Out of Hiding: A Holocaust Survivor’s Journey to America

Gr 3-7–Luncia Gamzer (who later changed her name to Ruth) was five years old when Nazi soldiers invaded Poland. This event marked the beginning of the mass genocide of the more than 200,000 Polish Jews living in the city of Lvov. Over the next several years, Gamzer hid in a burlap sack in a basement, spent 12 hours a day stuffed into a wooden “coffin,” and hid under the porch while her grandmother, uncle, and cousins were forcibly deported. After the city was liberated by Soviets in 1944, she and her family migrated west across Europe and eventually settled in Brooklyn, NY. She Americanized her name, finished school as a “typical American teenager,” and married fellow Holocaust survivor Jack Gruener. Some readers will recall Jack as the subject of Alan Gratz’s novel Prisoner B-3087. While the subject matter is undoubtedly grave and historically significant, Gruener’s narrative is too often breezy and light on detail. The narrative succeeds when she is most personal (describing getting her first period while home alone with her father; preparing to leave Poland for a displaced persons camp; and recalling her sense of alienation from fellow students in New York who didn’t understand what she endured). Six pages of annotated photos are included, depicting the author, as well as family and friends, throughout her life. There are many Holocaust memoirs for middle grade readers, but they are perennially popular, especially for students who have encountered Anne Frank and want to explore further.