

• Tussen stasies

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

839.3/636

Index

no index present

LC call number

PT6593.2.O8314

LC item number

T8713 2017

Literary form

fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Thorndike Press large print Christian historical fiction