Review: Someone Named Eva, by Joan M. Wolf

Someone Named Eva, Joan M. Wolf

Another children’s novel about World War II—this one better, I think, than the average (certainly better than the nearly hideous and shockingly popular Boy in the Striped Pajamas), if only because it deals with such a little-known part of Hitler’s mission. The title character, Eva, is a victim of the Lebensborn project, in which Hitler abducted “Aryan-looking” children from occupied countries, who were then repatriated as German citizens and adopted by Nazi families.

Eva—or Milada, as she was called in Czechoslovakia—is a likable protagonist, though kids will likely find the ease of her transition to “Germanness”, and the degree to which she represses her former identity, difficult to understand and relate to. And the story’s rather dark ending doesn’t take long enough to unfold: we arrive very suddenly at the end of the war and Milada’s being reunited with her mother, though the rest of her family is dead or missing. The transition from her increasingly complacent existence with her German family – including a “sister” she grows to care for – back to her old life is abrupt and unsettling. It’s difficult to believe that her return would be so easy, especially because by the end of the book, she has almost completely forgotten her native language and her own history—even her name.

There is a degree of ambivalence here about the Lebensborn project, and the Nazis generally, that is unusual in a children’s book. Eva’s adoptive mother, though married to a top-ranking Nazi, is not a terrible person by any stretch of the imagination. One of Eva’s Czech cohorts, a girl named Ruzha, very quickly and happily takes on her new identity, and one gets the impression that her adoptive family may well be better for her than the one into which she was born. There are many characters on both sides of the conflict who are sympathetic, though Wolf doesn’t shy away from reality: Milada’s village has been destroyed by the Nazis, and her German family lives next door to a concentration camp where she sees first-hand what her adoptive father is responsible for. This is a surprisingly complex little book, and well worth reading.

In short: Very good historical fiction for kids and their grown-ups.

Read it if you like: Books about the Holocaust, The Upstairs Room

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Addendum: In October 2009, I reviewed this book for school. That review follows.

There have been a slew of children’s books about World War II lately, but Joan Wolf’s novel Someone Named Eva stands out from the crowd. Like many of the better entries in that genre, this book is well-researched, character-driven, and full of serious moral questions for children to consider. What sets Someone Named Eva apart is the unusual subject matter. The title character, who is born Milada and renamed Eva, is a victim of the Lebensborn project, in which Hitler abducted “Aryan-looking” children from occupied countries, who were then repatriated as German citizens and adopted by Nazi families.

Milada is a girl growing up in Czechoslovakia during the early 1940s. A few days before her eleventh birthday, her small village is raided by the Nazis. The men are taken away, and Milada, along with the village’s other women and children, is brought to a school gymnasium a few towns away. There, she and a handful of other children – all with blonde hair and blue eyes – are separated from the rest, and sent away to a “re-education center” in Poland. Most of the book chronicles her time at the center and her eventual adoption by the family of a high-ranking Nazi official.

This is a remarkably complex book. To her credit, Wolf resists the temptation to turn any of the characters into caricatures, and no one here is entirely good or evil. Milada’s adoptive family, particularly the mother and sister, Elsbeth, are hardly villains. Elsbeth and Milada become close friends. Milada’s adoptive mother is more sad and desperate than anything else: though she has taken Milada on in order to receive the Mother’s Cross, it is clear that she loves Milada, in her way. For her part, Milada is not immune to her family’s feelings. “…I realized how much worth I had added to this family and [felt] important somehow…I felt content and full for the first time in a very long time.” And she is important: when Milada is taken away, Frau Werner collapses: “You will break my heart,” she cries to the American social worker.

The presence of Milada’s Czech classmate Ruzha (renamed Franziska) lends another perspective to the story. Ruzha adapts very quickly to her new life, accepting her new name without question, learning the language without any difficulty, and assimilating easily into German culture and political beliefs. It is implied that Ruzha’s home in Czechoslovakia may have been neglectful, and that her new home in Germany may really be a better place for her. This sort of ambiguity is rarely present in children’s books about World War II.

At the same time, Wolf does not avoid or sugarcoat discussions of Nazi brutality. Because the Werner family lives next door to Ravensbrück (Herr Werner is in charge of the camp), Milada sees firsthand the terrible living conditions of the women there. Several of the girls at the re-education center disappear under ominous circumstances, and both Milada and the reader get the strong impression that they have been killed. Throughout the novel, Milada expresses hesitation and even disgust at the re-education center’s teachings about race, gender roles, and the Nazi regime. At the end of the book, we learn that nearly every man, woman, and child from Milada’s village was murdered by the Nazis, including Milada’s father, brother, and grandmother.

The only problem here is that the ending unfolds too quickly. A social worker arrives to take Milada away from the Werners and return her to her mother, who has spent the last three years in a Ravensbrück subcamp. She initially asks to be allowed to say goodbye, and there is a brief mention that “[i]t hurt too much to think of either of them [Elsbeth or Mutter],” but that is all. She quite easily returns to her life in Czechoslovakia – even though she has forgotten nearly everything about her life there, including her native language and even her name.

Students who enjoy books about World War II, and particularly books about the Holocaust, will likely appreciate this one, as well. Throughout the novel, Milada’s thoughts and feelings are described realistically, and the first-person narration does much to make the story feel immediate and gripping. As a result, the book will also appeal to children who enjoy tales of survival – though the risks to Milada’s physical well-being are only hinted at, her psychological struggle to maintain her identity is compelling.

Someone Named Eva would work well as part of the history curriculum for an elementary or middle school classroom. It would be a strong addition to a unit on World War II and the Holocaust, as it addresses a less well-known Nazi program. In a public library setting, Someone Named Eva is an excellent choice for booktalking, or for a program on historical fiction. In either a school or public library, one program that has been successful involves each child picking a work of historical fiction, then dressing up as the protagonist and giving a brief presentation as that character. This type of program is a great opportunity for students to display their creativity and learn about the experiences of people in other times and places.