Your Name Is Ren�e: Ruth Kapp Hartz's Story as a Hidden Child in Nazi-Occupied France

by Stacy Cretzmeyer, Beate Klarsfeld (Foreword by)

Overview

In Nazi-occupied France in 1941, four-year-old Ruth Kapp learns that it is dangerous to use her own name. "Remember," her older cousin Jeannette warns her, "your name is Renee and you are French!"
A deeply personal book, this true story recounts the chilling experiences of a young Jewish girl during the Holocaust. The Kapp family flees one home after another, helped by simple, ordinary people from the French countryside who risk their lives to protect them. Eventually the family is forced to separate, and young Ruth survives the war in an orphanage where she is not allowed to see or even mention her parents. Without the trappings of lofty language or the faceless perspective of history, this first-person account poignantly recreates the terror of war seen through the eyes of an innocent child. Your Name Is Renee is a tale of suffering and redemption, fear and hope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195154993
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/14/2002
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	528,916
Product dimensions:	8.28(w) x 5.54(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Stacy Cretzmeyer lives in Pawley's Island, SC. She is a counselor and is a founder and Coordinator of the Women's Advocacy Center in Counseling Services at Coastal Carolina University. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of South Carolina.

Editorial Reviews

"Well-turned book... Cretzmeyer weaves in historical background to situate young readers, and...provides an unusually complete and clear account of a supremely turbulent experience."—Publishers Weekly

"Ruth Kapp's story supplies another piece of the history of the Holocaust...A compelling story, recommended for all collections."—Library Journal

"This moving biographical memoir details the horrendous life in hiding so many Jews experienced.... Cretzmeyer weaves imaginative narrative segments with more historical passages, bringing both the personal experience of Ruth Kapp and the factual record of the time into unblinking perspective.... A book that blends passion and terror with hope and perseverance in the shadow of this century's most shameful moment."—Bloomsbury Review

"A compelling and cogent description of one brave individual's personal travail during the Holocaust. The Ruth Hartz story should be appreciated by all Americans who cherish human freedom and individual dignity."-Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator (New York)

"A beautifully written book that dramatically captures the family on the run through the eyes of the child and through her voice."—The French Review

From the Publisher

FYI: A previous edition was issued by Biddle in 1994. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Ruth Kapp's story supplies another piece of the history of the Holocaust. It concerns both the Jews who fled Germany for France and her family's struggle to evade not only the Nazis but the French police as well. Ruth was only four years old when she and her mother settled in Toulouse and awaited the return of her father, who had joined the French Foreign Legion to ensure that he and his family would not be deported. The French police made no distinction, however, and upon his return he and his family spent the remainder of the war in hiding. In an effort to conceal her German Jewish identity, the young Ruth went by the French name Ren e. Her story is told by her former student, Cretzmeyer, who was interested in learning what Catholics and other Christians did or did not do to help Jews during the war. Cretzmeyer interviewed Kapp as well as her parents, friends, and the families who hid them during the war years. This is a compelling story, recommended for all collections. [Originally published in a small edition by Biddle Pub. Co. in 1993, this book has been reedited and contains a new introduction; for a related video, see the review of Legacy of Goodness, Video Reviews, LJ 1/99.--Ed.]--Roseanne Castellino, Arthur D. Little, Cambridge, MA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Because Ruth Kapp's relatives were German Jews, they were the targets of French as well as German anti-Semitism. Forced to hide their religion, they suffered many hardships, living meagerly and often fleeing from the Gestapo. They were aided by the French resistance as well as by ordinary men and women who took great risks to help them. As the danger increased, Ruth (called Ren e during her years in France) was sent to an orphanage run by Catholic nuns; in an effort to shield her from German police, she was told to forget her family and faith. The family was eventually reunited, although even after the war, their troubles as Jews were far from over. Although the facts of the story are gripping, and the child's ordeal is heart wrenching, the telling is less so. Frequent flashbacks and attempts to weave in historical information make the story hard to follow, and the narrative is sometimes overly detailed, slowing the pace. However, those who are already interested in Holocaust accounts will find enough here to make this a worthwhile read.-Cyrisse Jaffee, formerly at Newton Public Schools, MA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Cretzmeyer, with Hartz, graphically documents the plight of Jews who were living in unoccupied southern France during WWII; French Jews were pursued not only by the German Gestapo, but also by the French Vichy government. The atrocities and effects of anti-Semitism are seen through the eyes of the four-year-old who was then Ruth Kapp; she was given a new French identity, as Renée Caper, so that the villagers wouldn't know she was Jewish. The details are unflinching: daily roundups of men, the capture of her Uncle Heinrich by French police and his deportation, finding refuge with a caring Catholic family called the Valats, hiding in their cellar for days to evade discovery, and living in constant fear that her parents would be arrested while she was away at school. It is heartwrenchingly evident that a childhood was stolen; what also becomes apparent from Ruth/Renée's testimony is that there was a strong resistance movement of Protestants and Catholics who provided safe havens in their own homes or in nearby convents. She was placed in a convent where she assumed the identity of a Christian orphan, keeping silent not only about her religious affiliation but the existence of her parents. This account makes clear to readers how the Vichy government collaborated with the Nazis, but also makes obvious the power of individuals to make a difference despite personal danger. (b&w photos, maps, notes, further reading, appendix) (Biography. 11-15)

Kirkus Reviews