Product Description

Erich Levi doesn't understand why his father is so gloomy when the Nazis are elected to power. He's too concerned with keeping his grades up, finding time to hang out by the river with his friends, and studying for his bar mitzvah, to worry about politics.

But slowly, gradually, things begin to change for Erich.  Some of the teachers begin to grade him unfairly - because he's Jewish.  The Hitler Youth boys in his class bully him, and he's excluded from sporting events and celebrations. His whole world seems to be crumbling: at school, and at home, where money is tight because no one wants to do business with a Jewish family. 

Not everyone is so cruel, though, and many of the Levis' friends and neighbors remain fiercely loyal at great risk to themselves. With good people still around, Erich can't believe the situation will last, and stubbornly holds onto his dreams - even as his homeland becomes a dangerous and alien place.

Inge Barth-Grzinger has brilliantly recreated the life of a Jewish family in a small German town during the Nazi era. Something Remains provides, with terrible, everyday detail, an answer to the impossible question: how could the Holocaust have happened?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1383559 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Released on: 2006-09-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8–Erich Levi lives in a small German town at the early stages of the Nazi regime. A well-respected business family, the Levis have always had friends and good relations in their community. Soon after the government's takeover, they begin to experience subtle and then obvious forms of harassment and prejudice both in school and in their everyday dealings with neighbors. Life becomes increasingly more dangerous for Erich, his brother Max, and their cousin Erwin. While life is indeed difficult, the day-by-day portrayal of each additional hardship during the years 1933-1938 becomes a bit tedious. Forced but fortunate to escape to America, the Levis' wartime experience, while cruel and unjust, provides a view into the early days of a Jewish family's struggle to maintain their patriotism and loyalty despite the obvious pressures of religious discrimination and unjustified brutality. This fictionalized window into what are becoming myriad choices in Holocaust literature for young people is an additional purchase.–Rita Soltan, Youth Services Consultant, West Bloomfield, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
What was it like to be one of only three Jewish kids in a small German town when Hitler came to power? Based on the true story of Erich Levi, age 12 at the time, this novel, first published in Germany, has been translated with simple immediacy. For Erich, "being a Jew was no big deal" until changes begin in his daily life. A teacher leads bullying and insults; classroom exercises label Jews "bloodsuckers"; the Hitler Youth run things. One Gentile friend stays loyal, but only in secret, and Erich's father's business fails. Finally, the family heeds the warnings and leaves for the U.S. The everyday detail may overwhelm many readers, but even given the wealth of Holocaust fiction on shelves today, little has been written about the early years of the Nazis. The truth of the child's viewpoint brings the terror home. Suggest Susan Campbell Bartoletti's Hitler Youth (2005) and Hans B. Richter's Friedrich (1987) to readers wanting other books about the time. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

A poignant novel that explores the Holocaust from a different angle
Ellwangen, Germany, 1933. Erich Levi is a normal 12-year-old boy. He's a good student, enjoys spending time at the local pool with his two best friends, and is looking forward to his bar mitzvah next year. Slowly, his life begins to change for the worse when the National Socialist Party under the direction of Adolf Hitler is elected to power. His German teacher ridicules him and accuses him of cheating. The few classmates who will still talk to him, the ones who haven't joined the Hitler Youth, are often torn between what their families and school expect of them and their loyalty to Erich.

At home, Erich's father is under a lot of stress from his job. People won't buy his products at the local market, and he worries about supporting his family. Friends are turning into enemies, and family members speak in hushed tones about what might become of the future. Though he faces oppression with determination, Erich's father knows that his beloved housekeeper Fanny speaks the truth: Things are going to get worse for the Jewish people of Germany before they get better.

Using real-life events and people (some names have been changed), Inge Barth-Grozinger has recreated a coming-of-age novel that moves from normal to terrifying. The result is something that, if it happened today, might read like a diary. From our outsider's perspective more than 60 years after the end of World War II, it's almost easy for us to follow the progression of events that led to Erich having to sacrifice everything he knew and loved. But we must remember that Erich and his family could not predict the future.

This story of a boy who tried to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary, terrible time is both hopeful and saddening. Erich and his family were lucky enough to escape the concentration camps, but they lost an important part of their lives: the home, friends and family they had known for years. They were fortunate enough to have help in their escape from Nazi Germany, something too many families did not have.

SOMETHING REMAINS is a slightly different Holocaust book from others you might have read. Rather than deal with the large-scale consequences of Hitler's Third Reich, it is a look at the beginning, at all the small changes that allowed Hitler to build the foundation for his Final Solution.

--- Reviewed by Carlie Webber

Erich Levi
I just finished reading Nothing Remains. It is a wonderful resource book for classroom teachers. It gave me a better understanding of Jewish life in a small town before WWII. I was transported back in time and got a glimpse of the impact that a teacher has upon a child. Being a classroom teacher, this was enlightening for me. It reminded me of young love and the scars that go hand-in-hand with youth.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will read it again. It was a good choice and I am glad that I bought it.

Mary