Luba: The Angel of Bergen-Belsen - Biography

Cover of Luba: The Angel of Bergen-Belsen
Source: Google Images

 
      Luba: The Angel of Bergen-Belsen falls within the biographical nonfiction genre, as the story was told to the writer Michelle R. McCann by Luba Tryszynska-Frederick herself. The book could cross over into the historical nonfiction genre as “the facts and concepts are uppermost;” however, for this blog post it is considered as an episodic biographical as all events are true and “grounded in fact” as the primary source of information was Luba herself (Galda, Cullinan & Sipe, 2010).

      Luba was married to Herschel with a young son named Isaac when the Nazi soldiers took them away to Auschwitz. Upon arrival at the Camp, her husband and son were separated from her. Luba was eventually transported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, as the Nazi’s believed she was a nurse. It was at Bergen-Belsen she wondered why she was still alive and why was she spared.

      On the first night at Bergen-Belsen, the answer was made clear to Luba; fifty-four children were left abandoned in the field behind the camp. She heard their cries and ventured into the cold night, where she “led them back to the barracks.” It was in the female barracks where the children lived until April 1945 when the British liberated the Bergen-Belsen camp (McCann, 2003).

      Luba risked her life daily to find food and medicine for the children. All but two children of the fifty-four rescued survived the war and Luba personally went with them to Holland to be reunited with their families. With the offer by the Queen Wilhelmina of Holland to provide for her lifetime, Luba would not stay, she returned to Bergen-Belsen for the other orphans and escorted them back to their home countries. When in Sweden with the last group, she discovered none of her relatives were alive and emigrated to the United States, where she remarried and had two children.

      Illustrations are plentiful in this well organized and expertly written picture book and is appropriate for ages 6 to 9 years.  In addition to the captivating illustrations throughout the book, there are two actual photographs in the last few pages: one of which shows Luba and some of the children on the day of their liberation from Bergen-Belsen, the other shows Luba in 1994 with some of the surviving Diamond children at the fifty-year reunion in Amsterdam (McCann, 2003).

Luba is pictured front row, second from left
Picture taken on the day Bergen-Belsen was liberated by the British
Source: Google Images

      Thus, there is no doubt that this is a true story, as the bibliography shows the sources for numerous articles on Luba, including a New York Times article in 1947 reporting that the “ ‘Angel of Belsen’ Arrives.” Luba was a respected individual after WWII, settling down to reside in the United States permanently.

      Classroom activities could include a history lesson on WWII, including what brought the country of Germany to elect the barbaric dictator Adolph Hitler. The instruction of history is essential as the lessons from the past must be taught to children in order to avoid the same mistakes made, many of which included genocide of a particular religious or ethnic group, as in this story. Additionally, another classroom activity could be on the learning of the value of respect: respect for the life of another person regardless of their ethnic identity. As the Saint Leo University Core Value of Respect states:

“We value all individuals’ unique talents, respect for their dignity and strive to foster their commitment to excellence in our work. Our community’s strength depends on the unity and diversity of our people, on the free exchange of ideas, and on learning, living and working harmoniously.” (Saint Leo, 2017).

  

Reader Response Questions:

1.      Luba convinces the Nazi’s that she is a valuable person to keep alive. What was she known as to the Nazi’s?

2.      How did the Nazi’s distinguish Jewish prisoners from the other non-Jewish prisoners?

Luba: The Angel of Bergen-Belsen should be part of every classroom or school library as this will “enliven a social studies curriculum”…and will “illuminate a time and place by telling the story of an individual” who made such a difference in the world  (McCann, 2003).

 References

 Galda, L, Cullinan, B., Sipe, L. (2010). Literature and the Child, seventh edition. California: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

McCann, Michelle R. (2003). Luba: The Angel of Bergen-Belsen. California: Tricycle Press.

Core Values. (2017). Saint Leo University: Mission & Values. Retrieved from www.online.saintleo.edu/about-us/mission-values.aspx.