White Ravens’98/France/66020
Burko-Falcman, Berthe (text)
L’enfant caché
(The hidden child)
Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1997. 186pp
ISBN 2-02-028986-5
France/World War II - Persecution of the Jews - Childhood - Identity -
Bereavement - Postwar life
During the Nazi occupation of France the Jewish child Esther is sent to live
in the country and thus becomes the sole survivor of her immediate family.
Her host family has her baptised and gives her 
the name Estelle. After the war she lives in an orphanage until an aunt in
Paris takes her in. As a teenager, once again called Esther, she is painfully
aware of the fragile balance in her life. Her 
diary reflects her efforts to find her own identity 
by going beyond her individual role within the collective Jewish fate, and
thus establish a way of life for herself. (15+)

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